A Journey Inside the Faculty of Law’s Budget

A seven-month investigation into expenses, budgets, and where all the money actually goes 

I began researching this article in July 2021. The initial pitch was quite basic: where did the money for in-person activities at the Faculty, like catered lunches, go once we switched to online in October 2020? Is the school saving money on building upkeep since no one is using the spaces? How much does hand sanitizer and IT support cost? And what about the 2020 1L orientation (O-Week) expenses? A rumour was circulating that the 2020 O-Week ran a considerable surplus, leaving some to question as to where that extra money went. I decided to investigate these questions and separate fact from fiction. Unfortunately, this investigation came up short and left more questions than answers. Access to budgets and expenses at the Faculty, and the University of Toronto as a whole, is a tightly held secret unavailable to mere students, despite the tens of thousands of dollars we pay every year to attend school. The purpose of this article was to answer some of the questions above, but more generally understand how the huge sums of money contained in university budgets is spent. 

I cast a wide net and contacted various levels of the Faculty and University administration to uncover the details and I was stonewalled across the board. As the investigation progressed, I came across more issues I wanted to address which led to further questions going unanswered. 

O-Week

First, to address the O-Week rumours, I initially reached out to the 2020 student coordinators, Thryn Irwin (3L) and Branden Cave (3L). I was directed to Assistant Dean, JD Program, Alexis Archbold (as she then was prior to her secondment in September 2021) and Ann Vuletin, the Student Programs Coordinator. Vuletin said that budget expenditure documents are not public; however, the administration could provide a summary of categories of major expenses. According to Vuletin, approximately $21,000 was raised for O-Week 2020 and expenses amounted to about $23,000. Over $11,000 was raised from community law firms plus another $10,000 from student fees. This was half of what was raised in 2019. The 2020 O-Week expenses included masks, video production, t-shirts, lanyards, hospitality for equity group gatherings, snacks for students, and stipends for the student coordinators. Vuletin would not tell me why the expenditure documents are confidential, but directed me to Terry Gardiner, the Director of Student Programs, for further questions. 

I met with Gardiner in August 2021 to dig deeper into the O-Week budget and address the surplus rumour. Based on the numbers I received from Vuletin, this rumour seemed categorically false. Gardiner likewise debunked the theory of a significant surplus and confirmed that if any money were leftover from the orientation budget, it would have been reabsorbed for use in the next year (2021 O-Week). Gardiner did mention that the confusion over a possible surplus could have originated from how the O-Week money is spent. First, the Faculty covers all of the costs and then later, the Students’ Law Society (SLS) reimburses the Faculty with $10,000 from collected student fees that central U of T provides the SLS. However, this reimbursement is sometimes delayed which could lead to the mistaken assumption that the SLS was holding an unaccounted for $10,000 following O-Week’s conclusion. Gardiner likewise noted that fundraising was difficult in 2020, leading to fewer donations than usual. I requested a breakdown of how much each firm provided to O-Week 2020 and Gardiner suggested I speak to the Advancement Office, the department responsible for the fundraising. Assistant Dean Advancement Jennifer Lancaster said that donor information could not be provided without the consent of the donors. I asked why the Faculty does not request this consent from the contributors and was told that it is simply not part of the regular fundraising practice.

To get the student perspective, I asked Cave and Irwin about the fundraising challenges and whether the SLS had an itemized list of how the O-Week budget was spent. They informed me that O-Week is a collaboration between the Faculty administration and the student orientation coordinators with a limited role played by the SLS beyond the aforementioned student fees collection. A portion of the collected money from the students is spent by the orientation coordinators while the rest is spent by the Faculty administration and the coordinators do not see how the Faculty spends their portion. The orientation coordinators have no control over the budget and all expenses are approved by the Faculty. As Vuletin mentioned, the documents on these expenses are confidential. In terms of fundraising, O-Week 2020 ran into some problems due to a lack of donations from law firms. Firms were uncertain about their financial circumstances due to the still unexpected ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in more constrained donations. 

