CSUN Merit Raises Please Some, Anger More

Rewarding a few faculty members but angering many more, Cal State Northridge Tuesday announced the first 34 faculty recipients of special merit pay hikes under a new plan that brings business world practices into the halls of academe.

The announcement by CSUN President Blenda Wilson spurred excitement among the few chosen to receive pay increases of up to 9.6%. But it also led to disillusionment and bitterness among many of the other 195 instructors who applied but were turned down.

“I know people are unhappy,” said CSUN Faculty Senate President Nancy Owens, who did not apply. “I am very concerned it will contribute to divisiveness on campus. It sets up some people for rewards over other people who were probably equal and not rewarded,” Owens said.

Faculty members chosen for the special pay increases were announced across the 22-campus Cal State University system this week, a time when only skeletal crews of faculty members were on campuses because of spring break. Merit pay had been opposed by the union representing Cal State’s more than 18,000 faculty members, but system officials demanded it in a new, three-year contract adopted last year.

Merit pay, in which employees are given pay increases for superior performance in addition to cost-of-living raises, has been an increasing part of private sector and even college and university wage provisions in recent years. Cal State officials said their system was late in adopting those provisions.

“It is to pinpoint those certain employees who have done more, worked harder and accomplished more for the institution,” said Irene Cordoba, a Cal State senior employee relations specialist. “We’ve never had that before. We treated everybody the same.”

This year, all Cal State faculty members received a 1.2% general pay hike. Under the new merit pay system, all faculty members are invited to submit applications, which are reviewed by their immediate peers who then forward their recommendations to the campus president. Those chosen could receive up to four extra 2.4% pay step increases. The maximum 9.6% merit raise would add $6,192 to a top professor’s annual salary, boosting it from $63,540 to $69,732.

“At least in the university system, there are not very many things like that that really reward extra effort,” said Gerard Rossy, chairman of CSUN’s management department and one of those selected for a two-step increase. Rossy, like others, said the recognition meant as much as the money.

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Less sanguine about the new plan was another two-step awardee, CSUN Chicano studies professor Rodolfo Acuna. “I feel that I’m meritorious, but that other people who probably didn’t get it in their areas are probably as meritorious as I am,” said Acuna, who called for wider distribution of the merit pay.

CSUN this year had $65,512 in merit money to dole out for the initial January through June period. That was enough to give single-step increases to nearly all of the 90 applicants recommended by their peers. (Of CSUN’s 1,500 full- and part-time faculty members, 229 applied for the raises.) But Wilson instead chose to award larger raises to a smaller group.

That decision was not popular among many faculty members. “You’re saying these are some of those super-outstanding people, and the rest of the people who have done all kinds of outstanding things are not meritorious,” said one angry department chair who was passed over.

CSUN officials said Wilson wanted to reward the campus’ most highly acclaimed faculty members and to make the pay raises especially meaningful by keeping those selected to a small number. This year, 5% of all funds for pay raises was directed to merit. Cal State officials said that could rise to 20% next year.

“A single-step increase to everyone who had been recommended would have implied their merit was all the same. And in my judgment that was not the case,” Wilson said. “I think the policy passed by the board of trustees had meaning. And the meaning is, judgments about merit are relative.”

Under the plan, the extra pay awarded faculty members becomes part of their ongoing compensation and ultimately would even increase their pensions upon retirement. Faculty members recommended by their peers but denied by Wilson can appeal, but the ultimate decision on the appeals still rests with Wilson.