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UC President Mark G. Yudof will make a 5 percent reduction to his annual salary next month, along with the salaries of all UC chancellors and other top executives, in response to deep systemwide budget reductions.
The pay cut, which was announced in an internal letter from Yudof last week, will shave less than $1 million from the salaries of about 30 senior administrators, including executive and senior vice presidents, executive vice chancellors and the General Counsel (which provides legal services to the 10-campus system).
‘Admittedly, this action does not have a significant impact on our very serious budget deficit, given its magnitude and the fact that UC’s senior management group comprises only a very small fraction of university employees,’ Yudof said in the letter. ‘Given the magnitude of the budget shortfall, all options need to be considered, and unfortunately, it is likely that every member of the UC community will be affected negatively.’
UC Berkeley has already laid off over 80 employees since the beginning of the year, and UCSD is slowly moving in the same direction. according to UCSD spokeswoman Stacie Spector.
‘We have had some layoffs in the last few months and expect more in the next couple of months,’ Spector said in a statement.
Yudof’s letter arrives on the heels of a legislative proposal drafted by State Senators Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) last Wednesday to strip the university of immunity from legislative control. The senators cited recent pay hikes for UC executives as one of the reasons they introduced the measure.
Yee, however, said the executive pay cut is too little, too late.
‘We still need to move forward with a ballot measure that will rein them in,’ Yee said in a statement. ‘We already have people who are being furloughed, who are taking pay cuts, and [the University of California] should have led the way a long time ago.’
UC chancellors receive an average salary of $312,400 a year, and Yudof earns a base salary of $591,000 annually.
Before the 5 percent cuts, UCSD Chancellor Marye Ann Fox received $382,416 a year.
Released late last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s revised budget includes a $1.5 billion cut to higher education, $531 million of which would come from the UC system.
Readers can contact Kimberly Cheng at [email protected].