[ Golden Gater Online - September 18, 1997 ]
Staff writer
California State University presidents got 10 percent richer, drawing more contempt from faculty members who say they are underpaid.
The Board of Trustees decided Tuesday to give all university presidents a significant boost in their incomes, raising the average salary from $141,000 to $155,000.
SF State President Robert Corrigan, who received a 4 percent increase in July, will make $180,000 annually under the new plan. Corrigan currently earns $163,000 and gets a $30,000 housing stipend, which is funded both by the CSU and private grants.
CSU began looking at raising presidential salaries after the chancellor released a report saying presidents' pay was 30 percent behind those at comparable universities. CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz said the salary lag made it difficult for CSU to attract candidates and claimed high-level administrators were fleeing for better-paying jobs.
While studies have found staff and faculty are underpaid, their salaries lag about 10 percent behind similar colleges.
"It 's always demoralizing for faculty when the people at the top with the largest salaries get large pay raises, but the people at the bottom with smaller salaries get very modest raises," said Nina Fendel, regional service coordinator for the California Faculty Association, the CSU faculty union that spearheads efforts to bargain for higher salaries.
Faculty and staff have waged battles for years with CSU over their own pay scales. The average salary for a faculty member is $59,000, according to CSU, and has seen pay raises of about 2 percent each year.
"(The presidential raise) shows the utter contempt with which they are showing the faculty," said SF State California Faculty Association President Margo Kasdan. "They screwed us."
The 30 percent lag for presidents made their raises a priority, board members said, even though they make close to three times as much as faculty.
"Thirty percent leaves too big of a gap," trustee member Denny Campbell told the Gater in April when the committee to evaluate presidents' salaries was first established. "We are not in the position to get the people we need to get."
Keeping in line with a long-standing policy, Corrigan would not comment on his salary.
Each president can expect to see a 10 percent increase in his paycheck, but the board and chancellor can add or subtract to that raise based on experience, cost of living and campus size. The decision also allows for raises based on whether the president is being recruited by outside universities or corporations.
While one of the main reasons for the raise is that CSU has a difficult time recruiting presidents, CSU spokesman Ken Swisher would not say if low salaries were a problem in recruiting at the San Bernardino and San Diego campuses, which hired presidents in the last year.
"We 'd really rather not point to specific cases," Swisher said.
Swisher said the board is looking into tackling the salary lag for faculty and talked about putting together a committee evaluating the issue at its meeting Wednesday.
Still, Kasdan said she didn't see any hope in the CSU's promise to concentrate on raising faculty income.
"Give me a break," Kasdan said.
And, she added, "Of course if they raise the president's salary, they'll have to raise other executive positions."
Swisher conceded that the board was looking into raising salaries for executive-level university positions like the chancellor and campus vice presidents, who have also left CSU campuses for better salaries at competing institutions.
"It gives the president a little more flexibility ... in terms of picking their executives," Swisher said.
CSU is also looking at raising the chancellor's salary to $250,000 because it is trying to find a candidate to fill the shoes of Chancellor Barry Munitz, who is leaving to head up the J. Paul Getty Trust, a private organization dedicated to the arts and humanities. Munitz received a $17,000 raise in July and currently makes $215,000 annually.
Staff writer Jason Hoppin contributed to this report.
[ Golden Gater - September 18, 1997 ]