Cal State’s Growth in Hiring of Managers Exceeds Other Staff, Audit Finds

The California State University system has increased its hiring of managers at a steeper rate than its hiring of other employees over the past 10 years, according to a new state audit.

And in a report on the audit released on Thursday, the state auditor, Elaine M. Howle, wrote that the system could not sufficiently explain why it needed all the new managers, including deans, head coaches, and vice presidents, among other positions.

From the 2007-8 to the 2015-16 fiscal years, the system’s growth rate for full-time managers was 15 percent, but the growth rate for its non-faculty support staff was 6 percent and for faculty members was 7 percent, the audit shows.

“CSU’s work force includes different categories of employees, including 30 executives, nearly 4,000 management personnel, about 21,400 faculty, and nearly 26,900 nonfaculty support staff,” wrote Ms. Howle. “This report concludes that growth in the number and compensation of management personnel significantly outpaced those of other employee types, including nonfaculty support staff.”

The audit also found that the system’s 23 campuses did not have policies for periodically comparing their spending levels or reviewing their budget limits.

In a letter responding to the audit, Timothy P. White, the system’s chancellor, wrote that many managers supervise employees who directly support students, The Sacramento Bee reports. He also said that Cal State’s staffing levels and administrative costs remained lower than those of other systems in California and nationwide.

Correction (4/20/2017, 9:17 p.m.): This post originally misstated the audit’s findings in the headline and the first paragraph. The audit found that the university system’s hiring of managers over the 10-year period grew at a rate that exceeded the rate for the hiring of members of the faculty and the support staff. The audit did not find that more managers than faculty or support-staff members were hired. The post has been updated to reflect this correction.