Spring Break
CSU admin sees hefty budget, salary increases
As Penley pads admin, tuition and fees spike, colleges see slow increase
Aaron Hedge and J. David McSwane
Issue date: 9/29/08 Section: News
In his five years as CSU president, Larry Penley has substantially overhauled university administration -- adding 11 vice president- and provost-level positions -- approved hefty salary increases for top-level administrators, more than doubled athletics funding and increased administrative budgets by tens of millions of dollars, university reports show.
The drastic overhaul and top-loading of administrative budgets has, for the first time in school's history, put more financial support in administration than instruction.
"The sum total of what all the VPs spend now is more than the total of all the colleges," said Tony Frank, provost and senior executive vice president.
Frank said the flow of tuition and state dollars into administration ultimately helps students by bringing more police to campus, financial aid for poor students and funding for things like online registration through RamWeb.
Since Penley's arrival in 2003, the combined budgets of the president and provost has topped $130.1 million -- up 62 percent -- while the budgets for the academic colleges and the library have seen a much slower growth, hitting about $143.5 million this year, a 32 percent increase, according to annual budget reports.
For fiscal year 2009 alone, the budgets for the office of the president and the provost experienced a $19.5 million increase, according to annual budget summaries.
During that same time, the president has pushed for large tuition and fee increases to support the financially bereft school, which Penley said was "in dire straights" to concerned student government leaders in spring 2007 after a failed attempt to drastically increase tuition at the state Capitol.
The president has saturated the offices of the president and provost and offered handsome salary increases for those positions throughout his tenure.
Frank, who received a $30,000 raise this year, said he "definitely brings a bias" but that CSU is following a national trend of increasing the salaries of top-level administrators.
The drastic overhaul and top-loading of administrative budgets has, for the first time in school's history, put more financial support in administration than instruction.
"The sum total of what all the VPs spend now is more than the total of all the colleges," said Tony Frank, provost and senior executive vice president.
Frank said the flow of tuition and state dollars into administration ultimately helps students by bringing more police to campus, financial aid for poor students and funding for things like online registration through RamWeb.
Since Penley's arrival in 2003, the combined budgets of the president and provost has topped $130.1 million -- up 62 percent -- while the budgets for the academic colleges and the library have seen a much slower growth, hitting about $143.5 million this year, a 32 percent increase, according to annual budget reports.
For fiscal year 2009 alone, the budgets for the office of the president and the provost experienced a $19.5 million increase, according to annual budget summaries.
During that same time, the president has pushed for large tuition and fee increases to support the financially bereft school, which Penley said was "in dire straights" to concerned student government leaders in spring 2007 after a failed attempt to drastically increase tuition at the state Capitol.
The president has saturated the offices of the president and provost and offered handsome salary increases for those positions throughout his tenure.
Frank, who received a $30,000 raise this year, said he "definitely brings a bias" but that CSU is following a national trend of increasing the salaries of top-level administrators.
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biff terkel
posted 9/29/08 @ 7:07 PM MST
a couple of observations: poudre school district, also top-heavy with administraton, eliminated several of those positions several yrs ago to put more emphasis on what was actually happening in the classroom; second, the university spokesman's defense of penley's actions is embarrassingly unconvincing; aren't we going through some national agonies over huge management salaries? as a taxpayer and citizen of ft collins for over thirty yrs, this looks really bad; schools should exist for students; i don't know if that's really happening at csu
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