Well, it is official. Tuition is increasing in the CSU by 12.5%.  The fee and tuition spiral continues a trend that I highlighted in an earlier post. Students get to pay more.

Getting almost as much attention as the tuition is the hiring of the new San Diego State University campus president. The Board of Trustees approved a salary of $400,000 dollars per year; $350,000 out of the general fund and $50,000 paid from the university’s non-profit foundation. Gee, I am glad I am not an SDSU alum who gave money to the university. Imagine my hard-earned $50 going to pay for the salary of the university’s president.

Defending the increase CSU Chancellor Charlie Reed “cited a system-sponsored study that found Cal State presidents to be underpaid compared to their peers at similar institutions” according to the LA Times. Of course this “inequity” is what is behind the salary spiral among college presidents that produces increasing inequality between presidents and high level administrators, on the one hand, and faculty on the other as I discussed in another essay.

Here is how it works. At $400,000 the new president will make only $21,000 less than the Chancellor of the entire system. Charlie Reed will now argue that as Chancellor of the entire system he deserves to be paid considerably more than the president of a single campus. More for Charlie.

Then Chancellor Reed will argue that the gap between campus presidents is unfair. How can we have the president of one campus make about $100,000 more than the president of another campus? Beside that, according to our own study our presidents are underpaid compared to peer institutions! More for the presidents.

So, to sum up, Charlie gets more, the presidents get more, and the students pay more. As Jesse Jackson used to say, this is “Robin Hood in reverse,” taking from the poor to give to the rich. Brilliant.