Humboldt State’s head honcho Rollin C. Richmond is raking it in as one of the highest-paid California State University presidents, despite Humboldt’s near-last position on the enrollment charts.
Richmond made $297,870 last year, making him the eighth-highest-paid president in the 23-school CSU system. HSU places 20th in enrollment, with 7,903 students, but Richmond makes more than the presidents of Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge, which each have more than three times as many students — 30,000 plus.
“God it’s ridiculous,” said HSU psychology senior Katie Voskuyl. “What about the teachers? The amount of money he makes should totally be cut in half. The money could go to programs, it could go to teachers … it could go to homeless people.”
Richmond wouldn’t hear it. “Let’s point out that these salaries are in fact not outlandish. They are low in comparison to comparable institutions,” he said. In addition to his $297,870 salary, Richmond cashes in on a $50,000 annual housing allowance, and perhaps sweetest of all, a $1,000 monthly transportation allowance.
“He already has a job, why does he need that?” wondered Voskuyl, who is contemplating applying for student loans to make it through the undergraduate program. “If he lives in Arcata, maybe he could get in shape and bike.”
There is no hard-and-fast rule that determines what a CSU president makes, said CSU spokesperson Mike Uhlenkamp. Experience, skill set, university size, and university programs all play a role in shaping salaries, he said. A data analysis by the Journal shows no consistent correlation between presidential pay and number of students, length of employment, or school budget. Richmond, who has been president of HSU since 2002, makes more money than Milton Gordon, the president of Cal State Fullerton, who oversees 35,000 students and has worked there since 1990. The president of San Francisco State, Robert Corrigan, who oversees 29,700 students and has held that post since 1988, makes just $1,000 more than Richmond.
Richmond’s salary has risen by almost a third since he took the job in 2002. From the initial $230,016 annual haul, raises in 2005, 2006 and 2007 brought the total to just a couple grand short of $300,000.
Richmond said that throughout his tenure, price negotiations have been minimal. “I didn’t fight for a particular salary level. I was offered a particular salary,” he said. “Should my salary be $10,000 higher or lower? Possibly. Would it make a much of a difference?” Sounding annoyed, Richmond explained that it’s the national market for people interested in working in administration at universities that determines salaries, not the leadership of the CSU system. “What is anyone worth?” Richmond said. “How do you know how much you’re worth?”
CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and the Board of Trustees recently stirred things up when they hired Elliot Hirshman to take the helm at San Diego State. Hirshman will pocket a cool $350,000 annually, plus $50,000 from the San Diego State University Foundation. That’s $100,000 more than Hirshman’s predecessor earned at the same job. The same day, in a bitterly ironic twist, the chancellor and trustees raised student tuition … again.
Administrators’ pay is a drop in the CSU financial bucket, Richmond said, and isn’t connected with increasing student fees. The upside of increased tuition throughout the CSU system, he said, is that compared with the national average, public higher education in California is still a phenomenal deal. The increase in fees merely brings CSU students closer to what students nationally are paying. “A degree from the CSU is still worth far more than the tuition you pay into it,” Richmond said. “You’re still getting a great bargain.”
When Richmond earned his undergraduate degree in zoology at San Diego State University in the 1960s, he paid slightly more than $100 every year. Now, CSU students pay an average of $4,440. While that may be more affordable than many universities, CSU Employees Union president Pat Gantt said that the price is already too high for many would-be students. Simultaneously raising the price of education for students and raising the salaries for some of the CSU system’s highest paid employees is “just nonsense,” he said. Hiring Hirshman for $400,000 right now “seems really insensitive to the staff and people I represent, and the students especially, who are being asked to pay more.” He said that Hirshman’s plus-sized salary also invites pay envy from the other CSU presidents. “Where do you draw the line?” Gantt said. “Is $405,000 too much? $410,000?”
Richmond’s last raise, in 2007, turned heads among local union workers, said Rocky Waters, vice president of the Humboldt chapter of the employees union. He calculated that the $27,079 raise was more than what 95 percent of local union employees earned annually. That sort of figure doesn’t escape the attention of average workers on campus, Waters said. “You know, they hired Hirshman, and then just announced layoffs at Stanislaus and Fresno,” he said. “The perception is that the CSU wants to put the money into the highest level executives rather than the people on the line making the university run on a daily basis.”
Watching the highest-paid CSU employees get raises on top of all their perks and benefits is especially painful for staffers who haven’t gotten raises in years, said local employee union representative Jerry Saner. “I think what frustrates us most is when we hear we have to pay that kind of compensation to get that kind of management,” Saner said. “What are we, chopped liver? We should all get the same kind of raises.”
Legislators too are fed up with the executive pay. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco and San Mateo, introduced a bill two years ago that would have banned pay increases for top CSU and University of California administrators in years when those institutions’ budget allocations did not increase. The bill passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support, and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promptly vetoed it.
Yee thought the CSU Board of Trustees and the UC Board of Regents got the message in 2009, according to his Chief of Staff Adam Keigwin. “Senator Yee could not have imagined in a thousand years that they would, in light of the current economic situation, go and increase any executives’ pay, never mind their top executives’, never mind to the degree of extravagance that they did,” Keigwin said. Yee has announced that he will reintroduce the bill when the Legislature meets in two weeks.
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This article appears in Whales. In a River..
How about some HSU librarians, yes, LIBRARIANS(!) who are or where four years ago when I checked the Sacramento Bee state salary database, making more than $100,000.
