Reaction to beefy contract for MUN’s new president ranges from outrage to acceptance

A student activist is outraged by the pay package for MUN's new president, but reaction is more muted from other corners.

A student activist hoped to generate public outrage this week by widely sharing details with news reporters of the pay package for Memorial University's new president.

But those efforts appear to have fallen short.

When Vianne Timmons was introduced as MUN's new president in December, Matt Barter went looking for the details.

“I was outraged about what I discovered,” Barter says of the response to his access to information request.

Documents supplied to Barter show the university spent nearly $150,000 on the external search for a new president, with most of that spent on “professional services” for a head-hunting firm and advertising costs.

And Barter found that Timmons's contract is nearly a mirror image of outgoing president, Gary Kachnoski.

Barter was hoping Memorial would tighten the purse strings.

“This does not represent that. This represents the status quo,” said Barter, adding that he has witnessed “administrative bloat”‘ and “mis-spending” since beginning his studies at MUN in 2015.

Timmons will receive a base pay of $450,000, an $18,000 yearly housing allowance, and one grand per month for her vehicle costs. She will also received a $25,000 yearly research grant, travel perks and much more.

That's within range of what Kachnoski is earning, but is a bump up from the $337,000 base salary she's earning at the University of Regina.

Over the five-year term of her contract with Memorial, Timmons will earn more than $2.5 million to run a St. John's-based university that receives a vast majority of its operating budget from the provincial treasury.

Barter called the contract “lavish and outrageous” and said MUN missed a chance to tighten the purse strings at the very top, at a time when budget cuts are squeezing the university and a longstanding tuition fee freeze for local students is hindering its ability to raise much-needed revenue.

But that view is not shared by the student union.

“It would be a little bit untoward and … a little bit bad to reduce the salary now that an Indigenous woman is taking the role,” said MUN students' union spokesperson Liam O'Neill, referring to Timmons' Mi'kmaq ancestry, and the fact she's the first-ever female president at MUN.

O'Neill said budget cuts and spending shortfalls are more urgent concerns for the student union.

“There's lot of profs I'm sure worried about at what point is there going to be a big safety hazard … someone getting injured,” he said, referring to the deferred maintenance issues at many of the university's facilities.

And the powerful faculty association at MUN? Well they didn't even want to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, MUN alumnus and public policy specialist Ed Hollett believes the university's board of regents carried out a “good, professional” search and found a “top-flight candidate.”

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Only a handful of people are qualified to lead a university like MUN, and finding that person takes time and money, said Hollett.

“The numbers by my understanding would sound about right for what you would expect at that level. And it produced a good result,” said Hollett.

“I don't know what people could complain about. It seems to have been a well-run competition. The costs are reasonable.”

The bigger question, added Hollett, is whether the new president, with the support of the board, will re-invigorate the university.

“We're at a crucial time in the province's history,” said Hollett.

“We need input. We need development. We need leadership ideas. And so far we've been getting very little from Memorial.”

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