PSC Protests 14% Raise For CUNY Chancellor; Double Average Hike for Staff

City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein is receiving a pay raise of $55,000 over a two-year period, a 14-percent increase that brings his salary to $450,000 a year.

MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN: 'Highest rank,' hefty hike.

Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen decried the increase as "staggeringly out of proportion with the contract that he signed off on," referring to the PSC pay deal that increased wages by 10 percent, and did so over three years. The annual increase for Mr. Goldstein is roughly double what her members received.

Exceeds College President Hikes

Mr. Goldstein's pay bump is disproportionately high even compared to the recent salary increases of CUNY Vice Chancellors and College Presidents, who were mostly awarded annual raises of about six percent and four percent, respectively. It also represents a bigger percentage hike than the $45,000 increase he was given two years ago, which covered a three-year period. The Chancellor receives additional compensation of a $90,000-a-year housing allowance, a payment of club dues, and a personal driver.

BARBARA BOWEN: Excessive raise at wrong time.

The raise means that Mr. Goldstein's salary has risen by 80 percent since his hiring in 1999, when he started at $250,000. It is his first pay increase since 2006, with $25,000 of the raise being retroactive for the 2007-2008 school year, and the other $30,000 effective this year. Vice Chancellors and college Presidents received raises in 2007.

The pay increases were approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees on Sept. 22, but were not publicly revealed until last week. All of the raises were described as "performance-based" by the board, which stated, "It is clear that Chancellor Goldstein's performance continues to be of the highest rank," according to the PSC newsletter, The Clarion.

Members 'Dismayed'

"I am hearing repeatedly, every day since this has been announced, from faculty and staff across the university that they are dismayed by the size of these raises. Not just the Chancellor's, but all of the management's raises; they're all over $200,000 a year now," Ms. Bowen said in a phone interview. She noted that while her members "understand what it means to be the Chancellor of CUNY, and the demands of that role," they felt the raise was excessive.

"The way to improve that competitiveness [at CUNY] is to bring all of our salaries to competitive levels. That competitiveness cannot be achieved by producing a big salary just for the Chancellor," she said. "All of these increases come at a time when the University faces very serious possibilities of deep budget cuts. CUNY is tremendously under-funded and has been shortchanged by the state."

CUNY: Not Out of Line

"The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the Chancellor's compensation increase without objection from faculty and student representatives," said CUNY spokesman Michael Arena. "This action had been delayed at his request for one year. This unanimous approval reflects the wide support for the highly effective performance of Chancellor Goldstein."

Mr. Arena pointed out that among salaries in 2007-2008 for chancellors of public universities, Mr. Goldstein's $395,000-per-year wage fell below the pay of the heads of institutions such as Rutgers ($550,000), Maryland ($490,000) and North Carolina ($463,250).

On the issue of CUNY management's raises, Mr. Arena added that "Compensation increases for executives are based on performance and annual reviews. This year, the annual performance-based increase was 4.25 percent with no increments." He also noted that Vice Chancellors were "receiving increases of between 4-6 percent and no increments."

In recent months, CUNY has weathered significant cutbacks, with a $50.6-million budget reduction ordered by Governor Paterson in August, a move Ms. Bowen at the time decried. The PSC later slammed Mr. Goldstein for his remarks that the University could endure and absorb the cuts through creative financing and belt-tightening.

Timing Also An Issue

Ms. Bowen recalled this statement, saying, "When CUNY absorbed a $50-million budget cut this summer, on top of $17.7 million earlier in the year, everyone in the faculty and staff is being asked to do more with less. I think in that atmosphere, where we're always tightening our belts, faculty have questioned the rightness of a large increase for the Chancellor."

Ms. Bowen added that rumors were building that CUNY tuition could soon be raised to deal with budget problems, and that many PSC members were concerned for the students. "Our students are in the group that face loss of jobs, loss of their homes in the current economy, and they're willing to make sacrifices to be [at CUNY], even now," she said. "For them to be asked to find even more money, or simply not be able to stay in college, that has caused our faculty to ask, was this the right moment, and the right amount, of a raise?"

She concluded by bringing up the salaries of the PSC's lowest-paid members, adjuncts and other part-time Professors, who she said were particularly bothered by the raise. "At a time when half of CUNY courses continue to be taught by part-timers, many of whom make their whole living at CUNY, living on $25,000, $27,000, $30,000 a year, for the Chancellor to accept a salary increase of more than some of our members make in a year strikes many of them as inappropriate," she said.