Yesterday's decision by the CSU Board of Trustees to raise campus presidents' pay — while simultaneously contemplating tuition increases, enrollment cuts, staff and faculty pay cuts, and layoffs — garnered plenty of media attention. Here's a roundup of some of the coverage we found.
A Few Excerpts
(Read these if you've time for nothing else.)
From KQED:
Pushing against the limits they set a few months ago, California State University trustees have given the maximum allowable salaries to two new campus presidents, and nearly the maximum for one more.
Big salaries offered to presidents have drawn criticism at a time when the university system has cut back on course offerings and hiked tuition. So in May, the trustees approved a policy limiting the salaries of new presidents to 10 percent more than their predecessors' salaries. The extra 10 percent has to come from private foundations.
On Tuesday, the trustees immediately zoomed to that maximum.
From LA Weekly:
…And that's just base pay. To get a better idea of their total salary package, all benefits included, consider this: IRS records showed that the CSU Los Angeles president, who had a university-reported salary of $325,000 last year, actually made $515,612.
From the Associated Press via the Monterey County Herald:
[Assistant Vice Chancellor Robert] Turnage outlined a series of options to close the deficits, including tuition increases, layoffs, enrollment cuts and employee pay reductions.
The President of CSUEU's Fresno Chapter captured a key problem with the Trustees' actions for KGPE, CBS 47 Fresno:
Nancy Kobata, president of the staff union at Fresno State said, "Staff have been cut, we've had layoffs, we've had two rounds of layoffs here in Fresno and we're down to the bone."
Kobata says the raises send mixed messages to voters who will vote in November on a proposed tax hike critical to Governor Brown's plan for state funding. "It really sends the wrong message to the public in general that we have all this extra money lying around that we can pay these people these kinds of salaries," said Kobata.
From the San Jose Mercury News, quoting one of yesterday's most devastating student speakers:
"I held onto that dream that college would get me out of poverty," said Cal State Northridge student Raiza Arias, who said she picks grapes to afford school. "It's a false dream you're giving us. I'm essentially homeless, living out of a sleeping bag."
From the Los Angeles Times:
…Nakia Brazier, who will be a graduate student in sociology at Cal State Los Angeles in the fall, wasn't swayed and called on the presidents to reject the extra compensation.
"If you believe in the promise of public higher education, do not take the pay raises," she said, as several campus presidents and trustees looked on.
Links mentioned above:
- Cal State Sets High Salaries for New Presidents (KQUED)
- Awkward: CSU Presidents Receive Pay Raises at Apocalyptic Meeting on Budget Cuts (LA Weekly)
- Cal State mulls fiscal woes, but OKs president pay hikes (Associated Press via Monterey County Herald)
- Heated reaction to news of CSU raises (KGPE, CBS 47 Fresno)
- California State University budget looks grim (San Jose Mercury News)
- Cal State students, faculty decry pay hikes for campus presidents (Los Angeles Times)
Even more links:
- While potential budget cuts loom CSU board OKs presidents' raises (Whittier Daily News)
- CSU presidents get pay raises (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Some CSU Presidents to Get Higher Salaries (Cerritos-Artesia Patch)
- CSU weighs 5 percent tuition increase (Orange County Register)
- Cal State trustees OK 10% pay hikes for 2 leaders (Modesto Bee)
- CSU trustees boost new presidents' pay (Oroville Mercury-Register)
- Chico State University President Zingg backs executive-pay policy (Chico Enterprise-Record)
- CSU trustees approve executive pay raises (The Bay Citizen)
- CSU must choose tuition hike or enrollment cut (Associated Press via CBS News)
- New Cal State San Bernardino president could make 10 percent more than Al Karnig (San Bernardino Sun)
- Cal State trustees OK pay hikes for 2 leaders (Associated Press via KTVN, CBS 2, Reno)
- CSU looks to limit enrollment or increase cost to bridge potential budget gaps (San Francisco Examiner)
- California State University Considers Budget Alternatives (CSU press release)
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