The University of California, as a public university, should always pursue a policy of public transparency.

But it has taken a series of articles by the San Francisco Chronicle to reveal that the university has been lavishing its top staffers with $871 million in bonuses on top of regular pay. Incidentally, this is more than enough cash to cover the 79-percent fee increase students have borne the past few years.

Surely these expensive perks dwarf the deals that top brass at private universities enjoy. It is also true that the university must stay competitive in terms of compensation if it wants to keep the best people and its reputation as a top institution.

But it is disturbing that these bonuses were kept secret. For financially pinched students, the university’s lack of disclosure looks that much worse.

University administrators surely have their reasons for the bonuses; many are so simple, they’re intuitive: the market demands high salaries for top employees that make the UC as prestigious as it is. But letting a newspaper expose pay practices is never a good strategy, especially since a public university has a duty to pursue a policy of full public disclosure. UC President Robert C. Dynes, for example, complained in an e-mail that “the Chronicle omitted or mischaracterized some important facts” — that wouldn’t have happened if the university was forthcoming in the first place.

But now the university has been caught stealing from the cookie jar — its own and its students’. Now it has some explaining to do, especially if the regents intend to push for more benefits, as the current fee increase suggests.