CSU Board of Trustees Increase Executive Salaries; CFA and Union Sibling Rally in Protest

During yesterday’s Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting, the chancellor and trustees approved a policy that gives significant raises to the highest-paid executives in the CSU. 

This new executive compensation policy addresses competitive compensation, upwards of a 15% performance-based pay, deferred compensation, increased housing allowances, and more frequent market analyses to ensure alignment with this new policy. Almost all these salary sources come directly from state funding and tuition dollars. Additionally, to guarantee their ongoing economic privilege, this policy ensures they also receive additional annual salary increases that align with those of faculty and staff. 

They also approved removing a policy that would prevent salaries for new presidents from being raised to more than 10% of what their predecessors made.  

As an example, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey Armstrong will now receive $611,203 in base pay. This is a 20% base increase of $101,867 that does not include housing and car allowances or eligibility to receive a 15% at-risk performance pay. 

The day before, more than three hundred CSU faculty, staff, and students gathered outside the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach to condemn the closed session where the CSU Board of Trustees’ discussed this new round of executive pay raises. 

Adding insult to injury, the Board bumped public comment back by more than three hours to make room for the closed session. Because of the unnecessary change in the agenda, many who had prepared comments had to forfeit their chances of being heard, whether it was to make a flight home or honor previous commitments later in the day. 

Rama Malladi, CFA member and CSU Dominguez Hills professor, was able to deliver his comment, denouncing the executive raises as extremely unreasonable. “This [executive pay-hike] expansion contradicts the system’s own financial narrative made to the elected officials and the public… If staff and faculty are facing tsunamis in layoffs, then how can executives see sunshine and unlimited pay increases?” 

Margarita Berta-Ávila, CFA president and Sacramento State professor, compared this to “Trump’s construction of a new ballroom while working people were unable to provide for their families during the shutdown.” 

CFA Secretary and Cal Poly Humboldt Lecturer Loren Cannon highlighted how concentrating wealth at the top negatively impacts CSU stakeholders. “This affluence of upper management requires the impoverishment of workers,” he said. “This affluence requires the continual precarity of half of the faculty in the CSU. We simply can’t have it both ways. We can fund a higher education oligarchy, or we can support higher education for California students. We’re at an inflection point that becomes clearer everyday: the people of California can’t afford you.” 

Despite handing even more unwarranted pay to the system’s highest-paid executives, the chancellor announced she would use the state’s recently approved $144 million 0% interest loan—not to bring back premature job cuts, restore academic programs, or to fund instruction as we’ve demanded—but to provide CSU employees with a negligible taxable single payment equivalent to 3% of their total pay. 

“Chancellor Garcia, let the bargaining table be the space where we discuss faculty salaries,” spoke Vang Vang, CFA Treasurer and Fresno State librarian.” Don’t cheat faculty by flattering us with a one-time compensation!”

We’ve seen these tactics before, where managers offer one-time compensation to sidestep meaningful salary increases that truly create change for workers. This behavior from the chancellor is shameful and a striking misuse of the funds we now have. 

A significant number of faculty and students also implored the trustees to prioritize safety within our community during a time of severe repression of free speech, attacks on academic freedom, and ongoing immigration raids. 

“CSU students are fearful and do not feel safe coming to campus,” warned Michelle Ramos Pellicia, CFA Vice President and CSU San Marcos professor. “They are uncertain whether ICE will come to campus or near their loved ones and upend their lives. Instead of promising employees a one-time bonus with the 0% interest loan, these funds should go to the creation and enhancement of an alert system.” 

Students for Quality Education (SQE) intern and CSU Channel Islands student Ryan Witt noted how CSU administrators have been complicit in the harm done to public higher education. “The Board of Trustees has been retaliating against peaceful pro-Palestine students and faculty at the behest of the fascist Trump administration,” he said, as he began sharing how the chancellor’s interim Time, Place, and Manner policy has led to increased police brutality on campus. “We demand the abolition of repressive Time, Place, and Manner policies and an end to the CSU’s collaboration with Trump’s regime.” 

The chancellor and trustees must be held accountable to ensuring a safe and inclusive working and learning environment for everyone in our community. We will continue to show up at each and every Board meeting to ensure that change is made within the CSU system. As CFA President Berta-Ávila closed her public comment, she echoed the words of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani: “To get to any of us, you’ll have to get through all of us.”