College Pay Raises and Fee Hikes

In what could only described as a miscarriage of fiscal responsibility, the University of California regents have decided to award merit pay increases to the top brass of the UC system, while simultaneously approving yet another increase in student fees.

University of California President Jack Peltason has justified fee hikes with a “need to share the pain.” With whom is the pain being shared? Certainly not those university officials whose salaries have been increased.

As an Assembly member, I have consistently voted against raising student fees. Given the current difficult economic times, our joint goal should be to make public education more accessible rather than more prohibitive! It is time for these academicians to leave the “ivory tower” and join the real world.

While the regents might deem merit pay increases necessary at this time to guarantee quality education, a decision to concurrently raise student fees and award pay increases is evidence of poor timing. I hope in the future the regents’ goals and actions are more compatible with those of us in the Legislature who continue to make affordable higher education a priority.

MIKE GOTCH

State Assembly, D-San Diego

* In response to “Cal State Panel OKs 8.6% Raise for Presidents,” Jan. 26:

No matter what specious and misleading arguments to the contrary are offered by Chancellor Barry Munitz and the California State University board of trustees, the fact remains that they are recommending exorbitant pay raises for CSU campus presidents (who already make over $100,000 per year) at a time when student fees are being raised for the fourth year in a row, when merit salary adjustments for our youngest and most promising faculty have not been fully restored, and when thousands of lecturers and staff have been laid off.

What the chancellor and the trustees fail to grasp is that in such difficult times the students, faculty and staff of the California State University deserve some measure of moral leadership. Instead, what we have is an unconscionable display of greed.

GEORGE M. LEWIS

Professor of Mathematics

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo