Bills to cap pay for executives and presidents brought forward

Two bills seeking caps on California State University executive pay are working their way through the state senate.

The bills could put an end to constant complaints that CSU presidents make nearly the same amount as the President of the United States.

Senator Ted Lieu brought forward a bill that would limit the pay of CSU presidents to no more than 150 percent of what the chief justice of the state Supreme Court makes, which is $228,856 annually. The bill would also stop the CSU system from granting a pay raise within three years of a tuition increase.

Following on the heels of Senator Lieu's bill is that of Senator Lee's, which would cap CSU executive pay raises within two years of a tuition increase or during years when the budget is cut.

Lee's bill also suggests ending a common practice of giving new executive hires more than 5 percent of their predecessor's pay.

According to the University of California President's Office, California State Controller's Office and the California Legislature, SSU President Ruben Armiñana made $341,283.27 in 2010, the most recent year available; currently, President Obama makes $400,000 a year, a $58,716.73 difference.

While Armiñana has acknowledged he does receive both a house allowance and a car on top of his salary, he does not receive any bonuses and, according to records, has not had a pay rise since at least 2007.

"A university president functions equivalent to a mayor of a small city," said Erik Fallis, a representative of the chancellor's office in regards to one of the reasons presidents get paid so highly.

According to Fallis, a salary is based on a few things: what brings the person to the campus, what strengths that person brings and what benchmarks there are.

While the benchmark for deciding salaries was created by a group that no longer exists, a new way of looking at the hiring situation is now being put in to play by the Board of Trustees.

Instead of comparing salaries with presidents and executives across the nation, CSU campuses are segmented into categories to give a more realistic idea of salary comparison pay.

Items like location and student size are the biggest denominators in what the board will look at. However, some say that is still not enough.

"While we as students are paying more and more for an education each year within a system that is losing both classes and professors, why are the administrators not taking a massive pay cut?" said junior Sara Russell.

"If the president of the university is really making almost as much as the President of the United States, then we should be seeing more coming from his office," she added.

Not everyone agrees on the idea to cap pay for presidents and other administrators, however.

"Even though we might not see all that goes on with the higher ups of campuses, the work they do is hard," said senior Lindsey Denning.

"While deciding to pay new administrators more than what their predecessors made the same year where students are seeing budget cuts and tuition increases might not be the best of ideas, people need to realize the work a new hire is doing might not be the same as what the person before did," she added.