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Double dipping and moonlighting at Cal Poly

December 1, 2011

Warren Baker

By KAREN VELIE

During a time of stagnant professor salaries, laid off lecturers, and increasing student tuition and fees, some California Polytechnic State University administrator compensations are increasing through raises, double dipping and moonlighting.

Former Cal Poly president Warren Baker is taking home about $572,622 a year for working part-time at Cal Poly, two directorships and his CalPERS retirement while another former CSU president, Robert Detweiler, is taking home $281,800 while working part-time.

Before Baker retired in 2010, his annual income for serving as the president of Cal Poly and two directorships was $538,724.

While serving as the highest paid university president in the California State University system with a salary of $328,000 a year, in 2009 Baker was also making an additional $210,724 in compensation for serving as director for John Wiley & Sons, Inc. – a publisher of higher education books – and Westport Innovations – a gas engine company in Canada, according to Forbes.

Known as elusive, Baker was rarely seen in his office; on a campus where parking space shortages can discourage the most determined student, Baker’s private spot often remained vacant. The Mustang Daily once offered a prize for any photo taken of Baker on campus. No one succeeded.

During the summer of 2010, Baker retired, was given a new office at Cal Poly, a new assistant and an increase in annual compensation.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed gave Baker a new title, special assistant to the chancellor, with a yearly salary of $109,834 for working at least 18.5 hours per week, according to a July 2010 letter from Reed to Baker.

In addition to his CSU job salary, Baker receives $240,952 in CalPERS retirement and about $221,836 for his two directorships, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility website. (While Baker is currently serving both directorships according the company websites, his last salary rate listed for Wiley John & Sons, Inc. is for 2010 and for Westport Innovations is for 2009.)

Another former CSU top administrator, Robert Detweiler, was formerly the president of CSU Dominguez Hills. He retired and was given the job of interim provost at Cal Poly in 2004. After a few years, he started teaching part-time for a salary of $50,701 on top of his annual retirement benefit of $189,000, for an annual compensation of $239,701, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility website and the California state Controllers Office.

Detweiler is currently the interim Dean of the School of Education at Cal Poly working part-time at no more than 960 hours per year, said Stacia Momburg,  Cal Poly public relations spokesperson. He receives $100,800 for his current position plus his CalPERS retirement for a total yearly compensation of $281,800.

Meanwhile, CSU trustees voted to raise tuition by 9 percent last month, the second raise in a year. With increased fees and tuition, the cost of attending a CSU has more than tripled since 2002-03.

During the past two school years, CSU Chancellor Reed has spent about $6 million in award equity and pay raises to about 550 management employees. At the same time, Reed rejecting third-party recommendations to honor modest equity increases to almost 2,900 faculty members who were eligible for the program, according to the California Faculty Association website.

The CFA is currently asking members to approve a one-day strike on one or more of the CSU campuses because of issues with Chancellor Reed’s budget priorities.

“By prioritizing executive pay and perks over the needs of students, faculty and staff, Chancellor Reed has chosen a path that hurts the CSU and all of California,” the CFA says on its website. “Students are paying more for less. Meanwhile, we are working more for less.”


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Fascinating story, but probably just another largely manufactured screed from this reporter, who can’t even get small details right, like the name of the publisher for whom Baker works (John Wiley, not Wiley John), and has a reputation for writing smears without facts. Oh, yeah, like “The CFA is currently asking members to approve a one-day strike on one or more of the CSU campuses.” That vote took place months ago, and the strikes are over and done with. In fact, CCN even reported when they took place!


So, are the big facts any more correct? What’s to trust here?


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Well a big thanks to you for correcting so many of the “little details” Karen didn’t get right in her screed as you call it. Since your such wealth of knowledge and facts maybe you should write us the next headliner.


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Not a bad idea. You offering me a position? At least I could keep facts straight. Don’t forget she totally made up the last CP story — the one about going private.


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I don’t remember that story. I get pretty busy, prehaps I didn’t read it.


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“totally made up the story about CP going private”


EXCEPT for the FACT that Provost Robert Koob made that statement at a function where there were 50 plus attendees that were witness !


http://calcoastnews.com/2011/11/cal-poly-administrators-working-to-divorce-the-state/


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The Forbes article also lists Baker as the director for “Wiley John & Sons, Inc”. I suppose you would also take Forbes to task for that mistake?


