Regents hear suggestions

The UC Board of Regents plans to hear recommendations today on
how it should approach compensation practices in the first of two
meetings scheduled for this month to discuss University of
California policies.

The board will meet through a teleconference to discuss
recommendations from the Task Force on UC Compensation,
Accountability and Transparency, which was formed by UC President
Robert Dynes last December and is comprised of California
politicians, lawyers, businessmen and others.

To accommodate regents who are abroad, the teleconference will
take place from various locations around the globe, including UCLA,
San Francisco, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

The board will convene again by teleconference April 24 to
receive the findings of an independent audit of selected employees
conducted by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Both these sessions will be open to the public for comment, and
the task force report will also be available to the public
today.

UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said the UC had not yet received any
information on what would be included in the task force’s
recommendation, and Student Regent Adam Rosenthal said the UC will
plan its actions in the coming months after receiving the
recommendations.

Compensation policies for the UC became a concern after a
November article in the San Francisco Chronicle that reported the
university paid its employees millions of dollars more than was
disclosed.

Since then, there have been various investigations into the
UC’s compensation and pay practices, including two hearings
of the California Senate Education Committee in February.

Dynes responded to the allegations presented by the Chronicle
and the criticism from policy makers by creating a task force that
would provide the regents with recommendations regarding
compensation policies, practices and disclosures.

Also in response to the allegations, Dynes and other UC
officials have consistently defended their compensation policies by
saying the UC lags behind other institutions in regards to salary
awarded to faculty and staff, and higher salaries are necessary to
recruit the best people to work for the university.

UC officials have also challenged the accuracy of the numbers
used in the Chronicle article. According to a UC report, about $600
million of the reported $871 million was in the form of money
earned by doctors and clinical faculty in UC hospitals, as well as
research grants received by professors.

In February, Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky said the results of
the task force review and the external audit would be released
April 1.

The report was delayed, and the UC subsequently received
criticism from senators.

In a letter to Parsky, Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, and
Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, wrote that “further delay
is unacceptable.”

“State lawmakers and the public have the right to know
without further delay what policies have been violated or ignored,
what have been the breaches in the UC’s duties of disclosure
and transparency, and what corrective measures the regents intend
to make to address these lapses,” they wrote.

The task force’s responsibility is to review current
compensation policies and disclosure practices to ensure that the
UC’s financial records are open to the public ““ which
it is required to do as a publicly funded institution ““ while
also protecting the privacy rights of university employees.

Based on the review, the task force was also charged with making
recommendations on how to improve the UC’s practices in the
report scheduled for release today.

But some steps have already been taken to improve UC policy,
Rosenthal said.

“We’ve already taken action, not only in commencing
the various committees and audits, but (we’ve) also committed
to reorganize the Office of the President to ensure that the
regents have greater oversight,” Rosenthal said.

Amid the criticism that has dominated coverage of the university
since November, UC officials have continued to emphasize that the
UC is a quality institution.

“My hope is that the public doesn’t lose sight of
how great the UC is and that we take all these issues with an
appropriate amount of perspective,” Rosenthal said.

With reports from Bruin wire services.

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