Re: Math Doesn't Add Up, March 7, 2015.
Neil Godbout has taken Dr. Jon Swainger to task for alleged faulty ma
thematics, though I cannot detect where the sin lies, and mathematics is my profession. According to Mr. Godbout, Dr. Swainger has stated that his salary is one-third less than his counterparts across Canada.
Apparently an argument that one's salary is substantially below average is not appropriate because "half the folks will be above average and half will be
below average" (which is not true in general and is dramatically untrue in the UNBC case). So if you are at the bottom, be content because somebody has to be there? But UNBC is a high quality university of which everyone in Prince George has a right to be proud; being at the bottom should not be an option.
Additionally Mr. Godbout has irrelevantly pointed out, using a highly unrealistic example, the triviality that increasing one number in a set of numbers increases the overall average. This does not imply that it is impossible to adjust one number in a set of numbers so that it is the average of the adjusted set of numbers, though he seems to be suggesting as much in some sort of peculiar variation of Zeno's paradox.
Of course Mr. Godbout is welcome to his point of view, but at least he should get his facts straight.
The UNBC Faculty Association has presented salary comparisons only to peer universities such as Lethbridge and Brandon, not to places like UBC, so the cost of housing in Vancouver or the compensation level of a UBC dean is irrelevant. This information has been publicly available for months.
Finally, Mr. Godbout says: "... awards are nice but they don't change the employer's size, revenues or ability to pay." True, but UNBC does have the ability to pay, as arbitrator Vince Reddy determined. Even the University has not claimed otherwise.
Lee Keener
Prince George