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Double dipping ?


I first thought it was a scandal of Penn State confused personal attraction issues.


OH, MONEY ? THAT’S AN ADDICTION FOR WHICH THERE IS NO CURE, AND NO PUNISHMENT TOO SEVERE !


A cool half million $$$ for polishing your own backside ?


We need some customized boots made for the purpose.


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Anymore questions about tuition increases…..Why are the students forced to pay welfare to the faculty.???


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Baker and Detweiler are not faculty; they’ are academic royalty. The students? They are all eating cake.


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Because the faculty fill their heads with such drivel as to perpetuate this system. Since there are no jobs, they end up occupying…


Adam Carolla has a great rant about it. (F-bomb laden, but a great rant).


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Great rant, indeed. Full of baloney. Right-wing crapperita. Just make up facts, and rant, rant, rant about those fake facts.


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Made up facts in a rant? Wow, that’s a stretch. He complained about the “trophies for all” kids – which do indeed exist all around us, or are we all just seeing right-wing “crapperita” (whatever that means).

I suppose it wasn’t in our societal norm to encourage trying vs. success. More made up “crapperita” too, I guess.

Well, you’ve clearly supported your rant against that rant. Thanks for coming.


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I find the title of this article somewhat misleading; “Double dipping and Moonlighting at Cal Poly” – the double dipping sure seems accurate, but to infer that “moonlighting” is happening (at least in the case of Warren Baker) is a stretch to say the least. The mention of the Mustang Daily offering to pay for a picture of Warren Baker on campus during his term as university president should indicate that the man will not set foot on campus, even though he is being paid $109,834. a year to supposedly “work” 18.5 hours a week. Suppose that he even did “work”, would that be maybe 40 weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year? $109,834 divided by 40 weeks equals out to $2,746. a week, at 18.5 hours that equals out to $148. an hour, and that is if he even showed up to do any “work”. These are taxpayer and tuition funded monies; does this piss off anyone else as much as it does me? This is a prime example of the inter-connected network of the privileged few that feel that they are entitled to such outrageous “salaries”, even though they don’t “work” at all. If anyone thinks that the students who are complaining about tuition rates don’t have a case need to study this article and really rethink their viewpoint.


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Maybe they can get some of the ‘Occupy’ folks to go camp out in front of this joker’s Cal Poly office.


.


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They might as well occupy the office itself.


Bets are nobody else is.


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For some, the thirst for wealth is limitless. I will say that the new President is at almost all campus events possible.


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“Serving as director for Wiley John & Sons Inc.-a publisher of higher education books.” Sure would be interesting to see how many of those books ended up in the CalPoly bookstore? If they did that would almost be a criminal act and if convicted his benefits could and should be adjusted. I have shopped in that bookstore a few times and what a great example of how the students are getting ripped off having to buy books that are grossly over priced.


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OT, this is off topic but when you mentioned books it made me wonder why those books cost so much. I don’t get it. I’m in the wrong business, I should be making those books. At a community school the books cost more than the classes. Next time you shop around for school books, if you haven’t already done so check out Amazon. Thank goodness for Amazon, we’ve been really lucky and were able to purchase our books at a quarter to half of the price. The last one was normally $160.00 and we got it on Amazon for $7.00. But truly I do wonder why those books cost so much.


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Textbook publishing is the most profitable segment of the publishing business. Once a publisher gets a book adopted by a professor or a school district, they have a monopoly. Though professors and teachers select the textbooks, price is virtually never a consideration.


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I was up at the Poly bookstore recently and they were advertising a “rent a text book” program. I thought that was interesting but I’m sure there was a catch, as the publishers aren’t going to allow the Used and Rental textbook alternatives to keep them from selling new books. Having a President of a University on your board I’m sure is one way to help keep selling new books and sticking it to students.


When I attended Poly in the late 70’s/early 80’s, I NEVER saw Kennedy. Just knew he had that house on campus. Guess he was too busy (and important) to mix with the students. Those were the days when the bookstore had a monopoly (before the used textbook stores opened on Foothill). Some professors created their own required readings, which you had to go buy at the copy shop next to Martini’s arcade. Those were a lot less than text books.


