Cal State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed denied the Students for Quality Education’s demands on Friday, two days after 13 members of the group began a hunger strike.
The demands include a five-year moratorium on student fees, the elimination of presidential car and housing allowances, a suspension of cuts to classes and student services, and the extension of free speech areas on CSU campuses.
The group also said that, if cuts to classes and services must be made, they should be accompanied with a reduction of administrative and executive salaries to their 1999 levels.
Reed said the group’s efforts were misguided.
“Your effort, your energy really ought to be focused on Sacramento, on the legislature, and on the governor,” he said.
The conversation got heated when students and Reed discussed executive compensation.
“You’re saying we need the best and brightest,” one SQE member said. “We need to compensate them for their good work, but should we really be worried about hiring people who are in it for the money and not for what the CSU is supposed to stand for? … If these people are really that concerned about these extra luxuries, about car and housing allowances, how devoted could they possible be to the mission of California State University?”
Reed said the presidents “are not in it for the money,” and noted that, in 2010, all presidents took a 10 percent pay cut.
One member of SQE then referred to San Diego State President Elliot Hirshman as an example that presidents received pay raises after 2010.
“No! No! No! I’m tired of listening to that,” Reed said. “No president that has worked at the California State University has gotten one penny raise. OK?”
Cal State Long Beach graduate student Donnie Bessom also asked about presidential salaries, citing Cal State Fullerton’s new president Mildred Garcia, who was previously president at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
“When you jump from one campus as a president to another campus and you get $30,000, that is not considered a raise?” Bessom asked.
Reed replied no, that once a president transferred, it was a new job with different expectations.
SQE member Lex Deschuytter said Reed was playing a word game by saying that the presidents had not received raises simply because they had moved to a new campus.
Reed also brought up presidential responsibilities he said many students aren’t aware of.
He said presidents are often working seven days a week, going to events and also fundraising for the university.
Reed said he faced criticism with the hire of the new San Diego State President. He said, when he hired Hirshman, he asked the president to raise $1 million a week starting July 1 of last year. Reed said Hirshman is now on track to raise about $1.7 million a week.
Although Reed and SQE did not come to an agreement on the demands, they did discuss the issue of free speech on campus.
“You also have a right to spontaneous free speech and we’ve actually had administrators chase us around campus saying, ‘You can’t do that, you can’t do that’ even though we weren’t disturbing classes,” Bessom said.
Bessom said that the group had encountered difficulties regarding the organizing of a March 1 protest.
“For instance, this year we had the March 1 rally on our campus and we had to constantly jump over hurdles, sound was denied to us at certain locations,” he said.
Reed and CSU General Counsel Christine Helwick, who also sat in on the meeting, said, if any incidents did not line up with the CSU free speech policy, they should be reported.
“We want to make sure on the free speech that the campuses are following the policy and, if there is an incident, it needs to be reported,” Reed said.
The group said they will continue their hunger strike and will ask for a future meeting with the chancellor.