When Elliot Hirshman was hired to run San Diego State University in 2011, his compensation — at $100,000 higher than his predecessor’s — was approved over objections from the governor, who criticized the “ever-escalating” salary for public higher-education jobs as unaffordable.

This week, the SDSU president is among several California State University executives up for a pay raise under a proposal going before the board of trustees that steers the university system. The salary increases would come on the heels of a student fee increase.

Under the personnel plan, Hirshman’s overall annual compensation would increase by $12,000 to $412,000. His salary is supplemented by $50,000 from the university’s nonprofit fundraising arm.

Hirshman declined to comment on the matter.

“This isn’t a campus-level decision, it’s a system-level decision,” said SDSU spokesman Greg Block.

The proposed pay raises come as SDSU — and other CSU campuses — have added a “student success fee,” of up to $200 per semester to raise millions of dollars to hire faculty and expand class sections.

Earlier Hirshman said the university would offset the fee with a special fund for students who can’t afford it.

Emanuel Delgado, a graduate student who helped establish a group opposing the fees, called the proposed raises outrageous.

“Students are struggling to pay for their education, to eat and pay rent,” said Delgado, who plans to send a letter urging CSU trustees to reject the plan. “If he should get this raise, he should distribute it to students.”

Hirshman was hired in July 2011 with a salary of $400,000 (including the foundation supplement), $100,000 more than former President Stephen Weber earned. At the time the amount was criticized by Gov. Jerry Brown, faculty and students as excessive.

Brown had no comment on Monday regarding the proposed raises.

Hirshman’s salary increase was first reported locally by the San Diego Reader.

The CSU board will consider the raises at its two-day meeting Wednesday and Thursday. The 3 percent salary increases would be the first for executive positions since July 2007, officials said in the proposal.

Raises would go to the CSU chancellor, presidents, executive vice chancellors and vice chancellors. Last year, the university system approved a compensation pool of 1.34 percent for faculty and staff — excluding executives.

“It is the continued intent of the Board of Trustees to compensate all CSU employees in a manner that is fair, reasonable, competitive, and fiscally prudent, in respect to the system budget and state funding,” said CSU board chair Lou Monville, Chancellor Timothy White, and Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Lori Lamb said in the compensation proposal.

The raises are based, in part, on salary surveys of similar positions.

“Chancellor White will continue to evaluate equity and market issues related to executive compensation and will bring further recommendations to the Board at a future date,” the report said. “Chancellor White believes it is important to distribute the current salary increases evenly, given that this is the first salary increase the executive shave received since 2007.”

CSU San Marcos President Karen Haynes would receive a raise of $8,117 under the proposal, pushing her salary to $278,685. Haynes’s pay is not supplemented with foundation funds. White’s pay would would increase from $410,000 to $422,300 — including a foundation supplement of $30,000.



UC administrators received a 3 percent pay increase in July. UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla’s base pay increased to $423,417 as part of the systemwide raises. Twenty-one top managers in the University of California system — including 10 chancellors — received the 3 percent salary increases