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The campuses of California State University might be struggling, but not senior administrators at the schools.
According to an article by Erica Perez at the Center for Investigative Reporting’s California Watch blog:
In a pay package slated for review at this week’s Board of Trustees meeting, newly appointed CSU Fullerton President Mildred Garcia will get $324,500 in base pay, plus housing and a $12,000-per-year car allowance. That’s exactly 10 percent more than her predecessor, Milton Gordon, who in 2011 had a base salary of $295,000.
It’s also 10 percent more than Garcia earned in base pay at her previous post as president of CSU Dominguez Hills, according to CSU’s executive compensation.
CSU spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said the university needs to compensate Garcia and Morishita for the increased responsibilities they have. CSU Fullerton, where Garcia is taking the reins, has more than double the enrollment of CSU Dominguez Hills, for example.
In November Cal State trustees voted to increase student tuition by 9 percent for 2012. Students at CSU schools now pay a total $7,017 a year to attend college. That’s about three times what it cost in 2002-03.
The institution explains that it makes “every effort to keep student costs to a minimum.” But “fees listed in published schedules or student accounts may need to be increased when public funding is inadequate.”
The meaning of “inadequate” is undefined, however.
Uhlenkamp apparently said that there was little connection between the increase in executive pay and rising student tuition. “It’s such a small part of our budget; it’s more symbolic than anything,” he said.
Leaving aside the fact that symbolic meaning of the salary hike is something along the lines of “it’s more important for us to pay the president really, really lavishly than keep the institution affordable,” many argue that, in fact, the increase in the number of administrators and their salaries is one of the major reasons college tuition has increased so rapidly in recent years.
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Crissa on March 20, 2012 1:16 AM:
On one hand, they have exorbitant pay and benefits... On the other, if they were leading as many workers in private industry, they'd be paid that much, and that many students as employees, they've be paid ten times more.
But what gets me is that at no time do the lowly footsoldiers of education seem to be getting these 10% pay increases. In fact, they're getting pay cuts.
Milan Moravec on March 20, 2012 6:37 PM:
Tax payer funding available to increase salaries but not to reduce tuition at CSU and UC Berkeley. Examples follow. UC Berkeley Needs Lesson in Fiscal Efficiency: American Enterprise Institute. Cal. Chancellor Birgeneau’s recruits born abroad and affluent out of state $50,600 tuition students who displace qualified instate Californians; spends $7,000,000 + (prominent East Coast university accomplishing same at 0 cost) for OE consultants but stops examination of Chancellor office inefficiencies; ex-politician receives $300,000 for a couple lectures; tuition to return on investment falls below top 10; doubles instate tuition- on all-in-cost Cal. is the most expensive public university – more expensive than Harvard, Yale. Chancellor Birgeneau’s fiscal track record is dismal indeed.
Birgeneau would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar asked for, & the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means. Every year Birgeneau ($450,000 salary) would request a budget increase, the timid UC Regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, & the Birgeneau leadership inefficiencies just piled up to $150 million +.
It’s not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste during his 8 year reign. Faculty & staff raised issues with Birgeneau however, when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau engaged expensive ($7,000,000 +) OE consultants to tell him what he should have known as a leader or been able to find out from the bright, engaged people. (Prominent east-coast University accomplishing same at 0 costs)
Cal’s senior management is either incompetent or culpable. We are sympathetic to the running of higher education with declining state money. However, Cal. has been badly damaged by Chancellor Birgeneau’s leadership. Good people are loosing their jobs. You never want a crisis to go to waste. Increasing Cal’s budget is not a solution. Honorably retire UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau. Email opinions to UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu (The author has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley where he observed the way Cal. senior management work)
Crissa on March 20, 2012 11:35 PM:
Milan, there's no evidence that the UC is spending more per student, so why the insinuation that there's unlimited state spending? Especially when this flies in the face of facts when there are more students in the UC system since the 60s and state budgets for the UC system have been shrinking per student for the last decade or so.