Dear Editor,
The Guardian news article (‘Pay Cuts, Furloughs Likely for UC Workers,’ April 16) and editorial (‘It’s Time UC Execs Put Their Mouths Where Their Money Is,’ April 16) raise some important issues, but both miss the central issue: the state’s responsibility to adequately support the UC system.
First, the actions referenced in the news story were not salary increases. These were appointments for critical positions. In one instance, an individual is filling two roles for the salary of one, saving the University of California roughly $320,000 per year. Another concerns the appointment of a chief financial officer at a salary well below the going rate for CFOs to ensure strong financial management and to identify more ways for the UC system to save money. A third individual was promoted to fill a vacancy in our Washington office, which is a critical place for the UC system and California to be represented.
Second, the editorial ignores what is being done to limit executive pay and control costs, and suggests that a potential furlough might apply only to staff. Here are the facts: The UC system has instituted a systemwide freeze on senior managers’ salaries, cut bonuses and incentive pay, and reduced the budget at the Office of the President in Oakland by $67 million and the staff by 628 employees over the last two years.
UC campuses are curtailing faculty recruitment, in many cases by 50 percent or more. This reduces hiring of nonteaching staff; severely limits spending on nonessential costs such as travel; consolidates or eliminates programs and looks for efficiencies, while working to minimize cuts to student programs.
If a furlough were to be implemented, it would not apply just to line staff ‘mdash; managers would also be included.
Salaries for senior managers represent less than 1 percent of the university’s annual payroll. Reducing executive salaries or not filling senior positions would have very little impact on the budget deficit the UC system is faced with.
In the current economic environment, it is understandable and appropriate to be concerned about every institutional expenditure, and we welcome scrutiny of how the university is being managed. It is also important that people view financial decisions in the proper context, and that the public receives a balanced presentation of the facts. There are many questions and some misconceptions about the university’s budget and why state support is so critical. Guardian readers are encouraged to get the facts about these issues at universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budgetmyths.pdf.
The bottom line is that the state’s under-funding of the university has put the UC system in an impossible position: We’re expected to keep the university running smoothly, accept a growing student population, graduate tomorrow’s leaders, hire the best people, produce cutting-edge research and life-improving innovations and more ‘mdash; all with fewer and fewer state dollars. That’s an unrealistic expectation.
The state has a responsibility to its citizens to adequately support public higher education, and we encourage all UC stakeholders, including students and student-run media, to help us deliver this message to our state leaders.