University of California raises salaries of chancellors while staff takes cuts, tuition hiked

[Hannah Bell]

University of California faces scandal over chancellors

In the midst of massive budget cuts, the University of California regents are coming under fire for hiring new chancellors with exorbitant salaries, one of whom is in the middle of a scandal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

In early May, on the same day that the UC regents decided to raise student fees by 9.3 percent (or $693, for a total of $8,720 per year for in-state undergraduates), they also hired two new chancellors.

Susan Desmond-Hellman was named the new chancellor of UC San Francisco with a salary of $450,000, a nearly 12 percent increase over her predecessor. Earlier this month, she informed students and staff that the budget crisis in the state would force sharp cuts in university programs and services.

Linda Katehi, who has been hired to be the next chancellor of UC Davis starting on August 17, with a salary of $400,000, will earn $85,000 more than her predecessor, Larry Vanderhoef. This will be an increase from her current salary of $356,000 as the provost of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Katehi is currently the provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (where) it is alleged that under-qualified students were admitted due to political patronage.)

Katehi will also be provided a generous compensation package that includes a $100,000 relocation allowance, free housing, a $9,000 annual automobile allowance, a generous health and pension package, a low-interest home loan and a faculty position when she ends her service as chancellor.

The pay increases for the UC chancellors were defended by UC President Mark Yudof, arguing that their pay is in fact low in comparison to the salaries of chancellors at similar universities.

“I felt like I got a pretty good discount, as a matter of fact,” Yudof stated. Yudof’s salary runs at about $900,000 a year.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/ucda-j24.shtml


Gene D. Block, Chancellor for UCLA, announced furloughs and salary cuts for all UCLA employees...The cuts amount to an 8 percent pay reduction for people making more than $46,000 and a 4 percent cut for people making less than $46,000. There are three options available, depending on how one prefers to absorb the loss (cut, furlough or a combination thereof).

The whole announcement here:

http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/document/FurloughReductionOptions.pdf



Clout goes to college

Rezko relative is among those admitted to U. of I. in shadow system influenced by trustees and other insiders

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-college-clout-29-may29,0,2769925.story



US: University presidents’ pay rises to record levels

Salaries for university presidents rose by 7.6 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to an annual survey released by the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this month. Much like their Wall Street counterparts, presidents of both public and private colleges and universities have enjoyed years of pay increases in sharp contrast to the deteriorating conditions of workers and students.

The latest data available from the College Board shows that tuition for public university students in the US increased by 6.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, another year in which tuition rose much faster than inflation. As the economic crisis intensifies, public universities nationwide are trimming workers’ wages and raising tuition, while top-earning presidents rake in millions.

While pay for public university presidents has increased an astonishing 35.6 percent in the last five years, US Census Bureau figures show median US household income fell by $1,043 from 1999 through 2006, the last year for which figures are available. Labor Department statistics suggests that real wages have fallen a further 2.4 percent in the past year alone.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pres-n24.shtml

[EFerrari]

1. If I wanted to go to Cal today, I wouldn't be able to do it.

No way, even with their financial aid resources. Who can afford this any more? This is crazy.

[Cleita]

2. I know. My mother worked at UCLA and I did too for some time. I became

sort of aware of the corruption that was seeping into the chancellors offices at that time. It started when Reagan became governor. It's too bad.

[Duer 157099]

4. Ahhh Murphy Hall, what memories....

Chancellor Young was there when I was there.

Fun times.

[Cleita]

5. I didn't work in Administration. I first worked on the campus and then at the

post office, which to tell the truth I loved, because I was working with ordinary people. We know the chancellors and administrators ruled everything. The offered me a job at the Law School, but to tell the truth I was fed up with the place because it was becoming so corrupt, so I left. Murphy Hall was the hub of everything that was going on. I can see why you liked it. I don't remember Chancellor Young, maybe he was after my time.

[Duer 157099]

6. He was Chancellor from 1968-1997

I have worked many places on campus, in addition to having gone to school there. It was like home :sigh:

[Cleita]

7. It's an extraordinary place. I can see why you loved it. I worked there in the middle

sixties and in then the early eighties for a few years. I loved going to eat my lunch in the botanical gardens. I honestly don't remember Chancellor Young. My mom loved working there. She worked in the Medical Center. Me not so much. I certainly want the place to be what it is, a great university. I hope financially we can get it back to what it was when tuition was free for California residents and they could get the best students to educate without needing them to pay for it.

[villager]

3. Towards the end of my time at Cal, Reagan had just been elected....

...as President. My financial aid counselor told me they could already see the difference in the immediate cutbacks in financial aid that was available...

...and of course, successive Republican governors (and useless timid Democratic ones) since then have decimated whatever state aid there was...

I couldn't afford to go to Cal today either, I don't think. My parents certainly couldn't afford my being there, now...

[girl gone mad]

8. Eventually people are going to wise up..

and figure out what a scam the entire system is. Unless you are planning to go to med school, there are so many alternatives for higher education. Spending upwards of $200K for a bachelor's degree to enrich these entitled assclowns is foolish.

