Guess who got a raise

A $6,731 pay raise was approved for SF State President Robert A. Corrigan by the CSU Board of Trustees last week, bringing Corrigan's annual salary to $141,144. The increase is retroactive to July 1, 1995.

Corrigan's raise was one of 23 increases approved by the trustees for CSU campus presidents and top-level executives. The current range of campus president's salaries is $120,288 to $153,660 -- 22 percent lower than salaries of administrators at comparable higher education institutions, according to the CSU chancellor's office.

The salary raises come at a bad time -- the trustees are also requesting that CSU tuition fees be increased by 10 percent next year.

"This is going to undermine efforts (by the trustees) to go to the legislature to get relief for raising fees," said Stevan Allen, aid to Lt. Gov. Gray Davis. "How can they go before the legislature to ask for funds (to offset the fee hikes) when they just granted salary raises for their presidents?"

The position of the CSU chancellor's office is that "CSU continues to have substantial difficulty recruiting and retaining campus presidents and vice chancellors at the level of quality and experience our board has grown to expect and demand," according to a prepared statement released by the trustees. The trustees point to the UC system, where campus chancellors earn between $173,000 and $248,400 annually, as proof that CSU presidents are underpaid.

"President Corrigan has a tradition of not commenting on salary issues," said Ligeia Polidora, SF State public affairs director.

Along with the increase in salaries for 18 of CSU's 22 presidents, the trustees voted to increase the salaries of five high-level members of the chancellor's office, including CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz. Munitz's pay will rise to $190,008 from $175,000, effective July 1, 1995. Four executives were granted increases in housing allowances, as much as $24,000 a year in addition to the salary increases.

The trustees also approved a total budget request of $1.76 billion for 1996-1997. This budget total is 5 percent ($114.9 million) over this year's $1.65 billion CSU budget. Included in the new budget is a 4 percent CSU employee salary increase.

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[ Golden Gater Online November 14, 1995 ]

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