State Audit of CSU Executive Compensation
On November 6, 2007, the California State Auditor released its analysis of the California State University’s controversial executive pay and benefits policies.
The audit – entitled California State University: It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight and Establish Stricter Policies for Compensating Current and Former Employees – found numerous “inconsistencies in the policies governing compensation given to top executives,” “questionable compensation after they were no longer providing services to the university,” and “questionable reimbursements” to campus presidents and senior chancellor’s office staff.
The results of this audit come as no surprise to CSU faculty members who have known for years that the system’s top executives are tending to their own bank accounts while the university struggles with class cutting and rising student fees.
“This audit confirms everything CFA has been saying over the past several years about the California State University administration’s proclivity to mismanage the system, especially in regard to executive pay and perquisites,” said John Travis, California Faculty Association political action chair and a political science professor at CSU Humboldt.
“The audit demonstrates an unacceptable nonchalance about how the public’s money is spent. This is typified by the so-called executive ‘transition program’, which has required no discernible ‘deliverables’ to benefit the university.
“Along with the legislature and others, we will be tracking how the Chancellor’s office responds. We want to know what steps will they take—starting today—to make the necessary changes. The action must be substantive for the benefit of our students and the future of the university,” Travis said. |
