An Indictment of Leadership

One day prior to the Principal’s staff appreciation BBQ on July 4, and just five days after mass layoffs in FAS, QCAA learned that all members of the Queen’s Management and Professional Group (Grades 10-14) had been granted a pay increase of between 4.25 and 4.75%.

Effective July 1, 2024, the salary range for members of this group lies between $88,000 (the minimum for Grade 10) and $212,800 (the maximum for Grade 14). 

This news came as a slap in the face to those laid off and to their colleagues in Grades 2-9 who remain at Queen’s and who are still subject to wages negotiated under Bill 124, which capped salary increases for public sector employees at 1% per year.

The increase for senior managers again raises questions about the goal of restructuring: Is the purpose to address the purported budget deficit or to redistribute power and resources to the most privileged workers at the university?  Why is Queen’s giving large salary increases to well-compensated staff during a supposed fiscal crisis? And why reward these leaders so handsomely when they have failed us so badly?

On the heels of this latest sucker punch, QCAA is releasing its long-awaited report, An Indictment of Leadership. 

The report turns the evaluative lens away from frontline staff towards senior administration, emphasizing their increasing ineffectiveness in supporting Queen’s’ academic mission. The data QCAA gathered shows that spending on administration started outpacing spending on teaching in the mid-1990s, and that in 2024 administrators gobble up 18% of the university’s shared services budget, even as they represent only 1% of academic staff.

Employees state overwhelmingly that they have lost faith in senior leadership, and An Indictment of Leadership explains why.