Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong’s salary will increase over $100,000 to $611,203 sometime in the next two years, following a vote from the Cal State Board of Trustees Wednesday afternoon.
Additionally, some Cal State presidents, including Armstrong, could see up to a 15% salary increase after a performance review, according to the agenda.
The decision was approved 20-1 with no discussion during the meeting. Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis was the only member who voted no.
The base pay increase will come from tuition and state funds, while the performance-based increases will be the responsibility of each campus to individually fundraise, according to the meeting’s agenda. The exact criteria and start dates are not finalized.
A majority of the Cal State presidents have base salaries in the bottom 25% when compared to their peers, according to a presentation by the Cal State Board of Trustees, prompting the amendment.
President Armstrong now has the highest base salary among all Cal State presidents, surpassing that of San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre.
Faculty association protests decision
The California Faculty Association planned a rally Tuesday to protest the board’s decision to increase presidents’ salaries while the system’s budget is in distress, according to a press release about the rally.
This amendment comes after the Cal State system was faced with a $144 million budget cut in May. This was a reduction from the original cut proposed by the Governor’s Office in January of $375 million, or nearly 8% of yearly state-allotted funding for Cal States.
READ MORE: Cal Poly state funding cut by $9.7 million amid statewide budget deficit
The executive pay increase is in “bad taste” when faculty raises are being denied and staff are not being rewarded their salary step increases, according to the faculty association’s San Luis Obispo Chapter President Lisa Kawamura.
The chancellor’s office has made premature cuts to university lecturers and departments that could be reinstated, Kawamura said.
“The chancellor is deciding to give those high-paid executives a raise instead of putting the money where it ought to be, which is with the lowest paid workers in our system,” Kawamura said. “The people who do the work day in and day out.”
Kawamura said that though executives are doing a lot of work, such as President Armstrong taking on a second campus, there are Cal State faculty and staff who live below the poverty line.
“No administrator is going to go hungry if they were not to get this raise, but some of our faculty and staff will,” Kawamura said.
The association called the presidents’ salaries “exorbitant” in the press release and said the board has attempted to “sell this tragic story” about budget cuts that have impacted academic instruction across the state, only to redirect the funds to executives.
“They are more than eager to give presidents and other higher up managers an obscene amount of money but are unwilling to even pay us a fair wage,” the release said.
This article was updated to include comment from local faculty association representatives. This is a developing story, and Mustang News will provide updates as they are available.