By Associated Press
Albany, NY – State University of New York Chancellor Robert King's salary could increase to as much as $420,000 a year under proposed guidelines to raise administrators' and college presidents' salaries, SUNY announced Friday.
The guidelines set a minimum salary level for the chancellor's job of $275,000. King is now paid $250,000. In addition, King has a car and driver for business and personal use. He also has a $90,000-a-year housing allowance, although he retained his suburban home when Gov. George Pataki appointed him in December 1999. King had been Pataki's budget director.
Presidents at SUNY's university centers in Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook could be paid between $176,000 and $339,200 a year, compared to an average $227,143 now. At other four- and two-year state colleges, the range calls for salaries between $120,000 to $247,000 a year, compared to average pay of $159,191 now.
Campus presidents also receive housing allowances of between $48,000 and $60,000 a year if they don't live in a home provided by SUNY.
The SUNY Board of Trustees is scheduled to approve the guidelines just before SUNY's annual public hearing Tuesday in Albany. A year ago, the board approved a system for regular tuition increases in the session that was also scheduled two hours before the annual public hearing in which students, instructors and taxpayers are heard about policies affecting the 413,000-student university system.
SUNY spokesman David Henahan emphasized the salary plan is a framework and any raises would have to be approved by the Board of Trustees, which is controlled by Pataki appointees.
The board isn't now considering a proposal to raise King's salary. If the board approves the minimum salary, it would have to separately take up raising King's salary. The chancellor raises campus presidents' pay.
SUNY Trustee Candace de Russy, a Pataki appointee often at odds with King and board Chairman Thomas Egan, said she opposes the proposal.
"It is unseemly that the SUNY leaders repeatedly raising tuition should be raising the salaries of administrators who are unwilling to be accountable for reining in tuition costs," de Russy said.
She has unsuccessfully sought harder looks at making SUNY more efficient before resorting to tuition increases. She said she has also been denied records on administration salary data and histories.
She also complained that the public and even board members have had little time to consider the proposal before Tuesday's vote. She said she received the proposal for the new salary structure by fax at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at home.
"No substantive discussion about it has taken place among the trustees as a whole," she said. "The public should be given a greater opportunity to express its views of the plan."
"It's outrageous," said Assembly Higher Education Committee Chairman Ronald Canestrari, an Albany County Democrat. "At a time when we're fighting to override the governor's vetoes to restore (academic equal) opportunity programs for the neediest kids in New York, when campuses' electrical and heating systems are shot and we can't get additional capital dollars to our schools, how can we think to have huge increases in salaries for the chancellor and administrators? It's embarrassing."
Henahan said the new ranges recognize contracted raises for unionized employees, the accomplishments of administrators and campus presidents who raised SUNY's national stature, and their ability to attract and educate more qualified students. SUNY enrollment has swelled in recent years.
"A competitive level of compensation is important and demonstrates the university values effective leadership," King said. "Changing the salary plan does not mean an automatic raise for anyone. I review the campus presidents annually and the salary plan provides a range of salary based on performance and consistent with peer institutions."
Comparisons with other states show the new salary ranges are not the highest in the nation in public higher education, King said.
For example, SUNY reported that the Rutgers University chancellor in New Jersey makes $525,000 a year, the counterpart in Michigan makes $475,000 and Texas pays $468,000.
The salary ranges should be part of an overall SUNY fiscal plan that includes commensurate increases in state aid for instruction, said Miriam Kramer of the student-supported New York Public Interest Research Group.
"This is a time when students in the last several years have been hit with tuition increases, fee increases and financial aid cuts," she said. "It's troubling the administration is asking for increases when it hadn't asked for state aid increases" in recent state budgets. "This is just part of the conversation SUNY should be having with the state ... and it should be done well before the public hearing so the public and students have an opportunity to look at the proposal and comment on it in a context where their comments can be taken seriously."