Students execs get cash “bonuses”
By Kenny Yum
The RyeSAC executives may be getting paid an extra $6,000 in bonuses this year. But that move may put money-losing RyeSAC entreprises, like The Edge, in less comfortable financial circumstances.
The 10 per cent ‘performance bonus’ may be dished out by the RyeSAC board – five per cent this month and the rest in April. RyeSAC President Paul Cheevers can get $2,000 in bonuses this year, while the three v-p’s can make up to $1,400 each.
The board has no criteria to evaluate the executives’ performance and will decide whether or not to hand out the bones based on their discretion.
That extra $6,000 may hurt some of RyeSAC’s operations. In August, RyeSAC indicated that they wanted to operate with a balanced budget. That was before the bonuses were added to the expenses.
But Patrick Hynes, v-p of Finance and Development says the bonuses would not hurt his plan of zero deficits. He says RyeSAC added in a $15,000 surplus as a “cushion” for The Edge, which is expected to lose money.
With the performance bonus, the contingency for the Edge could be $9,000; possibly making it harder for the pub to survive.
But Hynes says it is a matter of making up for the loss in other areas of RyeSAC operations. “There is always going to be savings here and there,” Hynes said.
Cheevers says it was not the executives idea to get a raise. “It’s up to the (RyeSAC) board to decide if we get that bonus or not.” He says RyeSAC executives, compared to their counterparts in other Ontario universities, are paid in the “middle to high” range.
“But our costs (of living) are far more expensive in Toronto (than in other universities),” he says.
Cheevers is paid about $27,000 a year ($18,000 of that is take-home pay) including benefits.
RyeSAC executives have not received any wage increases for five years. Despite the tough economic times, Cheevers says student executives in other universities are getting raises. He adds that York University executives are getting an average raise of $5,000 this year.
“When you start working 50 hours a week, you’re getting four or five bucks an hour,” says v-p of Finance and Development, Patrick Hynes. The three v-p positions are paid to work 20 hours a week.
Cheevers adds that he’s not exactly making a lot of money in his position. “If I had this position outside of RyeSAC, I would be paid more than $22,000,” Cheevers says. “I think I’m worth a lot more than that.”
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