. . . AND they have tenure!

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ethics teaches that virtue is its own reward...
economics teaches that reward is its own virtue...

Over the past five years, the salaries of professors at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law have escalated dramatically: some faculty members have seen their salary almost double. While the administration defends these raises as merit-based increases necessary to recruit and retain top-quality faculty, some professors claim that raises are awarded almost exclusively in response to offers from American institutions, a “destructive practice” which has reduced the value placed on Canadian law at Canada’s premiere* law school.

About 20 professors earn more than $150,000, and six professors make more than $200,000. In comparison, the highest paid law professors at Queen’s and Windsor earn $129,491 and $117,586, respectively. The Dean has also seen a sizeable increase in his salary, from $170,665 in 1999 to $285,402 in 2004. The Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School earns $194,014, while the Dean at Queen’s takes home $143,503.

-- Ultra Vires (10-18-2005)

"Giving large salary increases outside of the normal merit pay structure on the basis of U.S. offers is a destructive practice. Doing so rewards people who do the kind of research work U.S. schools are interested in, and that doesn't include Canadian topics. Moreover, it also puts a premium on research over teaching - nobody ever got a U.S. offer based on their teaching evaluations - and it encourages people to put effort into seeking such offers, which is not good for this law school."

-- Prof. Jim Phillips, UofT Faculty of Law

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In light of the recent Statistics Canada study highlighting the issues regarding access to professional programs amid the deregulation of tuition fees, these figures really ought to give one pause about how we measure the quality of education, the price of knowledge and, more importantly, the value of public education. I don't doubt that the faculty at UofT are top-notch (as, no doubt, are most Canadian law faculty members), but it's precisely policies like this (and the elitism it inevitably breeds -- and which trickles down the academic food chain to students, like those at UofT) that will continue to widen the gap between have's and have-not's. The editors of Ultra Vires had it right when they wrote:

"The escalation of salaries has contributed to skyrocketing tuition. In addition to giving students a legitimate interest in the salary issue, this means there is a tension between retention and accessibility. While it is undoubtedly preferable to retain as many faculty members as possible, there may be a price at which the cost to accessibility is simply too high. A substantial reason that schools south of the border are able to make such generous offers is that they charge upwards of $30,000(U.S.); in this respect, we should be proud that we are not able to compete with them."

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* I choked on my water over that line though.