As the University of California struggles through a time of
financial difficulty caused by state budget cuts, officials are
concerned the university will not be able to retain or recruit
top-quality faculty and administrators if their salaries are not
increased.
The UC Board of Regents has focused its discussions in recent
meetings on the need to raise the salaries of top UC officials, who
some regents say are underpaid and may be lured away by offers of
higher salaries from other institutions.
But the emphasis on increasing salaries of high-paid
administrators has been criticized as the wrong priority for the
university in a time of increasing student fees and state budget
cuts.
According to a report by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, UC
salaries are below comparable market salaries by an average of 15
percent, but current health and retirement benefits are well above
market medians. With more employees heading into retirement,
benefits are expected to be reduced in the next five years.
The quality of the UC staff, especially with faculty and
leadership positions, is a significant concern, UC spokesman Noel
Van Nyhuis said.
“It stands to reason that any employer, not just UC, would
be better able to attract and retain candidates by offering
increased compensation,” Van Nyhuis said. “I have been
told that in many instances, candidates have withdrawn themselves
from consideration of jobs at UC, because UC could not match what
their current university could provide.”
The regents are currently reviewing a proposal to use private
donations to help fund salaries over $350,000, a plan Van Nyhuis
described as an attempt to become more market competitive without
further using state funds.
George Blumenthal, a member of the UC’s Academic Assembly
and the 2004-2005 Academic Senate, said private donations should
not be used to fund the salaries of public employees because of
conflicts of interest that could be involved with private
donors.
Though admitting that some UC administrators ““ such as UC
President Robert Dynes, who has a salary of $395,000 ““ are
paid below market value for their positions, Blumenthal echoed the
sentiment of his colleague Daniel Simmons, chairman of the Academic
Senate, in calling the proposal to use private donations
“outrageous”.
“The fundraising efforts of the University of California
should be focused on scholarship, financial aid, constructing
buildings in which classes can be conducted, and supporting
research projects,” Blumenthal said.
“Those are the kinds of things we should be doing with
fundraising, not finding a way to avoid public scrutiny when
raising salaries of top executives.”
The regents are also reviewing a proposal to increase the
salaries of all UC employees to market value in the next 10 years,
but some say the plan is useless without a way to fund the
increases.
“There’s a great 10-year plan, but we can’t
identify any way to raise money for it except to use private
donations for a select group,” Blumenthal said. “What
kind of message is that to the students of the university who
(have) been suffering fee increases, and to the staff and faculty
who have forgone salary increases for years?”
Blumenthal added that the university should be more concerned
with losing quality professors and researchers to other
institutions rather than focusing on a group whose main mission
does not directly relate to the education and research mission of
the university.
The idea to use private donations to boost the salaries of top
officials is nothing new. Some public universities, such as the
University of Texas and the University of Louisville, have already
begun to rely on private funding to compete with private
universities that are able to offer higher salaries.
Student Regent Adam Rosenthal said that with private
schools’ “ridiculously high tuition,” it is no
wonder they can afford to pay their administrators top dollars.
Though its an admirable goal to pay UC administrators by their
market worth or by what they contribute to the university, any
goals for salary increases may be worthless without enough funding,
he said.
“It is a delicate balance between ensuring that we can
compete to get the best administrators possible while also ensuring
that we are a public institution,” Rosenthal said.
“First and foremost, the state has to wake up to the
reality that if they don’t fund at the levels that the
university needs, it will no longer be a truly public
university.”