Last UBC Presidential Search Cost $430,000
Many news outlets, this blog included ^[1], have discussed the issue of Arvind Gupta receiving a year of severance (~$450,000) and a year’s leave of absence in order to fulfill the role of Not Being UBC President. Less commonly discussed is that the “leadership transition”, as UBC insists on calling it, also carries with it another more hidden, but equally large cost to the institution: hiring the next person.

According to university budget documents ^[2] (slide #46), the Presidential Search in 2013/14 that chose Arvind Gupta came at a cost of $430,000 to the university. A condensed excerpt is reproduced below.

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Seems safe to say that the cost of next search will be in the same ballpark as the last one. It’s ok though, the university is planning to undertake a program by program review of tuition this year. Surely they’ll have no trouble identifying “biennial presidential hiring” as a cost of a world-class UBC education to be borne by students.