Not only have CSU employees NOT recieved raises in years, their work load has increased. They also had furloughs in order to save jobs but no administrator did the same, just earned more $$$. I think we need a revolution.
And there are tenured faculty members making under $65k, who cannot afford to make their college loan payments.
“I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.”
Does Richmond consider the social consequences when accepting an unnecessary raise?
How does President Richmond improve the social environment when the disparity level between his income (as well as the perks included with his job), are grossly disproportionate with the rest of HSU’s staff.
Ice cream makers, Ben & Jerry’s, had a corporate policy of not earning more than 7 times the lowest paid employee…why can’t the CSU, a state funded institution, adopt a similar policy.
ARRRGGHHHH!!!!
Paying disgustingly huge salaries doesn’t get you a better qualified person. It gets you a greedy person who is more interested in the money than the job. Cut the pay to $60,000 a year and get someone who is interested in doing the job right, not getting a fat paycheck.
Hey pig, should your salary be $10,000 lower? NO!!! It should be $250,000 lower. It is sick and greedy that this “man” makes a third of a million dollars a year (plus housing and transportation because you just can’t afford those things on a third of a million dollars a year!), while tuitions are raised, classes and programs are cut, hiring is frozen, and other employees haven’t got a raise in a long time. And this “man” is in a position to influence future generations? It’s just fucking sick. This asshole should step down (but he won’t because he won’t give up the gravy train).
Richmond or who is in the job is going to make that salary. It is the job that pays that amount of money. All the CSU presidents make over $250,000 with these over inflated extras. The president of CSU Maritime makes $258,000 with only 856 students. But it is not just the college presidents, the UC Berkeley
HEAD COACH- makes $2,338,409.39 a year. There are professors at the UC level who make almost 2 million a year. How about the doctors working for the prison system making over $780,000? Or LIEUTENANTs in the Highway Patrol making $300,000. People choose to either go after these higher paying jobs or not. It is about the job you get. This is the case in most big companies there will always be people who make big salaries and people who make crappy ones.. By the way Ben and Jerry’s HAD that policy they no longer do. Oh and I make $10 an hour. I accept that there are people who make than in 5 minutes. Getting all upset and calling people names because of how much they make is useless.
Not to mention that in Fall 2009 (or possibly Spring 2010) over 60 employees (staff and instructors) were informed that they were having their hours, and in most cases, pay cut, on top of the already forced furlough days. The top two reasons being lower enrollment and the State’s budget and cuts to CSUs. When asked if this was going to apply to the President and/or the Provost — if they were willing to make sacrifices in order to help the ailing budget — an abrupt “No” was given, adding more stress to the already low morale on campus among staffers and teachers.
Our entire society is beginning to resemble medieval Russia.
Where was this highly paid administrator during the recent loss of the nursing program at HSU?
Passing edu-speak and buzz-words back and forth with the Provost…. “we are unable to find tenure track faculty…” “that isn’t the way we do it here.” Maybe get off the 300K rear end and go find the faculty. Cutting programs is the easy/lazy way out. Try developing some income/revenue instead.
In response to “oh come on’s” comments, you know its not the amount of money any of these people make, its the fact that in tough economic times when others in their industry make huge sacrafices THEY do not and just kid of thumb their noses on those left behind. They may have the educatijon and experience large salaries, but don’t forget, we, the taxpayers are paying for their salaries and raises and perks. I for one don’t want my hard earned taxes going for these raises or perks when the rest of the state is in such dire straights. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
Thanks Zach.
We need to be reading MUCH MUCH more of this kind of muckraking.
The public has a right to know the names, compensation, and qualifications of HSU’s 25 top execs.
How in the hell does a B.A. in P.E. like HSU’s B. Nordstrom and D. Collen merit six-figure salaries? Why aren’t there any advanced degrees working in their fields in HSU’s administration??
What does this reality model to aspiring students?
Oh, that’s right. Nordstrom was in charge of building maintenance at the University Center before he was appointed to become the director…after his brother-in-law (Mr. C. Lindemenn) quit.
Pathetic.
In New Mexico, the new governor set the maximum salary of her incoming cabinet officers at $125,000. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to the state’s education officers nor sports coaches.
in response to Disgusted, having an advanced degree does not mean you should make more money than people with just a BA. Moving up the ranks in your career field can get you 6 figures in some fields. Also in the IT field most people make more that $80,000 a year and that field often does not even require a degree. Some careers it is about the skills you have that most people do not.
But HSU has a big problem with nepotism, actually the whole county has a problem with nepotism.
In response to Sigh…
Indeed, in some cases holding an advanced degree doesn’t necessarily prove competence in a field.
Yet, at HSU, NONE of the administrators, except for E. Webb, hold and advanced degree in their field!
Yes, these are the same connected, related, appointed, married-to-each-other, non-credentialed, PR hacks enforcing higher academic standards upon those striving to attain advanced degrees that should qualify outsiders for the highest paid positions on campus.
In your dreams!
What I don’t appreciate is Richmond using part of his salary to support political candidates that would further endanger public education and HSU.
According to a search of political contributions via the Sunlight Foundation, I found that Rollin Richmond contributed $300 to Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor in 2010.
Here’s the URL to that information:
http://transparencydata.com/contributions/#Y29udHJpYnV0b3JfZnQ9Um9sbGluJTJCUmljaG1vbmQ=
People have the right to vote for and contribute to which ever political candidates they choose to support, but I think this monetary contributions give context to Richmond’s attitude about the budget and public education funding (including administrative salaries).
Just imagine how hard that poor man works for $359,870. I’d like to watch.