The CSU Board of Trustees gave university presidents an average 13.7 percent pay raise alongside their vote to raise undergraduate tuition by 8 percent during the Oct. 27 meeting.

Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez will receive a $34,020 boost in pay, bumping his annual salary to $255,024.

The presidents’ raises seek to close the 49.5 percent gap between California State University presidents’ salaries and presidents’ salaries in comparable institutions across the nation.

The pay raises, if approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be retroactive July 1, 2005, and include increases in the salaries of the chancellor, executive vice chancellor, chief financial officer, vice chancellor of human resources, general counsel and 23 presidents, totaling over $1.8 million ?” equaling 550 Sac State student annual tuitions.

The raises also entail housing allowance boosts, which trustees said account for the spike in California’s housing market ?” giving Gonzalez and seven other presidents $60,000 yearly ?” and an increase in monthly automobile allowances from $750 to $1,000.

“From a system point of view, you need to pick competitive salaries to attract and retain leadership,” said Frank Whitlatch, interim associate vice president of public affairs.

Gonzalez still makes $70,478 less than the average salary of $325,502 made by presidents at comparable universities, according to the California Postsecondary Education Commission’s January 2005 survey.

According to their Oct. 27 agenda, the board recognized the budget’s difficulty in giving the executives simultaneous 49.5 percent pay raises, so they moved incrementally, increasing their salaries by 13.7 percent ?” the same ratio increase that the trustees bargained with the California Faculty Association for CSU faculty on Sept. 22. Faculty members received an across-the-board 3.5 percent raises to make up for the 13.1 percent salary lag for comparable faculty in like institutions. The salary increases will cost the CSU a total of $16.5 million.

The move to increase salaries marks the beginning of a five-year plan where faculty and executive salaries will increase yearly until they are on par with their counterparts at other universities, said Clara Potes-Fellow, a public information officer for the trustees.

The last wave in presidential raises came in 2001, making the increases for the 2006-07 school year necessary in order for the CSU to retain top-notch talent, Potes-Fellow said. CSU presidents face the added problem of the high cost of living in California, making the raise imperative to avoid a “serious talent drain,” Potes-Fellow said.

Out of 131 public university presidents surveyed during the 2002-03 school year by the Chronicle of Higher Education, a prominent news source for faculty and administrators, 17 earned more than $500,000 and seven earned more than $600,000. In private institutions, 56 percent of presidential salaries surpassed the half-million mark.

“The chancellor’s office is successfully creating a huge gap between administrators and the faculty,” said Duane Campbell, professor of bilingual and multicultural education. Campbell said the trustees are using a business model for the salaries, paying executives way more than faculty and staff. With the pay increase, President Gonzalez makes 32 percent more than average full-time CSU faculty.

The recent CSU salary increases are separate from the student fee increases because they aren’t apart of the Compact, or handshake deal made between Schwarzenegger and CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, Associated Students Inc. President Angel Barajas said. The Compact includes additional funding of $50.8 million for 2.5 percent enrollment growth and $75.8 million ?” or a 3 percent increase ?” in general funds if student fees are increased.

According to the compact, student fees ?” even though they will never make up over one-third of educational costs ?” will continue to increase by an average of 10 percent until 2010-11 along with the 3 percent increases in the general fund, Potes-Fellow said. The funding will help the CSU keep up the ever-rising cost of education in California.

The contract with the governor has made the tuition increase moderate, predicable and easier for students and families to plan on how much they will pay, Whitlatch said.

To help low-income students deal with the fee bump, one-third of the student fee increases will go directly to financial aid, Whitlatch said. The 2006-07 budget includes an increase in financial aid awards by $23.3 million, bringing the grant funding to $232.6 million. This increase will support an additional 2,700 grants, totaling 101,200 awards.

Barajas said that the trustees should concentrate on how many students are dropping out because of the continuous fee increases and if professors are given enough compensation to do their jobs.

“Right now, public education is becoming a private good ?” that’s what I’m concerned about,” Barajas said. It’s especially the middle class students who are suffering because they are stuck ?” they can’t receive financial aid and their parents may not have the money to fully fund their education, Barajas said.

Charlotte Cook, faculty coordinator for the Office of Community Collaboration, said students are coming out of college with increasingly heavy debt. “They have to put off buying a house, starting savings accounts, etc. This perpetuates the inequalities in our society because wealthier parents pay their children’s college expenses, enabling them to start their careers with no debt.”

The fee increase is adding time to the graduation process because students are taking less units and working more, Campbell said. ” Schwarzenegger says he doesn’t believe in taxes, but the fee increase is a huge tax on students.”

According to the Student Needs and Priorities Survey conducted in 2003, 73 percent of Sac State students cite tuition as an obstacle to their education and 29 percent have taken out student loans to supplement or cover the funding.

“The trustees wish it would be different, but someone has to pay for the education,” Potes-Fellow said.

“Our hands are tied behind our backs,” Barajas said, because students, the state Legislature and university presidents have little to say about the student tuition increases.

Potes-Fellow said that although the Legislature must approve the 2006-07 trustee budget, they can’t override the salary increases or the increase in student tuition ?” they can only increase or reduce the general funds coming from the state.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]