Against the urging of Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, the California Faculty Association, the California State Student Association and others, the California State University Board of Trustees approved to raise the salaries of its 28 top executives yesterday.
The decision was made at the board’s first meeting of the 2007-08 academic year, which was held in Long Beach.
The executive pay raise, recommended by the Chancellor’s Office, is expected to increase salaries by an average of almost 12 percent. At San Diego State, President Stephen Weber’s salary, which is currently $272,214 a year, should be bumped up to $299,435, according to the board’s agenda.
The increase is part of the board’s plan to close the salary gap between CSU executives and other executives at comparable universities, along with all other CSU employees, by the 2010-11 school year.
To fund the pay raises, CSU has to ask for more money from the state and increase student fees. This year, student fees have increased by 10 percent.
Over the past five years, fees have doubled, according to the CFA.
Some are critical of the board’s focus on executive pay increases.
On Monday, Garamendi, who is an ex-officio member of the board, sent a letter to CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and Board of Trustees Chair Roberta Achtenberg in which he called the pay increases “ill-timed and unwise” and encouraged board members to vote against them, according to a news release from his office.
Garamendi said the board should wait to vote until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided on two bills – SB 190 and AB 1423 – aimed at making the executive compensation packages and salaries open to the public and the process by which they are approved more transparent.
Although the CFA as an organization is opposed to the pay increases for executives while student fees increase, Carole Kennedy, the SDSU chapter president, said it is important that executives are paid competitive salaries.
“The bottom line is it affects the quality of the education,” Kennedy said. “I know a lot of people are upset because it’s the first thing on their agenda (but) if they don’t offer competitive salaries, the quality of the education is going to suffer just like it would if it can’t pay faculty competitive salaries.”
Last weekend, the CSSA board of directors, which represents students across the CSU system, voted to oppose the resolution at its meeting held at SDSU.
Jeremy Ehrlich, Associated Students vice president of external affairs, said A.S. hasn’t taken an official stance on the issue because it didn’t have enough time to take action on it. However, Ehrlich said that he recognizes there are two sides to the issue and neither is right or wrong.
“There’s a huge executive pay gap (the board) is trying to close,” Ehrlich said. “But at the same time there’s a list of things that need to be improved and funded within CSU.”
Access, affordability and quality of education need to be taken into account and then a decision on what’s important should be made, Ehrlich said.
“As important as competitive salaries are, (the board) still needs to take into account the students,” Ehrlich said. “If costs go up, revenue has to come from somewhere and all we’ve seen is that burden (being put on) students’ backs.”
