The UC Regents approved 2001-2001 salary increases of up to 25 percent for some top administrators in a budget proposal passed Nov. 15. However, most faculty and staff members will see their salaries increase by only 0.5 to 2 percent.
The regents passed the budget proposal amid predictions of reduced state revenues due to the economic downturn that may result in general funding cuts for the University of California.
UC staff members are broken down into union and non-union employees, said UCSD Director of Human Resources Thomas Leet.
Union employee salaries are determined by a collective bargaining process through the union’s representation.
Salaries for non-union employees such as the executive vice chancellors are dependent on the UC Office of the President.
The campuses “”supply the Office of the President with market information [regarding administrator salaries], which is taken into consideration to determine the salary,”” Leet said.
Campus executive vice chancellors and engineering deans are among those awarded the largest raises. UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor, Paul Gray, will see a 17 percent pay increase from $222,800 to $260,000. The salary of A. Richard Newton, Berkeley’s dean of the college of engineering, will rise 23 percent from $204,000 to $250,000. UCSD’s engineering dean can expect a 15 percent increase in pay, which will raise that salary to $240,000.
Other campuses will see similar increases in vice chancellors’ salaries. UC Riverside’s executive vice chancellor’s yearly pay will grow by 20 percent and UCLA’s will rise 25.9 percent.
Tenured UC professors have a $91,934 average salary. Two-thirds of the professors will get a 0.5 percent cost-of-living raise while the remaining one-third will get 2 percent raises. The rate of inflation in 2000 was about 2.8 percent.
“”Preserving top-caliber leadership, especially during these extremely challenging economic times, is critical to maintaining UC’s competitiveness and institutional quality,”” UC spokesman Paul Schwartz told the San Francisco Chronicle.
All payment increases exceeding 2 percent — other than those funded by the Department of Energy contract funds — are subject to UC President Richard C. Atkinson’s discretion. Increases are deferred until Atkinson deems them necessary, depending on budget constraints, economic conditions, and individual retention and equity considerations.
Gov. Gray Davis earns $165,000, which is less than half of Atkinson’s salary of $349,100. The national median salary of the chief executive officer of a public university system is $202,500, according to the Boulder County Daily Camera.
Research done by the independent firm William M. Mercer, Inc. shows that the average UC chancellor’s salary of $280,610 is 33 percent less than the average chancellor salary of the comparison group. Factoring in the increases approved Nov. 15, the average UC chancellor salary will still trail the comparison group by 25 percent.
The University of California uses a market-based method of determining salaries for senior administrators in compliance with an agreement with the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
Harvard, Stanford, Yale, California Institute of Technology and Columbia University are among the 26 comparable public and private universities used to determine the UC administrator salaries.
UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Richard Watts said the raises are inappropiate at this time.
“”I have no doubt that many [administrators] are worthy, but I feel there is a disparity between the way they are being handled and the way the faculty are being handled,”” Watts told the San Francisco Chronicle.
There are 8,000 professors employed by the University of California, and about 160,000 total UC employees.
