CSU trustees reject attempt to cap presidents' pay Higher education

FILE- This file photo taken Sept. 9, 2011, shows California State Sen. Ted Lieu , D-Torrance , as he speaks before the Senate at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Lieu is considering calling for a boycott of Lowe's stores after the home improvement chain pulled its advertising from a reality show about Muslim-Americans. Calling the retail giant's decision "naked religious bigotry," Lieu said Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011, he would also consider legislative action if Lowe's doesn't apologize to Muslims and reinstate its ads. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) less FILE- This file photo taken Sept. 9, 2011, shows California State Sen. Ted Lieu , D-Torrance , as he speaks before the Senate at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Lieu is considering calling for a boycott of ... more Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close CSU trustees reject attempt to cap presidents' pay 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

(01-24) 10:59 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- California State University trustees have rejected an 11th-hour attempt by a state senator to stop them from considering - and likely adopting - a new policy Wednesday that would let them set higher salary levels for CSU's 23 campus presidents.

"It is imperative that the board move forward to implement a modified presidential compensation policy" because trustees need to hire five presidents this year, Herb Carter, chairman of the CSU Board of Trustees, wrote Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), who had tried to stop the vote.

Lieu had asked CSU Chancellor Charles Reed to withdraw the policy because it would let trustees set salaries based on what other universities of their own choosing pay - not on what CSU can afford.

"CSU leadership has utterly failed to ask the first and relevant question, which is whether CSU's budget and California could afford ... gigantic raises for CSU executives," Lieu wrote Reed, calling the proposal tone-deaf at a time when the state has just sliced $750 million from CSU's budget.

Lieu is also the author of SB959, a bill to cap CSU presidents' pay at 150 percent of whatever the chief justice of the California Supreme Court makes. If approved, the limit would currently be $343,269. CSU presidents now earn between $259,000 and $400,000.

But the trustees have a different idea.

To decide on salary levels, CSU would divide its campuses into five groups - largely based on their levels of enrollment and academic research - then look at average presidential salaries in five groups of comparison universities. Lieu isn't the only observer to notice that the comparison groups' chosen by CSU have higher salaries in all but one case.

"These institutions appear to unduly raise the corresponding average executive salary," Mac Taylor, the state's legislative analyst, wrote Trustee Lou Monville, head of the committee on presidential selection and compensation, in November.

For example, six CSU campuses where presidents earn an average salary of $309,500 are compared with a dozen where presidents earn $391,000. Three of the CSU campuses in this group - San Francisco, Fullerton and Northridge - are searching for a new president.

Another exampleis San Diego State, which is in its own group because it is CSU's only research university. The trustees awarded its new president a $400,000 salary last summer on the same day they raised tuition by 12 percent. Moreover, the pay was $100,000 more than the outgoing president had gotten, prompting criticism from students to Gov. Jerry Brown.

That incident became the catalyst for re-examining presidential compensation. But under the new plan, the $400,000 comes off as stingy; the average pay at the 10 comparison universities is $458,360.

In his critique, Lieu points out that, unlike San Diego State, several of those comparison campuses have medical or law schools, and hefty endowments.

But the trustees' Carter dismissed Lieu's concerns. He said the committee had held four public meetings and spoke with state officials.

"We make executive compensation decisions in a thoughtful and deliberate manner," Carter told Lieu.

An error in this story has been corrected since it appeared in print.