Presidential wealth

Chico State President Paul Zingg has returned to the university after recuperating from heart bypass surgery as a slightly wealthier man. He, along with the 22 other presidents of schools in the California State University system, received a 2 percent pay raise on Tuesday (July 21).

Zingg’s been back in Kendall Hall, the iconic red brick building that houses campus administration, for about a month, and says his recovery is “finally going smoothly.” Shortly after undergoing surgery on March 15, a staph infection sent him back into the hospital, and then he returned for another procedure more recently because he had kidney stones.

“Bad things come in threes,” he said by phone Wednesday morning. “I’ve had my three. I’m glad to be back in action—that is for sure.”

He returns amid criticism of the raises, the second awarded to the system’s top executives by the CSU board of trustees since November (they’d previously gone seven years without a salary increase). Zingg’s annual base pay jumped by $5,758, from $287,885 to $293,643; he plans on donating between 10 percent and 15 percent of his salary to support academic and athletic scholarships and organizations such as the North State Symphony, the Janet Turner Print Museum and the Chico Women’s Club.

Supporters of the raises point to a report by the Committee on University and Faculty Personnel that says the salaries of CSU presidents—which range from $236,484 to $422,300 per year—are well behind those at comparable universities across the nation.

“In many employee groups at the CSU, salaries lag behind market comparisons,” the report reads. “This observation is exaggerated in the executive employees, where the average gap approximates 25 percent behind market.”

Zingg agrees that the discrepancy has made it difficult for CSU to recruit and retain the system’s top executives.

“Presidents come and go for different reasons,” he said, “but yes, some presidents have left the system because of salaries that aren’t competitive with what they can realize at similar institutions.”

The presidents’ raises have been roundly criticized by the California Faculty Association, which represents 23,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and sports coaches. CFA leaders maintain that CSU should prioritize paying the employees who work most directly with students.

In a press release, CFA President Jennifer Eagan, a professor at CSU East Bay, said, “Presidents don’t teach classes, and they’re not in direct contact with students. That’s a consistent problem. The CSU is running on a model that fails to prioritize our mission to teach students above all else.”

At Chico State specifically, wage stagnation, poor retention of faculty and workplace dissatisfaction have been long-running problems. In February, a couple hundred protesters made up of Chico State staff and faculty members gathered in the campus core and marched past Kendall Hall, decrying salary inequity, bullying and intimidation on the part of university officials, and a lack of transparency from administration.

And that was just a few months after the CSU board of trustees ratified a three-year contract with the CFA, which immediately increased all faculty salaries by 1.6 percent and provided a 3 percent boost to long-term employees. (The CFA is currently negotiating with CSU regarding the 2015-16 contract.)

Morale among employees on campus has remained low since then, says Robin McCrea, an administrative analyst for the College of Agriculture. “Unfortunately, the cost of many people’s health benefits increased to the point where they are making less, even after the pay increase,” she said by phone. “It’s not a happy place for staff. Last year, I shared with the president in an open forum that, for many, the ‘Chico experience’ is becoming the ‘Chico nightmare,’ when it comes to trying to survive on the salaries paid to staff.”

Zingg says such observations are fair, but must be considered in full context. “The entire workforce suffered terribly over the last 10, 12 years,” he said. “We went seven years without salary increases for anyone. That’s a correct observation, but it should apply to the entire workforce—not just faculty.”

By 2017, Chico State will have hired a total of 125 tenure-track members, Zingg said. “We will recover significantly from losses we’ve had over the last 10 years or so.”

Still, McCrea believes there are lingering employee issues at the university that are trickling down to the student experience.

“When staff morale is so low, and people are so frustrated, it can’t help but impact students,” she said.