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Rye’s top salaries revealed

By Brennan Doherty

Last year, 949 Ryerson faculty members made over $100,000.

This is 57 more than in 2012, according to Ontario’s public sector salary disclosure statement, also known as the annual “Sunshine List.” The list is a publicly available document released annually by the provincial government that gives the name, organization and salary of any individual employed by the government or a government agency who makes over $100,000 a year.

Ryerson became subject to the disclosure statement in 2006.

Topping the list for Ryerson, president Sheldon Levy took home $370,475 last year with an additional $20,575 in benefits. He saw a $54,000 decrease in total earnings from last year.

Levy said that inflation needs to be taken into account when considering public sector salaries.

He made $445,780 in 2013 thanks to a one-time bonus of over $80,000. This bonus was granted because base salary increases of $80,000 or more for senior administration is illegal.

Levy told The Eyeopener in 2013 that he could not defer the bonus, so he donated it to student scholarships. He hopes to do the same this year.

“I sometimes get a bonus and I don’t take it and it goes towards some student need or something like that,” Levy said.

Of the remaining nine highestpaid staff after Levy, five hold the title of provost, vice-president or executive lead positions and receive base salaries between $287,498 and $331,226.

Two professors and a dean take up spaces seven to nine, with professor of electrical and computer engineering Anastasios Venetsanopoulos making $271,087.

Faculty of community services dean Usha George made $249,542 and computer science professor Alexander Ferworn raked in $245,827 in base salary.

John Isbister, the vice-provost of faculty affairs, finished off the top ten list with a base salary of $236,135.

Isbister and the vice-president of research and innovation, Wendy Cukier, both saw their salaries decrease by less than $5,000.

In the case of Adam Kahan, the vice-president of university advancement, his annual salary dropped by more than $15,000.

Most salaries dropped slightly with the exception of Mohamed Lachemi, the provost and vicepresident academic, who saw a base salary boost of almost $32,000.

However, Lachemi moved from the position of dean for the faculty of engineering and architectural science to vice-provost.

The two professors and the dean who made the top ten list for Ryerson saw an average salary boost of 4.5 per cent from last year.

Public employees on the list this year made an average of

$127,433 – a slight decrease from last year, with the highestpaid employee being the president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, Tom Mitchell, who made $1.71 million.

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