In the wake of an ugly political fight over pay rates for newly hired presidents in the California State University system, the CSU Board of Trustees has issued a new policy.

The policy states that individual CSU campus foundations can be asked to voluntarily augment an incoming president’s salary in an amount up to 10 percent. The problem with this ad hoc policy is that it creates a difficult situation for foundation board members. For example, a “no” vote on pay supplementation could be tantamount to a vote of no confidence for an incoming campus CEO, undermining his or her authority with faculty and private funders.

With two CSU campuses within our region, CSU Channel Islands and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, business leaders are stakeholders in policies handed down from the CSU Board of Trustees, particularly if they are involved with the institution’s foundations. (Full disclosure: Business Times Editor Henry Dubroff serves on the CSU-Channel Island Foundation board.) This ill-conceived policy is up for review in 2014. It should be reversed.