Fresno junior college chancellor secures $9,000 pay bump amid calls for removal
Administrators at the State Center Community College District, including its embattled chancellor, received a 2.3% cost-of-living adjustment raise at a time when faculty members are expressing their dissatisfaction with leadership.
Board members approved the raises at a meeting earlier this month, which are retroactive to July 1, 2025, for various district leaders, including the chief technology officer, college presidents, vice chancellors, the chancellor and others.
Factoring in the adjustment, Chancellor Carole Goldsmith’s new salary is $392,934, a nearly $9,000 increase from her current salary of $384,100, according to her latest employment agreement.
Jill Wagner, spokesperson for the district, said such raises are usually made annually and tied to inflation. She said the district leaders who received the raises are not part of a bargaining unit, and both classified staff and SCCCD police officers got a salary adjustment earlier this year.
Wagner said the recipients of the salary increases included “management professionals, many with advanced degrees, working throughout the District, primarily on campuses.”
This development comes as academic senates at two SCCCD sites — Fresno City College and Madera Community College — recently issued votes of no confidence. Additionally, more than 200 faculty union members called for Goldsmith’s removal.
Hours before the union’s no-confidence vote, Goldsmith announced that she would retire in September, though some faculty members have been vocally asking for the board to remove her immediately.
The State Center Federation of Teachers, the union representing SCCCD faculty, is simultaneously seeking raises that would boost salaries by about 11%, Fresnoland reports.
