Cal State Panel OKs 8.6% Raise for Presidents

Despite some hand-wringing over how it would look during a year of deep state budget cuts and student fee increases, a committee of the Cal State University board of trustees approved pay raises Tuesday averaging 8.6% for campus presidents.

The committee on university and faculty personnel unanimously approved raises that would bring the average presidential salary on CSU campuses from $120,075 to $130,461 a year, but not without a lively debate in which board members expressed feelings of pride, embarrassment, concern--and anger--over the issue.

At one point, trustee Ralph Pesqueira, a San Diego restaurateur, leveled what amounted to a preemptive strike against state legislators who may criticize the raises, especially if the state must slash more than $3 billion from yet another recession-grade budget.

“I’m so embarrassed that we have to cower at the threat of legislators who will criticize us and then turn around and raise their own salaries,” Pesqueira said.

The committee vote is almost certain to guarantee full board approval, which is scheduled for today.

Four years ago, the board rescinded pay raises for campus presidents after public uproar over the way former Chancellor Ann Reynolds pushed through a hefty raise for herself in a closed session. The scandal led to Reynold’s ouster.

Since then, trustees have been loathe to handle the politically sensitive subject of executive pay. The result, Chancellor Barry Munitz says, has been a widening salary gap that has made it increasingly difficult for the 327,000-student system to lure or keep campus presidents.

Unlike his predecessor, Munitz has been aggressively public in his campaign to increase presidential salaries.

He first broached the subject in September, when he gave trustees a 1992 California Postsecondary Education Commission survey that showed the top campus executives at 16 comparable schools--such as Arizona State University--making an average of $144,908 a year, while CSU presidents earned $120,075, about 17% less. Munitz also complained that campus executives’ housing allowances were much lower than those of their counterparts.

Trustees approved a policy allowing Munitz to peg compensation to what was being offered elsewhere. In November, they approved his plan to increase campus presidents’ housing allowances to as much as $18,000 a year under a schedule giving some presidents increases of 230% to 329% for housing costs.

On Tuesday, Munitz was able to complete the circle when trustees approved more than $200,000 in presidential pay increases. Although the average raises were slightly less than 9%, some presidents received bigger boosts, such as Warren J. Baker at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who will receive 18% more and be the highest paid at $146,343 a year.

On Tuesday, trustee William Hauck, a consultant to Gov. Pete Wilson, expressed concern over how it could “send the wrong message” if CSU raised presidents’ salaries while the governor and other constitutional officers have taken voluntary pay cuts and California taxpayers face another grinding state budget ordeal.

William Moton, president of the CSU student association, questioned the move in light of stiff student fee increases and the recent budget hits taken by the university system.

Before considering the increases for presidents, trustees also approved faculty raises of 3%.