Taxpayers will fund executive pay raises thanks to a vote yesterday by the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees. The board passed a measure to ask campus foundations to cover the raises for up to 10 percent of new campus presidents.
The board created the proposal to lessen outrage about salary hikes. Critics said campus presidents should not be getting pay-raises during a time of increasing tuition hikes and enrollment freezes.
“They seem to have an obsession with making sure executives are highly paid,” said Kevin Wehr, president of the Sacramento State University chapter of the California Faculty Association told The San Francisco Chronicle. “Foundation money could be used for more student scholarships or for student instruction.”
Chancellor Charles Reed said that the CSU system needs to offer good salaries as a means of drawing in top talent to the presidents’ posts.
Several students from a group of around a dozen who began a hunger strike last week to protest university policies, addressed the board to present their demands, including rolling back administrator salaries to 1999 levels.
— ANGELA SWARTZ
