Dispute over Staffing numbers dominate BOG meeting

By LIAM ROBERT SCOTT

At a board of governors meeting last month, the Langara Faculty Association and college administration once again disagreed over staffing numbers, turning the meeting into a dispute not just over priorities but over the credibility of the numbers themselves.

At the March 26 meeting, the Langara Faculty Association used data obtained through a freedom of information request to demonstrate how the college has expanded administration while cutting courses and laying off staff. Senior leaders, meanwhile, pushed back on how the data they submitted to the LFA should be interpreted.

The LFA said the data revealed that administrative staff headcount and compensation rose sharply between 2014 and 2025.

According to Raged Anwar, vice-president of the Langara Faculty Association, salary and benefits at the college rose from $9.3 million in 2014 to $39 million in 2025 — a 322 per cent increase.

According to the LFA’s interpretation, the administrative headcount rose by 218 per cent. By comparison, LFA faculty headcount increased by 40 per cent.

Anwar said the college is being counterproductive in its stated efforts to mitigate the enrolment crisis by bolstering administrative positions while cutting faculty and courses.

“Administrators continue to talk about the importance of recruitment and retention at this important time for the college, and lowering barriers to access for students,” Anwar said. “Yet, we have to cancel courses with 20-plus students.”

However, Michael Koke, Langara vice-president, administration and finance, told the board those figures were drawn from payroll instead of the general ledger.
Because of this, college administrators said, the LFA’s interpretation of the data was inaccurate.

“The information that we ended up providing to satisfy a request created scenarios where headcounts were duplicated,” said Parveen Mann, vice-president, people and culture at Langara College. “So anytime you had any person be in two positions in one year, they would be double counted.”

Mann said had the administration known the intended purpose of the FOI request, it would have provided information “in a different way.”

The discussion appeared to expose a breakdown in consensus over the staffing numbers provided by the college.
Paula Burns, president of Langara College, said the college does have “a bit of a bubble, there’s no question” but that was likely related to Workday staffers.

Burns said the college is reviewing its organizational structure, examining staffing levels in relation to student numbers and acknowledging that rapid growth may have led to an inefficient structure.

“We really need to look at that structure because we have some concern about the proportion of administrators to the teaching, the people that are supporting students,” Burns said. “So, we’re in agreement that there needs to be some look at that.”

Koke asked Anwar why the LFA had even requested that information through FOI, saying the college would have gladly provided it.

“There’s no need to go through that whole FOI process,” he said. “If LFA had come directly to us, we certainly can provide that information.”
Anwar told the board the union has been frustrated with the quality of information provided by the college.

“We have been requesting information and the information that comes back is not necessarily the information that we believe we’ve asked for,” Anwar said. “Then that information is characterized as somehow misleading or inaccurate.”

He added that the union is calling for an external audit of the college’s operations to identify ongoing issues and clarify a path forward.

Burns said the college aims to run as many courses as possible to meet student demand.