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We checked into the rental program and it was almost as expensive if not more to rent the books as it was to buy them (used).


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Has to be a scam, too much money involved.


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Typo…


The publisher makes the money only when the textbook is first sold… after that, when the college book stores buys back from the students at pennies on the dollar and charges nearly full price for the book… the publisher and the authors make nothing. Who makes the money? The college book stores… or in this case, Cal Poly Foundation.


The key to lowering textbook costs will be to bypass the bookstores altogether … possibly with completely on-line textbooks and ancillaries. They haven’t gone their completely yet… it is a matter of time…. and the costs will come down.


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In other words, market forces do not set the prices. They are politically fixed, and the book publishers are subsidized by the taxpayers to sell books at higher than the market clearing price.


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The president has zero influence over selection of textbooks — that’s entirely up to the teacher.


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slobody…


Well… maybe…… there are more things publishers sell besides textbooks. The interesting story would be to trace how people are selected for such boards and who recommends them and why?


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Somebody thought that this was an ok way to spend my tax dollars???


Criminal.


.


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The hierarchy promoting and electing their own, therefore, giving themselves their healthy salaries and raises, while the student pays exorbitant costs for books and the other related entities of attending a CSU. Religiously, something seems to be very wrong about this picture.


Lest we forget, along with these salaries and retirement amounts, don’t these individuals in question also receive Social Security? Wow, what a payday while the impetus of a CSU, the STUDENTS, get it in the end! (no pun intended, of course)


As the Christian God would agree, financially succeeding in the manner shown within this article, is corrupt, as they have to be part of and on the same wavelength as a corrupt world which will lead them to sins such as pride and greed!


“the greedy man curses and spurns God” (Psalms 10:3)


“be on guard against every form of greed; life is not in possessions” (Luke 12:15 )


“the treacherous are caught by their own greed” ( Prov. 11:6 )


People who desire to get excess money or receive excessive money fall into many pitfalls and are truly NOT Christians. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” (1 Timothy 6:9)


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Thank you, Ted, for putting our public officials in their biblical places. Your ability to find a bible verse for every situation is truly inspirational. Maybe we can invite our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist friends to tell us how the actions of former Presidents Baker and Detweiler comport with their interpretations of their respective holy texts.


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Oldned,


Jesus and I thank you for your favorable comments. I am just the conduit of bringing forth, and within context, the TRUE words of Christ, praise! It’s sorrowful to watch the majority here not accept these true words, but they want their bible their way. It is sad indeed.


2 Timothy 4:3 – “For the time will come when men will not put up with SOUND DOCTRINE. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3 )


To the TRUE Christian, the other faiths that you mentioned are not even on the radar screen because of their contradictory doctrine to ours. We have the correct religion because our bible tells us so, very simple.


On another note, there cannot be ANY interpretation of scripture and there is no decoder ring needed when reading the bible. What our God said once, He did not mean for us to take it in many different and contradicting ways! The literal word, is the godly word, period!


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Well, praise Jehovah for providing us with True Christians like you to tell us what the bible says. Obviously, the bible (like any written word) can have only one true meaning and we have you to tell us what it is. And I’m here to tell you that my original message, like the bible, can have only one meaning. It was intended as the most sincere thanks to you for bringing the light to we who are blind to the word of the good book. My original message could have no other meaning, I assure you. Please respond to every story on this site by telling us what god has to say about it.


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Attention Moderator. This guy is trolling with way off topic posts, can’t you zap him so he can dedicate more time trolling someplace else? I like this new system that sends me these posts but I don’t want my mail box filled up with nutty stuff like this.


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@TypoQueen

Most of his replies to specific users get deleted, most of his comments “giveth” me a chuckle [ success troll CCN ; It must be true and make me laugh ].

I am hoping he learns the ropes of how we like to do community news commentary, primary focus on the article and less focus on other users here.

If you have a question or comment about moderation please send an Email


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OldNed

“invite our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist friends to tell us how the actions of former Presidents Baker and Detweiler comport with their interpretations of their respective holy texts.”


Most religion have the same sentiments, the most relevent in common is not to envy another or anyone!


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Willie my man,


You’re correcto! But, in he case of being overly rich, within the topic at hand, which goes directly against these same religious beliefs as well, if one wasn’t rich, then envy in this respect would be nonexistent.


