California State University Trustee William Hauck, who has led the charge to raise student fees and institute executive pay increases, according to the California Faculty Association, was the target of a May 3 rally in downtown Sacramento.

More than 200 student, faculty and staff protesters from CSUs, most with picket signs and some wearing graduation hats and gowns, chanted on the doorstep of the California Business Roundtable, located on 15th and K streets, voicing concerns about Hauck’s conflicting roles as president of the Business Roundtable and a CSU trustee.

The Business Roundtable co-founded and has helped fund the Campaign for College Opportunity, which the faculty association says promotes raising student fees.

Elisa Bongiovanni, communications director for Campaign for College Opportunity, said the organization does not promote raising student fees.

John Travis, the faculty union’s president, said there is a correlation between the fee increases, totaling 76 percent over three years and the CSU trend of lower student enrollment, which is backed by a recent report issued by the California Post-Secondary Education.

“The trusteeship means something,” Travis said. The Humboldt State professor of political science said the CSU is in trouble and that Hauck “epitomizes the problem of the trustees.”

Hauck’s role as head of the nonpartisan Business Roundtable ?” where he makes $300,000 and works with top California business executives ?” conflicts with the CSU’s stated mission of bringing an affordable four-year education to middle- and working- class students, Travis said.

“This message starts here today to hold trustees responsible ?” if they don’t stand up, we will,” Travis said.

According to the union, Hauck violated the trustee code of conduct by voting on state budgetary issues ?” including student fee issues ?” that have come before the Trustees’ Committee on Finance, of which he is chair.

The union contends that Hauck supported the 13.7 percent executive pay hike last year and has told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would like to see the end of faculty tenure and collective bargaining agreements.

Maire Fowler, recently elected San Francisco State student body president, spoke at the protest pronouncing herself as a “super senior” because she has had to work several jobs to support herself and pay for her student fees while attending school.

“We’re not going to let him scapegoat us,” Fowler said of the student fee increases.Fowler said not only is she paying more in student fees, but she feels CSUwide services have decreased.

Fowler, who works in the restaurant business, in addition to serving as her campus’ president, said her top priority is to keep CSU “affordable and accessible for the future.”

To do this, Fowler said students need to speak out more.

Stan Oden, Sac State professor of government, said Hauck perpetuates a conservative, right wing attitude that keeps faculty wages down.

“He reflects principles of business people who want to profit on the backs of poor people,” Oden said.

When contacting Hauck regarding the union’s assertions, the State Hornet was referred to the Public Affairs Department of the CSU.

Clara Potes-Fellow, CSU spokeswoman, said the chancellor’s office doesn’t believe there is truth in the conflict of interest claims and sees the recent commotion surrounding Hauck as a tactic to influence the collective bargaining process.

The union and the CSU have gone 10 months without a formal agreement and are on the verge of penning a new one ?” the last agreement was extended through June 30, 2005, according to the union’s Web site.

“Negotiations are coming to an end, and they (California Faculty Association) usually have these tactics where they target an individual trustee, president or chancellor,” Potes-Fellow said.

Potes-Fellow cited incidences where on the eve of bargaining agreements, the union used the personal attack card against the chancellor to get media attention. She said she doesn’t see the value in this approach because it hinders “consensus building.”

“In the long-term, they are bad strategists,” Potes-Fellow said.

Potes-Fellow said Hauck is a “very accomplished trustee” and that the union’s criticism are unfounded, focusing on Hauck’s personal belief system rather than fact.

The CSU Board of Trustees has yet to take up the issue, Potes-Fellow said, but the trustees might bring it up during the May 15-17 board meeting. Faculty association members are set to testify at the meeting.

However, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, has taken steps to investigate the possible conflict of interest involving Hauck.

After the union sent a letter to Goldberg asking for a state audit, the chair of the Assembly Education Committee called for the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on May 2 to conduct an investigation regarding Hauck’s conflict of interest.

Wendy Notsinneh, staffer for Goldberg, said Goldberg, a former CSU Los Angeles professor and K-12 teacher, is still waiting to hear back from the committee about whether the matter is under their purview.

“She is very committed to ensuring that young people have access to higher education,” Notsinneh said of Goldberg. “It really upsets her that there is someone on the trustee board that is fighting to get student fee increases when they have another interest at heart.”

Hauck is chair of the Committee on Committees where he has appointed himself to eight of the 10 trustee committees and has been a member since 1993 when he was appointed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson. He was re-appointed by Gov. Gray Davis in March 2000 to serve a second eight-year term.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]