Executive Compensation from Foundations Questioned

At a recent Senate Education Committee hearing, CSU officials were pressed about the source and size of executive compensation.

The Press-Enterprise reports:

Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, said the use of foundation funds for executive compensation also raises questions about accountability. If presidents get part of their salaries from foundations, would they become increasingly accountable to private interests, rather than the state?

Senators also expressed concern about the salary surveys the CSU uses to justify ever-rising executive compensation:

Lowenthal and Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, told CSU officials they wanted to have state input into which universities would end up on the new list.

Lowenthal pointed out that CSU's current comparison list includes Arizona State University , where the campus president is among the highest-compensated public university executives in the country, according to a recent study by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Governor Brown has previously described the CSU's presidential salary surveys as rigged, saying They create a false paradigm that ensures that college presidents are always 'underpaid.'

Links

• Private dollars to pay CSU execs questioned (The Press-Enterprise)
• Momentum builds to limit CSU salaries (The San Diego Union-Tribune)