Victoria Silman | Staff Writer

Featured image: Cash rules everything around her (allegedly). | Basma Elbahnasawy

A Wikileaks-esque website has been created to expose York’s President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton’s alleged frivolous spending of student and taxpayer money.

The website has been created under the address: “yorked.tk,” (originally yorked.me) titled “What is Rhonda Hiding?” listing a series of supposed expense claims by Lenton.

Despite the site being suspended, its creator has re-established it under a new domain name. The site reads: “We’ve got more domain names than Lenton has dubious expense claims.”

Expense claims include receipts listing the cost of hotel stays, including a $774.40 stay at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington. Other expenses include the $5,751.26 Lenton paid for a flight from Hong Kong to Toronto, and a “first class flight to Shanghai, allegedly costing students $2,262.16.”

According to one Reddit user on r/yorku: “Typically, there are two reasons why business class flights are approved: economy is not available or is a similar price to business—for example, if you’re booking at the last minute—or you have a medical condition requiring a business class seat for long-haul travel and you have a doctor’s note certifying the same.”

Through hyperlinks, the site’s creator has linked a series of files including the receipts, as well as a screenshot of Senate Policies for spending. Under section five, subsection 1.1, the Senate Policy reads: “Employees shall be reimbursed for the most direct and economical mode of travel available, considering all of the circumstances.”

According to yorked.tk, this is not in line with Lenton’s spending. The site explained: “Even though the Senate Policy on reimbursement clearly states airfare must be as economic as possible, Rhonda flew first class to Shanghai.”

Chief Spokesperson and Director of Media Relations for York, Barbara Joy, comments: “York employees are required to comply with the University expense reimbursement policy, as well as the University’s professional expense reimbursement guidelines, including the President.

“President Lenton’s expenses have all been carefully reviewed for compliance with the policies prior to reimbursement.”

The website alleges spending by Lenton is covered by student tuition and taxpayer dollars, though evidence to corroborate such a claim is not provided. A hyperlink appearing to provide this evidence is seemingly broken and inaccessible.

An ominous countdown is shown at the bottom of the page with the headline: “This is only the beginning, Rhonda.” The countdown is set to finish at approximately 1 p.m. on March 22, but it is not clear what will happen at that time.

Regarding the transparency of expenses by Lenton, Joy says: “In keeping with York’s and the Ontario university sector best practices, and in the interest of transparency, President Lenton will be publicly and regularly posting her expenses.”