A full review of Western University's presidential compensation practices show while administration acted in good faith, there were communication breakdowns on several levels and President Amit Chakma's "double payout" was not in line with practices at peer institutions.
Justice Stephen Goudge conducted the independent review, interviewing a total of 47 people and comparing presidential salaries at 15 different universities.
Officials at Western University promised the review after the 2014 public salary disclosure revealed President Chakma was paid double his regular salary that year in lieu of a year's administrative leave, banking almost $1-million. That news spurred online petitions, protests on campus and an attempted non-confidence vote.
The report shows the decision to take the money instead of leave was made by Chakma to directly benefit his pension fund.
Justice Goudge's writes "my examination of other presidential contracts leads me to conclude that the President's right in his original contract to monetize the administrative leave earned for his first term, and to do so at the start of his second term is not in line with the practice at most peer institutions."
However, he does note that the details of Chakma's Western contract were similar to those in his previous contract at the University of Waterloo.
Goudge also says there is room for improvement in the way in which the contract and the contract renewal were finalized. He says the Board of Governors became outraged after learning the terms of Chakma's current employment contract, a year after it had been approved.
He says all documents should be tabled for review.
The Chair of the Board of Governors and the Senior Operations Committee are those who negotiate all senior administration contracts. That committee does not include those from Western's academic community in an effort to avoid any conflict of interest.
"The interviews I conducted made clear that the breadth and depth of the reaction in the Western community to what the President's contract permitted took those involved in negotiating it by complete surprise. That should not have happened," writes Goudge.
He says those who are negotiating the contracts of the school's top level administrators need to be know how those in the community may react to what they decide on.
The full report is available here.
In wake of the controversy, President Chakma agreed to repay the extra year's salary. It was then revealed that the university spent nearly $100,000 on damage control following the public salary disclosure.
