Patrick Trautfield
Click here to watch a flash presentation of statistics about the CSU salary increases.
Wednesday marked payday for Cal Poly President Warren Baker as he and 27 other top California State University executives received an 11.8 percent average salary increase, as approved by the CSU Board of Trustees.
Baker’s salary – which was previously $298,372 and is now retroactively effective at $328,209 as of July 1 – will continue to make him the highest paid and longest-serving president within the CSU system. With this raise, he is now the second-highest paid executive within the system, trailing only the CSU chancellor, Charles Reed. Baker’s salary does not include the $60,000 given to him for housing.
The fellow 27 members include the other 22 CSU presidents, CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and four executives in the Chancellor’s Office.
Chancellor Reed’s salary was bumped up to $421,500 from $377,000, which also does not include the $12,000 car allowance he is given annually or the house in Long Beach that was provided for him.
The pay increase is part of an effort to make the salaries of the CSU presidents on par with presidents of comparable four-year universities around the country. A study done by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) determined that the salaries of CSU presidents lag behind similar universities by 46 percent.
“The Board of Trustees has made a commitment to reduce the salary gap between the faculty, staff and administrators (with the comparative salaries of those around the country),” said Larry Kelley, Cal Poly’s vice president for administration and finance. “This increase is intended to reduce that gap.”
Kelley added that though he isn’t sure of the long-term plan, future raises can be anticipated.
Richard Saenz, the physics chair and California Faculty Association president for Cal Poly, said the raise seemed “a bit disingenuous” considering the faculty negotiations that persisted last spring.
“While I’m sure the administrators deserve a raise, they said our 4.7 percent raise was breaking the bank,” he said. “Charlie Reed now makes more than the president of the United States.”
He argues that in the last 10 years, a full professor’s salary has increased from $66,000 to $90,000 while Baker’s has increased from about $200,000 to $330,000.
“If they gave the presidents the same raise as us, probably no one would complain,” Saenz said. “Clearly there are lots more of us than presidents . but it just makes you wonder who they’re looking out for.”
Meanwhile, CPEC’s study found that though the pay received by CSU faculty is less than the national average of comparable universities, it is not as great as the 46-percent difference for the presidents.
In 1991-92, the difference for faculty was 4.1 percent and by 2006-07 it was 15.2 percent. Kelley noted that this number decreased after the faculty negotiations took place.
“In an era when we continue to raise student fees and classrooms are becoming more and more overcrowded, it is absurd to consider a pay raise right now,” said Trustee Ricardo F. Icaza during the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday. “Students are working multiple jobs trying to pay for their education.”
Icaza and Lt. Governor John Garamendi were the only two present who opposed the pay increase.
“It’s common for people to be against a raise, especially when a person makes a high salary,” said CSU spokesman Paul Browning, adding that the CSU wants to attract the “best and brightest.”
Kelley also defended Baker’s increase, saying that “most people would say it’s important to have a quality leader . and the leadership he has provided is exemplary.”