Ill-timed raises
Staten Island Advance
"Our Opinion"
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Whenever government faces budget deficits, the shortfalls inevitably
filter down to the agencies and institutions that supply
government-funded services. Taxes overall and fees for users of
those services are ratcheted upward and there are often cutbacks in
the level of services government provides.
All these options for dealing with budget problems are invariably
unpopular, even if they are clearly necessary. So it takes a
combination of skilled political leadership and enlightened
budget-making with limited resources to persuade people that these
unavoidable hikes in costs and cuts in services have been allocated
fairly.
A key to this effort is to demonstrate that the pain in lean fiscal
times is shared equally by all and that one sector is not benefiting
at the expense of another.
Because of cuts to higher education funding at the state and city
levels, the City University of New York recently imposed tuition
increases on students of up to 25 percent.
At the same time, colleges in the CUNY system cut back on some of
their spending in order to make ends meet. According to some
knowledgeable about CUNY institutions, the cuts have included such
essentials as chalk, paper and library books. At the same time,
according to critics, average class sizes have grown.
CUNY students are still availing themselves of a pretty good bargain
as far as higher education goes, especially now that standards have
been raised and overall students' performance has improved. Still,
the bottom line for many is that they are paying more tuition and
getting less for their money.
If this budgetary pain were felt across the board within the CUNY
system, most fair-minded students, faculty and staff members might
grouse, but take some solace in that fact. However, it turns out
that while the students and faculty have to bear the additional
burden, top CUNY officials don't.
In fact, it was disclosed last week that these officials have been
given raises, some of them hefty. The raises were quietly approved
in late October by the CUNY Board of Trustees. The issue really came
to light last week at a hearing of the City Council's Higher
Education Committee.
 The
salaries of presidents of the CUNY colleges and some other officials
were increased by an average of 5.8 percent. This includes a
7.5-percent increase to the dynamic and effective Dr. Marlene
Springer, the president of the College of Staten Island.
We know from first-hand experience that it is certainly reasonable
to argue that Dr. Springer's superb shepherding of CSI during her
tenure has earned her that modest pay increase. Perhaps the same
could be said of some other CUNY college presidents who have been
successful leaders.
The issue is one of timing, however.
And the disparity between what CUNY students have to bear with and
the raises-all-around policy for top officials is all the more
evident with the 40-percent pay increase for the CUNY chancellor,
Matthew Goldstein.
His annual salary is now $350,000.
The union that represents CUNY faculty and other academic employees,
the Professional Staff Congress, has been outspoken in blasting
these pay increases.
PSC President Barbara Bowen said the increases were an insult to
students, adding, "The money that was spent on executive pay
increases could have gone to reducing class size or buying books for
the libraries or even basic necessities that we lack at CUNY, like
chalk and paper. When our students are paying more, they shouldn't
be getting less."
The Higher Education Committee Chairman, Councilman Charles Barron
of Brooklyn, agreed, saying, "To raise the chancellor's salary by 40
percent while our students are struggling to dig up an additional
$300 to $800 for an education is disingenuous and smacks of
self-interest."
CUNY defends the pay increases by arguing that the raises are based
on performance levels, which these top administrators have met. A
CUNY spokesperson also pointed out that Chancellor Goldstein has not
had a pay raise since he was hired in 1999.
We tend to agree with the critics. CUNY is a publicly funded
institution, not a private enterprise. What's more, it has always
advanced the worthy principle that a higher education should be made
available to all New Yorkers, regardless of their economic level.
That is CUNY's reason for being.
Now, CUNY is telling students that they have to pay more tuition --
hikes that no doubt impose a serious hardship on many lower-income
and middle-class students struggling to pay for college. But at the
same time, CUNY is generously raising the pay of the system's top
administrators, and to fairly elite levels.
The contrast presents a public image that is unfortunate. Again,
we're not saying that many of these administrators haven't earned
their raises. Some, like Dr. Springer, clearly have.
It's just that CUNY trustees ought to have been a little more
sensitive to the burden being imposed on CUNY students before they
started handing out nice raises.
Reprinted here with permission from the
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