The executive pay increase approved Sept. 18 by the board of trustees for the California State University resulted in a 10 percent salary hike to $297,870 for HSU’s Richmond.

In contrast, the state’s governor receives a $206,500 annual salary that will increase to $212,174 in December.

Richmond also receives annual allowances of $50,000 for housing and $12,000 for an automobile.

He ranks eighth on the presidential pay scale.

“For the love of God,” said Robin Meiggs, president of the HSU chapter of the California Faculty Association. “Some of those pay increases are larger than the starting pay for new faculty starting on the tenure line and coming into the CSU. That’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Tougher yet for students who have seen their CSU fees nearly double in the past five years, soaring to $2,772 this year from $1,428 in 2002.

The CSU’s revenues come from two sources: the Legislature and student fees.

CFA is planning a news conference in Sacramento Oct. 2 to call attention to the hike and the impact it fears it will have on legislative funding of the CSU.

“I think a lot of legislators are concerned that the money they give to the CSU is being used for substantial salary increases at the same time as student fees are going up,” Meiggs said.

The board called the hike necessary to recruit and retain top-quality campus presidents and affirmed its intent to raise executive pay 46 percent in the next four years.

In 2005, it embarked on a five-year plan to make compensation for all employees more competitive — including faculty.

Last spring, CFA agreed to a 24 percent salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2006. So far, faculty have received roughly 7.75 percent of the multiyear agreement, Meiggs said.

According to the CSU Web site, the trustees want to reduce or eliminate the gap between CSU salaries and the average compensation paid by the 20 institutions historically used for comparison purposes by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

In July 2007, Mercer Human Resources Consulting presented findings from its 12th annual analysis of presidential salaries and benefits.

Among its findings: the average CSU president’s salary lags 46 percent with individual discrepancies ranging from 27 to 66 percent behind the comparisons.

The day before the vote, California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi called the increases “ill-timed and unwise.”

“The CSU did a search for a campus president last year and had 85 applicants,” Meiggs said. “We’re not seeing that for tenure track positions. It must mean the starting pay for presidents is pretty good.”

Both Garamendi and Meiggs questioned the conclusions of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting report, which included among its comparisons private institutions such as the University of Southern California, Bucknell University and Tufts University.

By Carol Harrison, Eureka Reporter, September 26, 2007