No More Hired Guns?

Governor blasts California universities' hiring of pricey presidents:
Jerry Brown criticizes the trend of paying high salaries to 'hired guns' from out of state instead of seeking Californians who might take less

Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2011

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday criticized leaders of California's public universities for recruiting highly paid "hired guns" from across the country to run campuses instead of looking for home-grown talent that might be willing to work for lower salaries. The governor said officials at California State University and the University of California appeared in recent salary decisions to have adopted a mindset that market forces trump public service, but he said that must change, especially as the state struggles to close a budget deficit that has forced severe cuts.

…The remarks were in response to the continuing public outcry over the decision by the Cal State Board of Trustees this month to approve an annual salary of $400,000 for Elliot Hirshman, the new president of San Diego State, at the same time the school increased annual student tuition by 12%.

…William G. Tierney, director of USC's Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, described as "flat-footed" the two university systems' recent decisions to raise tuition and the salaries of highly paid executives in the same board meetings. (UC leaders this month also approved a nearly 10% tuition hike for the fall, at the same time granting a large pay raise to the chief executive of UC San Francisco's medical center.) "But the real problem is that the governor's strategy with higher education is simply to give them less money, and I don't think the systems have been good with how to make strategic cuts," Tierney said. "The governor's letter … wins political points, but it doesn't solve the education problem."

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calstate-salary-20110728,0,6185738.story

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