A committee of University of California regents met last month and decided to delay discussion on a proposal to use private funding for salaries.

The regents approved a portion of the proposal, which included plans to raise all UC employee salaries to competitive market levels within the next 10 years.

In November, the regents will consider using private donations to supplement the salaries of UC administrators who have been receiving below-market pay, which the university attributes to economic downturn and four years of less-than-sufficient state funding.

“We are facing a massive challenge to maintain quality and pay competitive salaries throughout the university, from service employees to faculty to senior leadership,” Regent Judith Hopkinson stated on the university’s Web site. “We need to find all available sources of funding to bring salaries up to market.”

Using donated funds is relatively common among other universities, and might prove vital in helping to boost pay and entice top administrators to the UC system, according to Noel Van Nyhuis, UC Office of the President spokesman.

“The main initiative is to ensure that all staff and faculty receive market-rate compensation in the next 10 years,” Van Nyhuis said. “[But] we don’t know where it’s going to go yet.”

According to research by the Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the university is above the market median for health and retirement benefits. The research also shows that the university is 15 percent behind comparable market salaries.

By using private funds, the regents hope to bring 42 top administrative positions up to market rates in the next 10 years. The money would be used to augment pay of positions with pay that exceeds $350,000, according to the proposal. They would include the UC chancellors, deans and president.

By using donated funds, Van Nyhuis said, the university could recruit top candidates, while precious state funds could be used to compensate other university employees.

However, the regents’ proposal has met opposition from some teachers and students, particularly from UC Davis Academic Senate Chair Daniel Simmons, who said that the regents have more important topics to focus on.

“It’s an outrageous proposition,” said Simmons, who also is a professor at the UC Davis School of Law. “There are higher priorities than higher executive salaries. Raising money for graduate students [should be] much higher on the agenda than extreme funding for executives.”

In the UC pay system, employees will continue to compete for higher salaries, according to Simmons.

“Mainly, I can’t feel sorry for someone earning $350,000,” Simmons said.

UC Student Association President and Berkeley graduate student Anu Joshi also disagreed with the private donations plan.

“My reaction to this is that the UC is a public university and serves the families and people of California,” Joshi said. “The people who work there are public employees and [should] be held accountable to tax payers and California families.”

Joshi disagreed with the proposal’s focus, and said that emphasis should be given to the financial situation of students.

“Students have faced fee increases for the last four years,” Joshi said. “We should concentrate less on executive salaries and focus more on the affordability of student fees and financial aid.”

Because UC President Robert C. Dynes had been approached by private companies with finances to fund solely executive pay, the proposal could only be beneficial for the university, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.