Board to discuss issues from salaries to Sudan

The UC Board of Regents is expected to discuss salary issues,
divestment from Sudan and management of its national laboratories
during its bimonthly meetings today and Thursday.

Amid criticism of secrecy in the present salary and compensation
practices, the regents will vote on the formation of a special
committee to oversee university salary policies and a new salary
structure to allow the UC Office of the President more freedom to
determine salaries for senior management positions.

Currently, the Board of Regents must approve all salaries above
$168,000, a policy which University of California officials say is
impractical because the regents are presented with too many names
to review them adequately. If the proposed salary structure is
passed, the board will only have to approval salaries for the
UC’s 32 highest-paid employees. UC President Robert Dynes
will determine salaries for positions above the $168,000 level, but
not within the top 32.

UC officials say the new salary structure would allow the
regents to focus their attention on only the highest-paid employees
by letting the president determine salaries for other senior
management employees, based on their placement within a salary
range approved by the regents.

Despite Regent Judith Hopkinson’s statement at the last
board meeting that the UC’s salary policy should have been
changed long ago, the new structure has drawn some criticism
because it divides employees into salary ranges, within which the
president would be able to raise salaries without the board’s
approval.

Though the regents will not be directly approving each
individual salary, UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said the board will
annually review and adjust the salary structure as necessary to
provide market-competitive compensation.

In a less controversial move, the board will also vote to form a
special committee on compensation. Intended as a response to
criticism stemming from a Nov. 13 San Francisco Chronicle article
which charged the UC with failing to disclose $871 million in
bonuses and other forms of compensation in a salary report,
Schwartz said the committee will work to “ensure transparent
and accountable compensation policies and practice at the
UC.”

Many UC students are expected to attend the regents meeting in
support of UC divestment from Sudan, a country whose government has
committed genocide in western Darfur for more than two years.

At UCLA, the UC Divestment Taskforce organized events
publicizing the genocide in Darfur and has asked students to attend
the meeting to encourage divestment.

“UC divestment is a powerful and effective step in
stopping this genocide. It is obvious that students, faculty and
staff recognize that divestment is vital to stopping this
atrocity,” said Undergraduate Students Association Council
President Jenny Wood.

Last November, the Investment Committee of the Board of Regents
voted unanimously to develop a proposal analyzing the possible
effects of divestment from four companies engaged in business in
Sudan. The regents will be presented with the proposal on Thursday,
before voting on whether to divest UC funds from those
companies.

The regents will also discuss management of the UC Department of
Energy laboratories today. Last week the DOE opened competition for
management of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has
been operated by the UC for more than 50 years.

The UC recently won its bids to continue managing Los Alamos
National Laboratory and the smaller Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
but the Board of Regents has not announced whether it will compete
for the Lawrence Livermore lab.

However, Dynes said in a statement that the regents have
authorized the university to begin preparations for competition. At
this week’s meeting, the board is expected to discuss the
status of competition at Livermore, but is not expected to vote on
whether they will compete.

“Should we compete, we will do so vigorously and with the
firm belief that excellence in science and technology is critical
to the mission of the laboratory,” Dynes said.

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