Home • F.
King Alexander, the incoming president
of Cal State Long Beach, currently
resides at the home on the reserved
for Murray State presidents. Tracey
Roman / Online Forty-Niner
Alexander
turns down new car for minivan
By Joseph Serna
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The California State University Board of Trustees approved F. King Alexander’s
executive compensation of a $1,000 car allowance, house and a $280,008 salary
in a meeting earlier this month.
Alexander will succeed President Robert C. Maxson Jan. 15 as the sixth incoming
president of Cal State Long Beach.
“I appreciate the salary that they’re paying me to do what I love
to do,” Alexander said.
Alexander is currently serving his final months as president at Murray State
University in Kentucky, where his final pay is about $234,000.
“We would’ve been pretty willing to match whatever [CSULB] would’ve
offered,” said Don Sparks, the chairman of the MSU Board of Regents. “But
it became apparent that money wasn’t a critical factor.”
Along with his annual salary, Alexander will live at the Miller House, the
home provided by the school for the president a few blocks from campus, and
a $1,000 monthly allowance for his car.
Alexander turned down the car offered by the school and chose the allowance
instead.
“I’d rather stick with my minivan; I’m used to it,” Alexander
said. “A lot of times my car is my office.”
His salary, slightly higher than Maxson’s $277,896 in his final year
as president, was decided “because of his experience, the comprehensive
size of the campus, basically how he looks compared to all the presidents in
the CSU system,” by the Board of Trustees, said Clara Potes-Fellow, the
CSU spokeswoman.
Alexander will be the second highest paid president in the CSU system, behind
Warren J. Baker of Cal State San Luis Obispo.
Executive compensation has no relation to student fees, Potes-Fellow said.
The CSU system is currently working under a five-year plan to gradually increase
the executive salaries of all
CSU presidents to match the compensation similar public universities across
the country are paying their presidents, Potes-Fellow said.
Under the five-year plan, CSU executives, which includes the chancellor, executive
vice chancellor, chief academic chancellor and executive vice chancellor, will
receive an annual average salary increase of 13.7 percent.
The raises in salary are tentative with the CSU budget of the year. If they
don’t have the money to raise the salary, it won’t happen, she
noted.
Currently the Cal State Long Beach executive compensation package doesn’t
include a nanny for Alexander’s two daughters, Madison, 6, and Savannah,
9. At Murray State, the school covers half that cost.
This will be Alexander’s second presidency. He has served at Murray State,
a campus of around 11,000 students, for the last four years.
“It wasn’t about the money,” he said. “It’s about
the opportunity.”
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