CSU Trustees Hike Tuition, OK Raises

Over the lone dissent of Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, California State University trustees approved raises Wednesday for Chancellor Barry Munitz and 22 other top university executives and a 10% increase in student tuition for next fall, a Cal State spokeswoman said.

The pay package, which is retroactive to July 1, will boost Munitz’s annual salary 8.6%, to $190,008. It was his first raise in four years, and he pledged to donate most of it to a scholarship fund. Other Cal State executives and the presidents of 18 of the university’s 22 campuses received raises ranging from 2.5% to 12%.

The tuition hike, which is part of the system’s budget proposal for the coming year, would boost students’ basic annual fee from $1,584 to $1,740, beginning next fall. However, the trustees are urging Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature to provide enough extra funding to avoid the increase.

Davis, one of a number of state Democratic politicians calling for a halt to state university tuition hikes, had argued that the combination of pay hikes and a fee increase would erode support for the 325,000-student system among Sacramento lawmakers. Cal State officials said they had no choice but to adopt the fee proposal.