During Kern Community College District Chancellor Sandra Serrano’s Bakersfield College Nov. 30, 2009 open forum visit, she said that the KCCD board of trustees determined that she was the lowest paid chancellor in the state, and this qualified her for a $19,700 raise during a time of severe district budget cuts. Serrano was making $262,750 a year before gaining this raise, which she herself personally requested from the board.

However, when other districts were probed about the pay of their respective chancellors, it was found that at least two chancellors are receiving annual salaries of about $230,000 which indicates she is not the lowest paid chancellor in the state. With the raise, Serrano now makes $282,450. This figure does not include the $28,200 raise in her retirement contribution.

Serrano’s raise in base salary and retirement contribution are occurring during a season of prodigious cuts in BC class offerings. According to Amber Chiang, BC director of media relations, 106 sections were cut from the spring 2010 schedule. As a result, some BC students disapprove of the chancellor’s raise.

“It’s not right the way things are going,” said James Jasper, 25, music and computer graphics major. “Administrators should volunteer for pay cuts if they care for the students at all. It shouldn’t be big cuts, but the cuts could help toward better funding for things around campus that need to be worked on.”

Andrea Itliong, 26, animal science major, agreed with Jasper.

“No one should ask for a pay raise,” Itliong said. “It’s something you earn and not something you request.”

Many BC faculty members and administrators prefer not to talk about Serrano’s raise.

“All I know is that she received a compensation and that’s it,” said Chiang, without elaborating or offering opinions about the timeliness of the compensation.

Other administrators were slightly more talkative.

“I feel the timing was awkward, and Sandra wouldn’t disagree with that,” said John Gerhold, BC music teacher and president of the academic senate.

“This is difficult to talk about when employees are getting laid off. She could have deferred the pay raise. There were lots of approaches she could have taken,” he said. Gerhold mentioned that the costs for the entire district are currently $100 million and 20 percent of that figure goes to administration costs.

“In terms of what is spent overall, district administrative costs are far too much,” Gerhold said.