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In response to outrage over proposed salary increases for Cal State University Presidents, the California State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved a cap on top-level salaries yesterday during a meeting attended by students and faculty in Long Beach. As California’s education system faces one of the worst economic crises in its history, the cap will limit a CSU president’s salary to no more than 10% of their predecessor’s, making the maximum salary for most presidents around $325,000. The salary cap was proposed by CSU Board of Trustees Chancellor Charles Reed after a different proposal by the Board to increase salaries by potentially $100,000 or more faced strong opposition from the California Faculty Association, state legislators, and even Governor Jerry Brown. The Board of Trustees has long argued that many CSU presidents are underpaid at their current annual pay of just over $300,000, when compared to a dozen out-of-state universities in which presidents earns over $390,000. However, Governor Brown last summer questioned the methods used by the CSU Board to determine pay raises, saying “I think they’re rigged…They created a false paradigm that ensures that college presidents are always ‘underpaid.’ ” State Senator Ted Lieu, one of the most vocal critics of salary hikes notes that faculty are denied raises and tuition is on the rise. Lieu also notes that those universities being used for comparison have law and medical schools, as well as large private endowments while the CSUs do not have a comparable funding base. While yesterday’s compromise will restrain CSU spending on executive salaries in the short run, members of the California Faculty Association and others say it still allows for many raises in the future.

GUEST: Vivian Price, Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies and Coordinator of Labor Studies at
California State University, Dominguez Hills

There will be a public event on State higher education on Saturday January 28th from 11 am to 4 pm at Pasadena City College, Creveling Lounge, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena CA 91106. The event is called “Crisis in Education: So. Cal. Conference and Organizing Meeting Public Event”

Click here to find out more about the event.