UC regents' salaries are out of control
The University of California governing body has conducted itself for too long as if it were above the law. The UC Board of Regents has acted with arrogance and indifference. And, it has deliberately undermined all efforts to change this. That is why I am a joint author of Senate Constitutional Amendment 21, along with state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. This measure will let the voters decide whether or not the UC Board of Regents should keep its special status as the state's only agency to set its own salaries and conduct meetings without public participation. My goal is for UC to be accountable to the public.
Let me tell you about the exorbitant salaries and benefits that they heap upon themselves at students' expense -- and with no taxpayer oversight. Even as school districts are being forced to lay off schoolteachers, cut back on schoolbooks and increase their class sizes, the UC hired a new president at over $900,000 per year plus many high-end perks. This is twice as much as the UC's last president, and more than twice that of the president of the United States. UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellman was handed a $450,000 salary, a university-provided house, a $9,000 per year automobile allowance and relocation expenses. And when she leaves her post she will get relocation expenses, a guaranteed faculty position at UC, a low-interest home loan and a generous pension and health care package. Her salary alone would have paid for the tuition of over 52 students for an entire year. Another chancellor from UC Davis was given a salary of $400,000, a 27 percent increase over her predecessor. This raise would have easily paid for the tuition of 10 students for two semesters. The salary increases were approved at the same time the regents voted to raise student fees by over 9 percent this year -- in a meeting where they denied students the right to be fully heard on this issue.
The list of questionable behavior by the UC Board of Regents and their other top officials would fill several newspaper columns. It runs the gamut from their compensation packages to how they manage employees and their benefits to having decided to reduce freshman admissions. In recent years, what is truly disturbing is that when their obvious misconduct has been exposed, they have only sought to blame others and have done nothing to make corrections.
How can they get away with this? Because in more trusting times the UC system was granted a special amendment in the state constitution guaranteeing autonomy to protect their academic independence. That was in 1879! Times have changed and unfortunately so have the values that guided those early regents. Today, instead of putting students first, the regents exploit their autonomy by choosing to give themselves kingly benefits even in the face of California's huge budget deficit and obvious harm to students. And we have no way to stop them.
The aftermath of the May 19 special election should make one thing clear to the custodians of the public purse -- do your job and spend the taxpayer's money wisely. The voters want us to do our job by stopping wasteful spending. SCA 21 will force the UC regents to open up their books to public scrutiny and make them equally as accountable.
State Sen. Roy Ashburn represents the 18th District, the largest geographically in California, encompassing portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo, and San Bernardino counties.
