The recently announced pay raises for the higher echelon of the California State University system is not only unfair, seemingly natural and completely obscene, but might be against the state Constitution if paid retroactive to July, as noted in a lawsuit recently reported in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times.
To presume – and publicly self-declare – CSU administrators have done a stupendous enough job for students, faculty, classified staff and taxpayers to justify giving an average 12 percent increase is like telling California, “You just got punk’d.”
The reign of terror our “leaders” have wrought on this system is deserving of the suit filed by two recent CSU San Bernardino graduates. The universal climate of fear these executives has created inhibits current students from taking this crime syndicate to court in class-action style.
Many of us will be so broke after graduation that we’ll have to hang our parchment with nothing stronger than mom’s refrigerator magnets. When the judge slams down the gavel, we will inevitably pay the piper – and the contingency of high-priced lawyers – with another bevy of tuition increases.
Consider all our Sacramento-bound leaders have done for us in recent years. We have been held hostage and charged through our tuition-paying noses, with fees virtually doubling since 2002. All the while, much-needed class space, services and smiles have rapidly diminished.
Thanks to the trustees and their university lackeys, the pressure put on the governor to temporarily halt the 10 percent thievery for one academic year worked. Their educated guess that our wallets were empty came in handy when the “Educ-Hater” was running for re-election.
The planned tuition hike last year was put on hold, but the trustees have promised in “Arnoldian” lingo, “We’ll be back” for more dough next fiscal rotation.
It was we, the students – and the statewide teachers union – who marched in Sacramento and Long Beach against tuition hikes. Our administration didn’t lobby in our favor beyond a little Northern California pillow talk. That could have cost them a little gubernatorial penmanship on the old paycheck, huh?
While the “illegal gifts” administration offered each other barely passed via a way-too-many-to-two inbred vote, the Board of Trustees put on a dog-and-pony show. They swore that the “luxury tax” is needed to compete on the national level for high-quality administrators. Does that mean we’ve had low-quality administrators all along? If so, things are certainly amiss in “graft land.”
Is it merely a revenge act against student support for the California Faculty Association’s lengthy battle to garner equitable pay that made the trustees decide to eat their young?
Nah, that would be petty and childish, wouldn’t it?
Does not having enough classroom space or minimizing course offerings make their collective “winkies and twinkies” go soft? It certainly shrivels ours. That problem won’t be solved soon, especially because administrators are currently doing their best to milk the system dry.
Seriously, we would like them to “attract, retain and recruit high-quality presidents and executives who often can find greater salaries and retirement benefits elsewhere.” Put our money where their mouths are and get us the créme de la créme. Screw retention and promote rapid executive turnover until leadership represents the student/consumers.
Bring in fresh blood to fix this mess, rather than simply “putting lipstick on a pig.” With all they’ve given us, who could dare ask for more? Not students or taxpayers, apparently. When we ask for more, their hegemonic reply is to take more.
Why should it take two CSU graduates to “plaintiff” our trustees into a court of law? If the public outcry against such unchecked avarice is so great, why don’t our own university presidents cry institutional foul?
Our presidents could refuse to accept the booty from this swindle in our better interest and, “Just say no.” They could indicate to their bosses that abstinence makes the taxpayer heart grow fonder, but they won’t.
That’s not to say they don’t work hard for their pay; we just haven’t figured out what they do that merits such merit. By giving such a disgusting pay raise, we students are reduced to scrapping for crumbs, while the trustees and their subordinates treat the CSU system like a personalized all-you-can-eat buffet.
With more than 400,000 students in the system – and tens of millions of vested taxpayers – it seems nearly criminal that such a small group of leaders should continue this shameful theft. Unfortunately, they are only being called on the civil court’s carpet.
Hopefully, the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where the lawsuit is pending, will recognize this pay raise for what it is – institutional pornography.
