Good to Be the Chancellor

The City University of New York Board of Trustees, in granting a 14-percent pay increase over two years to Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, picked a peculiar time to tip its hat to Leona Helmsley by suggesting that cost-of-living increases are for the little people.

There are arguments to be made justifying the $55,000 boost in Mr. Goldstein's salary from its old level of $395,000. A CUNY spokesman noted that even with that raise, he still trailed the heads of a number of other public universities, and at $450,000 is still $100,000 shy of what his counterpart at Rutgers University is paid. And no one questions that CUNY has made strides toward regaining much of its old luster during Mr. Goldstein's first nine years at the helm.

But the average hike of 7 percent a year is twice what CUNY Professors are receiving annually over a three-year contract that was recently signed off on by the Professional Staff Congress and the CUNY Trustees. That was why PSC President Barbara Bowen last week decried the size of the Chancellor's increase while noting that it comes at a time when CUNY has major budget woes that could lead to both cutbacks in programs and a tuition increase.

There would not have been a major savings if the raise for the Chancellor had stayed closer to what CUNY's instructors are receiving, but it would have had symbolic value.

The actual raise granted has a different kind of symbolism.