Declaration against independence

Senator Denham’s fight to protect taxpayers from the UC Regents

By Matthew Vasquez
From the March 2006 Print Edition

On January 4, California State Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced, introduced Senate Bill 1117, which proposes to eliminate the University of California’s autonomy.

“When abuses such as those that have come to light in the past few months appear to be systematic rather than isolated, then we must act to protect the taxpayers,” said Denham.

Under the California Constitution, the University of California runs independently of the California government, “subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure the security of its funds and compliance with the terms of the endowments of the university.” Senate Bill 1117 proposes to amend the California Constitution so that the University is no longer independent of the legislature.

The introduction of this bill follows a report by the San Francisco Chronicle that the University of California secretly awarded some top executives $871 million on top of their salaries last fiscal year. “This is a blatant abuse of power by the executive team of the University,” said Denham. “The secret and outrageous salary benefit for the UC executives must end.”

Denham’s bill calls for the Regents of the University to discontinue holding secret meetings to award benefits and salaries to executives. In addition, the bill demands that the Regents annually disclose all compensation that an executive receives to the legislature. Only if these two conditions are not met does the bill call for amending the California Constitution to remove the University’s autonomy.

Denham said that this bill serves as a placeholder for the University’s Board of Regents to respond to. “Hopefully the University of California will work out its own system,” he said. However, if the issue is not addressed, the legislature has no choice but to act.

This action looks not only to protect taxpayers, but students as well, who have faced large increases in tuition in recent years. “The UC leaders cannot keep claiming they must raise student fees while at the same time taking these huge pay hikes,” said Denham.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that on January 18, the University of California Board of Regents passed a proposal that allows UC President Robert Dynes the power to unilaterally raise salaries for top executives in the University of California system. However, the president is restricted to raise salaries within ranges set by the Board of Regents.

Under the old system, the Board of Regents would have had to approve every salary over $168,000 a year. Now, Dynes does not need to consult the board when raising an executive’s salary within their set range, the highest of which runs from $494,700 to $791,600. This could lead to a tremendous increase in salaries considering that no UC employee received a base salary over $508,000 last fiscal year.

Only after an executive has been paid would the Board of Regents put a stop to salary hikes that it finds unreasonable. Regent Judith Hopkins told the Chronicle that if they noticed a person receiving a 15-percent raise every year, the board would immediately put a stop to it. Of course, that same person would have already been paid a higher salary for years before the board would have taken actions against the salary hike.

On February 2, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, a union that represents 18,000 UC employees, released a study on UC executive pay practices and compared them to their counterparts in the California Sate University and Community Colleges systems. Both the CSU and California Community Colleges systems, unlike the University if California, do not have any autonomy from the state.

According to the study, UC President Dynes’ salary for the 2004-2005 year outstretched CSU Chancellor Charles Reed’s salary by 19 percent and the California Community Colleges Chancellor Mark Drummond’s salary by 73 percent. In addition, UC chancellors earned an average of 61 percent more than CSU campus presidents and 94 percent more than community college district chancellors did.

The study also shows that the average UC employee earns less than his counterparts in the CSU and Community Colleges systems. The average minimum wage at UC campuses is 14 percent lower than at CSU campuses and 25 percent lower than at community college campuses.

Despite the biased origin of this study, it brings to light the current problem of the UC system — the University’s irresponsibility with its funding. While the top executives have seen outrageous pay hikes, students have seen increased fees and cut services. “I think it’s wrong,” said Senator Denham in regards to the Board of Regent’s decision. “It is a bad decision. The Board of Regents has shown that it does not have a good handle on the 10-campus UC system.”

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