[Greyhound]

24. You know, I keep thinking the same thing, but it just doesn't seem to ever happen.

Decade after decade the outrageous corruption just keeps getting worse and there's always enough people with a bullhorn out there defending it and the sheeple just go back chewing their cuds and waiting for the next shearing.

[AwakeAtLast]

9. If it's good enough for AIG and Wall Street.......

They learn from the best, don't they?

:yoiks:

[closeupready]

10. K&R

n/t

[izzybeans]

11. You could find this same trend in any organization making

staff cuts.

The scandal is how widespread this phenomenon is.

[EFerrari]

12. It makes me so sad. The only reason I went to Berkeley

was because they offered more financial aid than anyone else did. Between scholarships and grants and loans and a couple of mirrors, I squeaked by for undergrad and most of a grad program. They made it possible, in other words.

Who IS able to go there now? :(

[izzybeans]

16. I had to drop out of a grad. program

because i could no longer afford it- I finished all the credits for the ph.d., but no dissertation. The only people who finished in my cohort were either fortunate enough to get fellowships, and all of them were from very wealthy families.

It's all over. At Rutgers (the supposed Berkeley of the East), where I was at, they brought in a president at some ridiculous salary, yet they cut back support for social sciences and the humanities at the same time. The graduate student union along with the AAUP had to occupy his office just to get a menial raise. But that didn't stopped the program cuts. Try raising a baby on an RA salary Dr. McCormick.

Now, my boss's year end bonus is more than my yearly salary (and I don't get a bonus) and gets increased by trimming the budget (the majority of which came from a 2% freeze on our merit pay increase this year). Before, my father was a factory worker for GE, they closed down two plants the last year Jack Welch was CEO (as far as I remember the story). His retirement package was larger than the operating budget of one of the plants. The press hailed him as a hero and a brilliant man (I feel for his ghost-writer for having to polish those turds). A few weeks ago, when the AIG bonus scandal hit, the same people complaining about the government stepping in to curb bonus payments were boohooing over teacher salaries and accountability the week before.

It's collective madness and all over the place. The saying "the "cream" rises to the top" is really a way of just saying "I deserve more than you because I'm up here. You see me? ...at the top. Bring on the cream!".

In a way I'm not surprised about Berkeley, but I really imagined it being above all this. Guess not?

[EFerrari]

18. Same here. Advanced to candidacy and my husband got sick.

There simply wasn't enough dough to deal with all of that at the same time. I quit two chapters in.

UC has never been the same after Raygun. :(

[izzybeans]

19. Here's to one day finishing what we started.

:)

:toast:

[EFerrari]

20. I know I won't but that's all right. I loved my time at Cal.

It was a daily miracle for most of a decade. Apparently, I'm supposed to do something else.

But that means one more grant for you, izzybeans. :hi:

[KansDem]

13. It's been my experience with higher education...

The upper echelons of administration always look out for themselves...

Always...

[Caliman73]

14. Shit, they were doing that when I was at UCLA in the early 90's

Raising tuition cause they were "going broke" and giving retiring regents homes and outrageous retirement packages. Greed never goes away.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

15. Question?...............

Didn't California residents previously get a sweet deal on going to college at state universities? I seem to remember (and I may be mistaken) that residents used to get tuition waivers or super-cheap tuitions as long as they attended a state school. I know its traditional that in-state students get cheaper tuitions at state univerities, but I seem to remember Cali offered an exceptionally good bargain by staying in-state.

[EFerrari]

22. I think UC used to be free. And we have two different systems here,

UC and CA State.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

23. Thanks. That's what I was recalling..............

A web-search shows that UC is looking to bring back free tuition for students w/ family incomes under $60K. I wish they'd do that here. WVU has been slowly raising tuitions for the past 15 years. I think when I went to school ('88-'93), tuition was roughly $2,500 a year for residents, now its almost $6,000 (16,000 for non-residents).

[ProgressiveFool]

17. FYI, the three different options on cuts are for the University to decide

not the individual faculty or staff member. One of those options will be chosen some time in July, for implementation starting August 1st. it is widely expected that the 8% straight pay cut for one year, with option on the part of UC to extend for another, will be the way chosen, because that can be done without negotiating much with the various unions.

[KamaAina]

21. What a coincidence. UH just hired a chancellor from the UC system for $400K.

And she's got ethical challenges, too!

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090605_UH_regents_ready_to_OK_Greenwood.html

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents is likely to approve hiring of M.R.C. "Marcy" Greenwood as the first female president of the 10-campus UH system at a meeting Wednesday, board Chairman Allan Landon said yesterday....

But Greenwood also comes with some ethical baggage.

She resigned from the No. 2 leadership post at the UC system in 2005 amid questions about her approval of the hiring and pay package for a friend who co-owned a rental property with her.

In a report released Monday, the search committee said it interviewed the former general counsel for the UC system and people who worked with Greenwood and concluded the ethical lapse was "an inadvertent mistake."

So how, exactly, does the ivory tower differ from the skyscrapers of Wall Street? :eyes:

edit: and yes, UH is facing budget cuts, too: since Gov. Lingle (R-Plays A Moderate On TV) lacks the authority to furlough UH employees as she has those in other departments (three days a month!), she's simply slashing their budget by the equivalent, around 14 percent.