CSU Plan for Merit Pay

Re “Running the Business of Knowledge,” April 4.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and the trustees have tremendous respect for the CSU Northridge faculty and the faculty throughout the system. We fully understand the faculty are directly responsible for the success of our students and we appreciate their strong commitment to the university. It is important the faculty understand that our respect for them is not diminished by our decision to seek greater accountability through performance pay. While no system is perfect, the CSU merit plan is modeled after pay for performance systems already in use at comparable institutions such as Arizona State and Wayne State universities.

Like these other institutions, our system of performance pay is designed to improve quality, not to impede the pursuit of knowledge or the mission of the university. The trustees simply believe that faculty who teach their students especially well should be acknowledged and rewarded.

In addition to being committed to pay for performance, the trustees are just as strongly committed to ensuring that the CSU faculty are fairly compensated. We want to make sure the CSU faculty are paid at a rate equal to that of these comparable institutions. While not yet there, the trustees last month adopted a compensation proposal so the faculty will receive an average 5%, mostly retroactive, pay raise for 1998-99. As a direct result of Chancellor Reed’s efforts in Sacramento, we hope to add 6% to the salary pool for 1999-2000.

We value our faculty and we will continue to invest in them.

DR. JOAN OTOMO-CORGEL

Vice Chair

CSU Board of Trustees