Steve Relyea

While SDSU prepares to levy its new $200-per-semester "student success fee," yet another highly paid university administrator from San Diego is going on to even bigger money at the California State University system's headquarters in Long Beach.

This time it's Steve Relyea, a 27-year veteran of UCSD, where he has most recently been vice chancellor for business affairs. In 2012 Relyea received gross pay of $303,915, according to numbers posted online by the University of California.

Next week, California State University trustees are set to vote on Relyea's appointment as that system's executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer, with an annual salary of $310,000, along with a $1000 monthly car allowance and a temporary housing allowance of $2750 a month for half a year, according to the meeting agenda.

In addition, the agenda lists three other monetary goodies Releya will get, but doesn't detail their amounts. They include: "Standard benefit provisions afforded CSU Executive classification employees," "a transition program for university executives provided he meets the eligibility requirements," and "reimbursement for actual, necessary and reasonable moving and relocation expenses."

Though the trustees haven’t yet approved the appointment, UCSD is treating it as a done deal.

In a March 12 announcement of Relyea's departure, chancellor Pradeep Khosla invited academics and staff to an "all-campus farewell reception" at the faculty club on April 16.

His leadership in performance metrics resulted in UC San Diego being the first university in the U.S. to implement the Balanced Scorecard program developed at the Harvard Business School and used by many Fortune 500 companies today.

Thanks to Steve’s guidance, UC San Diego became the first university in the world to be inducted into the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame.

Relyea's immediate predecessor at the California State University system is fellow San Diegan Sally Roush, a longtime San Diego State University administrator who was at the center of many of that school's athletic scandals.

As previously reported here in December, the controversial Roush, who was paid $301,957 in 2012 as vice president of business and financial affairs at San Diego State University, retired from that position last June and was subsequently retained by the state university system as the interim replacement for departing CSU chief financial officer Benjamin F. Quillian.

In addition to her full SDSU pension, the double-dipping Roush is currently receiving a pro-rata annual salary of $270,000 as CSU's interim vice chancellor for business and finance, according to minutes of the university’s trustees meeting and a university system spokesman. She's also getting a $1000 monthly car allowance.

As reported here last month, the so-called SDSU student-success fee, unilaterally implemented last week by university president Elliot Hirshman and CSU chancellor Timothy White, was the subject of student protests.

A similar plan at Sonoma State was shelved by the university last week following objections there.