Within the last two months, the UC Board of Regents hired two news administrators and awarded several existing executives with bonuses, promotions and salary increases ‘shy;’mdash; and politicians and members of the public across California are not having it.
The new Office of the President executives will be receiving base salaries of over $350,000;’ the former chancellors of UC San Francisco and UC Davis will receive $315,000 and $402,000 this’ year, respectively, while on administrative leave.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the regents also approved perks and pay increases of up to 22.3 percent to a half dozen senior managers since January.
The controversial cash appointments took place in the middle of a $415 million budget deficit, alongside a push by the regents to cut student enrollment and increase tuition.
Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) has condemned the regents’ decisions as an unjustified violation of the public’s trust.
‘The UC continues to disrespect the taxpayers, students and their low-wage workers and faculty,’ Yee said in a statement. ‘The UC administration and regents continuously violate the public trust by catering to the university’s elite rather than serving the students, faculty and workers they are appointed to represent. The public deserves better.’
Adam Keigwin, Yee’s chief of staff, added that executives already get paid a healthy salary.
In response to Yee’s remarks and a March 25 Chronicle article criticizing the UC system’s actions, regents Chair Richard C. Blum and President Mark G. Yudof coauthored a follow-up piece that ran in the next day’s Chronicle.
Blum and Yudof pointed out in their op-ed that the university has instituted a systemwide freeze on bonuses, incentive pay and salaries for all senior management, and are working to curtail faculty recruitment.
They also claimed the university is working toward severely cutting back on nonessential expenses such as business travel, and is trying its hardest to reduce UCOP operating costs in order to minimize cuts to student programs.
‘It’s a difficult balancing act: We are reducing budgets and staffing in many areas to deal with the significant shortfall in state funding, but at the same time, we have an obligation to the public to continue the work of the university,’ UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said.
The UC Student Association hopes the UC system will prioritize students at the regents’ next meeting in May.
‘Speaking on the behalf of students, we understand that it’s a difficult time with the university and the state,’ UCSA president Lucero Chavez said. ‘Students are first priority with fees going up at an unreasonable pace. We as students don’t want to see student fee increases paying for any additional increases that the university puts on.’
Yee has proposed new legislation that would prohibit pay raises for executives in years that the regents vote to raise student fees. He said he hopes his his bill, titled SB 217, will put and end to ‘UC’s egregious compensation practices.’
‘The goal is not to have the best paid executives in the country, but rather, we’re looking to provide the best education possible,’ Keigwin said.
SB 217 will be heard by the Senate Education Committee within the next few weeks, and could be passed as soon as this summer, according to Keigwin.
Readers can contact Kelsey Wong at [email protected].