Audit probes "questionable" CSU executive compensation practices
Ben Roffee
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: News
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The recent debate over the Cal State University executive compensation controversy received its first official governmental examination on Nov. 9, 2007. The California Bureau of State Audits weighed in last week, releasing its findings of an audit on the executive compensation practices of the CSU.
The report, titled California State University: It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight and Establish Stricter Policies for Compensating Current and Former Employees, comes at the request of the Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, State Senator Leland Yee, and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. At a weighty 115 pages, the audit reveals various "questionable" practices in CSU executive compensation policy.
The official wording of the audit states of the overall condition of CSU compensation policy, "the university has not developed a central system enabling it to adequately monitor adherence to its compensation policies or measure their impact on university finances."
More specifically, the audit claims "some management personnel received questionable compensation after they were no longer providing services to the university," and "the discretionary nature of the university's relocation policy can result in questionable reimbursements of costs for moving."
According to the audit, the overall payroll of the CSU has increased by 9.6 percent since 2002, although "increases varied significantly by employment classification." While executive salaries increased by 25.1 percent, management and technical staff salaries increased by 10.4 percent. The disparity between faculty and executive salary growth was even more disproportionate, with tenure-track faculty salaries growing by 5.6 percent and other faculty positions growing by 6.2 percent.
Speaker Nuñez, released a statement saying, "The [audit] report reinforces the concerns I had when I requested the audit in the first place. CSU clearly needs to establish vigorous standards and be more transparent when it comes to its hiring and retention practices."
The report, titled California State University: It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight and Establish Stricter Policies for Compensating Current and Former Employees, comes at the request of the Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, State Senator Leland Yee, and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. At a weighty 115 pages, the audit reveals various "questionable" practices in CSU executive compensation policy.
The official wording of the audit states of the overall condition of CSU compensation policy, "the university has not developed a central system enabling it to adequately monitor adherence to its compensation policies or measure their impact on university finances."
More specifically, the audit claims "some management personnel received questionable compensation after they were no longer providing services to the university," and "the discretionary nature of the university's relocation policy can result in questionable reimbursements of costs for moving."
According to the audit, the overall payroll of the CSU has increased by 9.6 percent since 2002, although "increases varied significantly by employment classification." While executive salaries increased by 25.1 percent, management and technical staff salaries increased by 10.4 percent. The disparity between faculty and executive salary growth was even more disproportionate, with tenure-track faculty salaries growing by 5.6 percent and other faculty positions growing by 6.2 percent.
Speaker Nuñez, released a statement saying, "The [audit] report reinforces the concerns I had when I requested the audit in the first place. CSU clearly needs to establish vigorous standards and be more transparent when it comes to its hiring and retention practices."
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