The Budget

Parallel to my O-Week investigation, I looked into the Faculty budget and expenses to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted spending. I emailed Assistant Dean Archbold requesting information on the budget and the subsequent spending and distribution of the budget during the 2020-2021 school year. Faculty Council discussed the 2020-2021 budget in November 2020 during their annual information session with central U of T administrators. However, I wanted the details of how the pandemic shifted spending in 2020 and where, for instance, savings for catering went. My request was forwarded to the Dean’s Office, the Faculty organ responsible for the budget. Dean Jutta Brunnée responded, claiming confidentiality to specifics, but did say that most budget categories were unaffected by the pandemic while some savings were seen in food provision and speaker travel for guest events. Meanwhile, pandemic-related measures like classroom technology and safety measures (plexiglass screens, signage, cleaning protocols, hand-sanitizer stations, etc.) led to significant expenditures. Dean Brunnée directed me to the annual budget information session during the Faculty Council meeting on November 24, 2021 for more information. 

I also reached out to the University of Toronto Planning & Budget Office to see if central U of T could provide any information on either the Faculty or the University’s spending. After contacting Jeff Lennon, the Executive Director for Institutional Planning & Budget Administration at the University, I received a reply from University of Toronto Media Relations. Media Relations encouraged me to review the University’s Financial Report from April 30, 2021 to access the budget information for U of T as a whole. I requested a more specific breakdown of the budget than that found in the Financial Report. Media Relations responded that separate financial statements for each Faculty are not published. The University then reiterated the COVID-19 implications on the budget found in the Financial Report; namely that University-wide travel and conference expenses went from $54 million in 2020 to $4 million in 2021, accounting for both guest speaker and employee travel. Any savings made in catering expenses were purported to be overshadowed by the increased cost of other supplies and services like enhanced cleaning measures and additional IT services.

At the Faculty Council meeting in November 2021, the University budget for the 2021-2022 school year was presented by the Vice-President of Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, Professor Scott Mabury. Across the University, tuition and fees make up 67 percent of the University’s revenue, while operating grants provide 21 percent, and 12 percent comes from “other” sources. Vice-President Mabury noted that U of T receives less revenue from research (only $50 million) compared to similar American universities. On expenses, Vice-President Mabury noted that 57 percent of the budget went to faculty and staff compensation, 14 percent to other expenses, 9 percent to student aid, and 8 percent each to capital, equipment, and occupancy costs. Currently, $122 million (4 percent) of the budget goes to the University of Toronto Pension Plan as a special payment that will eventually fade away. Vice-President Mabury noted that the provincial tuition freeze led to an impact of $139 million on the operating budget.

For the Faculty of Law, expenses broke down as follows: 56 percent to staff compensation, 21 percent to University-wide costs/shared services (like libraries, facilities, student supports, and occupancy), 13 percent to financial aid, and 10 percent to “other” expenses (including travel, photocopiers, supplies, events, services, books, utilities, and fellowships).

Domestic tuition makes up 45 percent of the Faculty revenue with 19 percent covered by “other” revenue sources like donations and endowments. Lennon noted that the Faculty of Law “is doing very, very, well” in terms of application rates and the Faculty is “not at risk of losing JD students.” Lennon likewise complimented the Faculty on its “highly successful” fundraising initiatives, especially in the realm of financial aid. At the Faculty, students receive $66,000 of endowed aid on average compared to $16,000 across the University. While financial aid at the Faculty is four times as high compared to the rest of U of T, it should be noted that domestic tuition at the Faculty is approximately $33,000 and tuition for an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts, for example, is approximately $6,000. In other words, the Faculty of Law charges five and a half times more than a common undergraduate degree.

By the end of the budget presentation, none of my outstanding questions were answered. Similar to last year, the University and Faculty administration provided many numbers for broad categories but did not actually dive into specifics. As students, we must simply trust that all expenses are appropriate and assume that our millions of dollars are being well spent by the massive, opaque institution that is the University of Toronto. 

What Does This All Mean? 

I began this article with the high hopes of lifting the veil on university expenses. Predictably, I was met by resistance from every administration source due to the “confidentiality” of financial documents. The Faculty and University administration point to financial reports and budget meetings as examples of transparency, but without actual depth, do these numbers really mean anything? What does “other” actually include within all of these graphs and charts? On the topic of donations, why would the Faculty not want this information to be public? Moreover, what do the endowment and pension funds actually invest in? As students, we provide half of the institution’s revenue and yet we are given the bare minimum of financial information. 

Full disclosure, I am not a business student, I have never taken Business Organizations, and I have a cursory knowledge of how corporations operate so I do not know if I am simply pipe dreaming, but shouldn’t the people investing millions of dollars into an entity be given the chance to look under the hood and ensure that their money is being well spent? Why are detailed expenses confidential? If the University and the Faculty are being completely transparent and truly spent thousands of dollars on hand sanitizer, then what’s the harm in showing us the actual numbers?