Concordia University Union Protests Against $35,000 Stipend

Only a fraction of the $35,000 Concordia University will pay former premier Bernard Landry this semester is for teaching, with the rest covering “other tasks,” like networking and forging links with business leaders and government, Concordia officials said last night.

Part-time faculty at Concordia filed a grievance last week protesting against the university’s decision to pay Landry $25,000 - five times the going rate for a lecturer - and to kick in an extra $10,000 to pay a teaching assistant. But university officials are blaming a “clerical error” for the misunderstanding with the teachers union.

Christine Mota, director of communications at Concordia, said Landry’s teaching salary is exactly the same as what the university pays any other part-time professor. The additional money Landry will receive is for non-teaching duties, which include external relations and what Mota described as “friend-raising.”

Landry, who turns 70 next month, was hired last fall to teach a three-credit course called International Economy at the John Molson School of Business. The course is an English version of the international trade class he teaches at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, where he is a tenured professor.

In a November 27th letter confirming the offer, Concordia provost Martin Singer said Landry would receive “a stipend of $25,000 for the period of January 1, 2007, to May 31, 2007.” The money would allow Landry “to conduct a graduate course and to consult with faculty and students who have interests in international trade.”

Singer said the university would also provide “up to $10,000 for teaching assistance.”

The decision infuriated Maria Peluso, president of the 1,200-member Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association, which has been without a contract since 2002. Part-time lecturers like Peluso, who has been at Concordia for 27 years, receive $5,500 for a three-credit course. Teaching assistants are paid about $500 per course.

“You don’t bring your own hairdresser,” Peluso said, steamed by what she sees as preferential treatment for the ex-premier.

She noted that 13 years ago, when Premier Jean Charest was briefly ousted from Brian Mulroney’s Conservative federal cabinet, he taught political science at Concordia, receiving the same salary as other part-timers.

“Why are they creating this inequity? A course is a course is a course. Who gives a course does not alter the value of what is being taught,” Peluso said.

In the grievance filed last week, the faculty association says the adjunct appointment of Landry in the MBA program contravenes at least seven articles in the collective agreement. The key complaint hinges on contract language that stipulates “all part-time faculty members who receive a teaching contract ... shall be remunerated at the same rate.” As compensation, it demanded the university pay CUPFA $35,000.

University president Claude Lajeunesse said he did not know what Landry was being paid. But he defended the decision to bring him on board, saying “any time an ex-premier or prime minister wants to teach at Concordia,” he or she will be welcome.

Lajeunesse said students are bound to be stimulated by exposure to politicians who have tackled the complex issues that confront a government.

“We are really, really pleased to have him at Concordia.” Announcing the appointment last month, a university publication noted Concordia received a $97-million capital grant while Landry was premier. Associate dean Michel Magnan said he was enthusiastic that Landry “is willing to share his extensive and long experience with our MBA students so they can better appreciate the risks, challenges and opportunities of doing business in a globalized economy.”

Mota said whoever prepared the November 27th letter appears to have confused the “global amount” Landry had been offered with the smaller portion he would be paid for teaching. The union would be contacted to explain the mix-up, she said. The letter from Singer makes no mention of duties other than teaching.

“There’s always a mistake, there’s always confusion,” Peluso said when told of the university’s explanation. “What’s ‘friend-raising’? Are you saying he’s being paid $19,000 for networking?”

When he retired from politics in 2005, Landry was hired by UQAM’s Ecole des sciences de la gestion, where he is paid as a full-time tenured professor.

Landry taught at UQAM from 1986 to 1994.