It’s time that all faiths actually follow their respective Holy books for a refreshing change, whereas, their respective Gods would be pleased by them not being hypocrites!


CHRISTIAN: “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”

(James 3:16)


ISLAM: Allah orders the believers to seek refuge from the evil of the envious person and envy in general when He says (what means): “And from the evil of the envier when he envies.” [Qur’an 113:5]


HEBREW: “Let not your heart envy sinners, but in the fear of Hashem all day” (Mishlei 23:17, Torah)


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Ladies and gentlemen,


I was heartened to hear that our former Cal Poly President wasn’t suffering… I am glad the rumors of him living at the Occupy Slo headquarters were not true. It does make one wonder when public employees sit on such lucrative boards if a genuine conflict of interest exists? However, he is in the past and he distracts from the now. Let’s talk about how to move forward.


Here are a couple of ideas:


1) One day strikes are meaningless… universities are not a business. However, they do operate businesses… the bookstore, the theaters, the restaurants, the convenience stores and the like. If you want to hurt them, I would start with a year long picket of their revenue generating activities and ask union members and non-union folks who sympathize not to patronize. STOP FEEDING THE BEAST.


2) Push to change the board of trustees. Political solutions are the only way to make structural changes in bureaucracies.


3) January 1st 2012 is coming soon and get your written requests in to see all the records past and present of the various foundations on campus.


4) Develop your vision of how a new Cal Poly would look. If I were the CFA, I would draft a plan for Cal Poly to show where resources should go and where they will come from. How deep do the administrative cuts need to go to achieve equity? How much of administration is superfluous? Maybe the administration needs to be rolled back to 1980 levels?


Folks, if I were betting, I would guess we will find out much much more that is shocking… so don’t be appalled , shocked or dismayed… come up with a plan that the governor can really consider.


Roger Freberg


By the Way, Mega Kudos to Governor Brown. As a first step, the governor took away all the state supported cell phones. You think this was a small thing? This alone represents $20,000,000! ( this represents roughly the salary of 200 professors) Hopefully he’ll get rid of all the perks.


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Great Idea Roger


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1) I’m on the fence about this suggestion. I dislike the corporation as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure that a boycott would do much to prevent bureaucrats from wasting state money… unless the rumors and hearsay are correct and said bureaucrats are on Cal Poly Corporation’s payroll in addition to their state paychecks. I just doubt that it’s anywhere near that blatant.


The interplay between the corporation and the university is most likely much more informal. Even a successful boycott of the corporation wouldn’t change that much in the administration.


2) Agreed.

3) Exactly which documents should we request from the Cal Poly Corporation? Records of income and expenditures would be nice, but there would be a lot of noise to dig through. That is if you got the records at all, since I think corporation would fight you in the process, and the California Open Records act has its limitations.

4) I would like to see this from the CFA as well. Perhaps a student group should do the same thing (although, I wouldn’t have the faintest idea who… ASI is woefully inadequate for the task).


Re: Cell Phones.

Personal cell phones? By all means, cut them.

But, there are people who need cell phones for their work. Back when I worked for the University as a student assistant mover, we had a work phone that would go with us on moves. That way, our boss could call us and direct us to take care of other things, or we could deal with surplus customers while we moving goods.


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amusselm…


— Boycotts work if they are sustained and that requires commitment on all parties. I think all aspects of the university’s business activities can be review this way … boycott the dorms?


— Personally, I would review all records of the foundation. There is so much we can learn about what has been subsidized.


How much wine went into the President’s wine cellar… and is it still there?


How much money was spent to cover moving expenses? travel? cars? skybox? mortgage supplements? fitting homes with electronics? salary augmentation?


— You are right about ASI … too close to the administration for me. I don’t think they could , would or want to be objective.


— CFA could pull in all the interested parties to form a workgroup on studying this issue.


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The fair market value of any ‘gifts’ received should have been declared on income tax returns. If not, they commited the crime of tax evasion. Maybe the IRS should audit them. There is no statute of limitations on tax fraud.


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CA Native, that’s fine in theory. However, the reality is that they can, through their connections, pay or give favors to keep the IRS at bay. A few friends in high places can work wonders.


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