California State University executives will no longer be guaranteed pay for a one-year transition period after the CSU Board of Trustees adopted changes to its executive transition program on Nov. 15, according to the public affairs department for the California State University.

Executive transition, or executive compensation, allows top officials to continue collecting paychecks for a year after leaving their jobs, according to two articles on the subject from the San Francisco Chronicle.

“As part of the executive’s employment agreement, this program entitles an executive to one paid transition year after he or she leaves office,” a fact sheet prepared by the chancellor’s office stated. “The salary formula is the midpoint between the executive’s salary and the 12-month full professor salary range maximum. At the conclusion of the transition year, the executive may elect to exercise any faculty retreat rights established previously at a CSU campus and will be paid according to campus policy.”

“Prior to adoption of the executive transition program in 1992, Board policy was to provide departing executives with one paid transition year and the ability to serve on a campus as a ‘trustee professor,'” the fact sheet says.

Paul Browning, a media relations specialist for chancellor’s office, said he thinks the executive transition program is “a win-win situation for everyone.”

“What an executive does is unique,” Browning said in a telephone interview. “They have skills that are only learned at that level.”

“With executive transition, we still get them to work, and the people benefit,” Browning said.

Earlier this month, the faculty union filed a lawsuit saying that an executive compensation benefit for top officials of the California State University system violates state laws that forbid employees from receiving gifts of public funds or “double-dipping” on their retirement benefits, according to the Chronicle.

According to the CSU chancellor’s office website, the Board of Trustees voted to make executive transition available only to those who have served for at least five years, don’t take outside employment and plan to return to work for the CSU.

An editorial for the Chronicle called executive transition a “golden parachute.”

“That program has been under fire since disclosures that some CSU executives were quietly handed an extra year’s pay ?” sometimes with few, if any, duties ?” even after they had left for other six-figure salaried jobs,” according the editorial.

Chancellor Charles B. Reed and Board of Trustees Chair Roberta Achtenberg said in a letter regarding the Chronicle that they thought it was important for the CSU community to have the factual information that is the focus of the story.

“The policies governing the CSU executive compensation program are ones that have been adopted by our Board in public session and adhered to in practice. The current policies are posted on our website,” the letter said. “As a public institution, we are deeply committed to being transparent in our actions as a board.”

“We are, however, sensitive to the need to ensure that we are upholding the public trust and, for this reason, will be re-examining how we can be more proactive about letting the public know about our operations,” the letter said.

“We’ve changed the policy several times, most recently being in 1997,” Browning said. “We’re always open to review.”

Tom Roberts can be reached at [email protected]