The Trustee plan is to increase pay for the top twenty-eight executives at the University a combined $840,767 for a total of $8,263,268 in salaries. Specifically, the twenty-three campus presidents are set to receive a pay hike on average of 11.7 percent, bringing their average salary to $291,821. The top five executives in the Chancellor’s office, including Chancellor Charles Reed, will receive an average increase of 9.9 percent, making their average salary $310,274. Reed’s salary will increase to an excessive $421,500.
These increases are in addition to receiving a free house or $60,000 a year for housing allowances as well as $1,000 month for automobiles. The Trustees will also consider a resolution to give additional yearly raises for the same 28 executives.
Coincidently, the faculty are scheduled to receive only a 4.7 percent pay increase and the Chancellor has rejected a proposal to give support staff a meager 3.5 percent increase.
“It is shocking that the Trustees just don’t get it,” said Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), who has a bill pending on the Governor’s desk to bring transparency and accountability to the Board of Trustees when dealing with executive compensation. “Who in the world is worth this kind of taxpayer money while student fees increase and the faculty and staff get nominal pay? The Trustees continuously fail to recognize that this is a public institution, not a get rich factory for executives.”
Another item on the Trustees agenda is a proposal that includes another 10 percent student fee increase.
“If approved, the Trustees would have increased student fees 100 percent over the past five years, while increasing executive pay nearly 35 percent,” said Yee. “These actions are incredibly disturbing; the ink is barely dry on the state budget and the first action by the Trustees is to give excessive payouts to top executives on the backs of students.”
Yee’s Senate Bill (SB) 190, the Higher Education Governance Accountability Act, comes after a series of audits, lawsuits and other revelations found that the CSU and the University of California (UC) failed to get public approval from the Board of Regents or Trustees for compensation packages and that some top executives were paid more than what was released to the public.
Specifically, SB 190 would require all executive compensation packages at the UC and the CSU be voted on in an open session of a subcommittee and the full governing board. The bill would also require full disclosure of the compensation package with accompanying rationale and allow for public comment on the specific action item. SB 190 and a companion bill, Assembly Bill (AB) 1413, are awaiting approval from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles).
“AB 1413 and SB 190 are bills that each address different needs for transparency, accountability, and protection of our precious public higher education funding,” said Lillian Taiz, President of the California Faculty Association. “Together, they are essential for the future of the CSU.”
“The CSU is a public institution but the administration behaves more like Enron executives,” said Pat Gantt, President of the California State University Employees Union. “The CSU's most recent action demonstrates their real attitude toward the rank and file staff and the taxpayers of California.”
California Chronicle, September 18, 2007