Just days after CSU Sacramento College of Business Administration Dean Sanjay Varshney stepped down from his position, the State Hornet reported that it has has been a long standing practice for professors associated with the Center for Small Business to receive compensation for supervising projects that depend on student labor.
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| CSUS College of Business (center) |
While students receive course credit and experience, faculty and administrators have been paid on top of their salaries. The Hornet reported that in 2013, six individuals received payments and that "former faculty coordinator Seung Bach" was paid $25,000.
The "honoraria" are from contributions by the small businesses that contract with the Center for assistance with business management.
College of Business Faculty Council Chair Joseph Richards told the Hornet that students are sometimes required to complete projects for the Center as part of their coursework but might be unaware that faculty and management are being given honorariums in addition to their base salary. "In my opinion, this is outrageous," Richards said. "This is an exploitation of our students."
Similar accusations have been raised about payments made to administrators of the California Smart Grid Center housed in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
From 2011 through 2013, former Engineering Dean Emir Macari was paid $5000 per month as the Smart Grid director, in addition to his $178,000 salary. Smart Grid Center research director Suresh Vadhva, the former department chair of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was paid $116,000 in 2011 and $74,888 in 2012, in addition to a base salary of $119,000.
In a Federal whistleblower retaliation trial heard in January 2014 (Mattiuzzi v. CSUS & Emir Macari), the University filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude evidence regarding this compensation and any use of the term double-dipping. The motion was not granted and testimony on the matter was heard. In that case, the University argued that all the funds raised by the ECS Career Center had to be taken to support the operations of the College because of an unprecedented budget crisis.
