Sacramento State President Luke Wood sees salary boost to $504,799 in latest CSU raises

Thirteen Cal State University presidents are set to receive pay increases after the CSU system’s trustees approved a new framework for calculating executive salaries and subsequent salary boosts Wednesday afternoon.

Sacramento State President Luke Wood’s salary rose to $504,799 from $476,225 — a 6% boost.

Wood came to the East Sacramento campus in May 2023 from positions as chief diversity officer and vice president for student affairs and campus diversity at San Diego State, the 22-campus CSU system said.

The changes were approved after a study, presented during Wednesday’s CSU board of trustees meeting, found that CSU leaders were paid “well below” the market median compared to peer institutions.

In response, the board greenlighted salary and benefits adjustments for a slew of administrators and adopted a new policy for calculating salaries.

The approved raises ranged from 5% to 20% — with Ca’ Poly San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey Armstrong receiving the largest bump at over $100,000, agenda documents showed.

While the salary changes passed by a landslide — with only Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis voting against the measure — the proposal sparked outrage among a swath of CSU employees who protested outside the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach ahead of the decision, according to a news release from the California Faculty Association.

Erin Foote, a Cal Poly employee and vice president for organizing for the CSU employees union, expressed frustration over the changes.

“We value President Armstrong’s leadership, which is why employees delivered his office a petition with 6,000 signatures on it urging he use his influence at the board of trustees to ensure the raises we and other unions negotiated were delivered on,” Foote wrote in an email to The Tribune. “The failure to do so, while lining your own pockets, is a betrayal of that leadership.”

She continued: “The chancellor using a fake budget deficit as pretense to deny the lowest paid employees their contractually promised raises while also giving the highest paid person on campus even more money will not come as a surprise to any worker in America today.”

The CSU system’s budget is precarious, with $144 million in cuts approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature this year. CalMatters reported in July that the system was facing a $2.3 billion budget gap.

Which Cal State presidents will see pay increases?

Thirteen Cal State presidents received base pay raises set to enact retroactively to July 2025, CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley confirmed to The Tribune on Friday.

Other executives were made eligible for deferred compensation or performance-based boosts ranging from 5% to 15%, though they may not have received raises, documents showed.

Armstrong’s salary increased to $611,203 from $509,336 per year, documents showed. That’s equivalent to a 20% — or $101,867 — increase.

Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval saw a 10% pay hike, increasing his annual salary of $476,015 to $523,617.

Both Wood and Jiménez-Sandoval were made eligible for performance-based increases up to 10%, while Armstrong was given a shot at a 15% bump.

The raises

Here’s the full list of the CSU executive base pay raises approved Wednesday, excluding deferred compensation and performance-based pay eligibility:

• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey Armstrong: $611,203 from $509,336 (20%)
• San Diego State President Adela de la Torre: $559,805 from $533,148 (5%)
• San Jose State President Cynthia Teniente-Matson: $546,066 from $474,840 (15%)
• Cal State Northridge President Erika Beck: $563,012 from $489,576 (15%)
• Sacramento State President Luke Wood: $504,799 from $476,225 (6%)
• Cal State Fullerton President Ronald Rochon: $523,037 from $498,130 (5%)
• Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval: $523,617 from $476,015 (10%)
• San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney: $520,143 from $472,857 (10%)
• Cal State L.A. President Berenecea Johnson Eanes: $521,024 from $496,213 (5%)
• Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales: $477,961 from $455,201 (5%)
• Cal State San Marcos President Ellen Neufeldt: $467,795 from $445,519 (5%)
• Cal State Dominguez Hills President Thomas Parham: $476,670 from $453,971 (5%)
• Cal State Monterey Bay President Vanya Quiñones: $421,800 from $370,000 (14%)

This story was originally published November 24, 2025 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Sacramento State President Luke Wood sees salary boost to $504,799 in latest CSU raises."