Three state senators called Wednesday for University of
California President Robert Dynes to leave his post as the head of
the UC, saying he has missed numerous opportunities to correct the
UC’s problems and is no longer capable of managing the
university.
“It’s an ongoing problem that has gotten much, much
worse,” said Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, who said he believes
Dynes should be fired.
Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, and Sen. Gloria Romero,
D-Los Angeles, also said they did not believe Dynes should continue
as the leader of the UC, but said he should resign rather than be
fired.
“After three audits, two senate hearings, a damning
legislative council opinion and countless news reports ““
enough is enough,” Maldonado said in a statement.
“It gives me no pleasure to ask for President Dynes to
resign today, but I believe we are acting in the best interest of
the University of California, the students and the
people.”
The UC president is appointed by the UC Board of Regents. Denham
said senators could only fire Dynes if they passed a bill stripping
the UC of its autonomy.
The requests came a day after the release of the third in a
series of audits that found the UC has failed to abide by its own
policies in awarding compensation packages for at least the past 10
years.
According to the audit, decisions to award benefits ““ such
as car and housing allowances, travel expenses and retirement
benefits ““ were made in closed meetings, a practice which was
banned by the UC in 1993.
The audit also revealed that certain administrators had been
given benefits exceeding the amount they were allowed.
Denham’s call for Dynes’ firing also had
implications for UC compensation.
“He should be fired with cause and should not receive
sabbatical pay or a severance package,” Denham said.
Since the university’s compensation practices became a
public object of criticism last November after a series of media
reports, Dynes has consistently been targeted as the person
responsible for the UC’s failings and for instances when
auditors found exceptions to UC policy.
“Not only has he been the person in charge at the time
that a lot of the exceptions have taken place, but he has failed to
impose new procedures to make sure that they never happen
again,” Denham said.
In response to the statements Wednesday that he should resign,
Dynes reiterated that he has made numerous reforms since the
inconsistencies surfaced.
“I have taken action to begin rectifying the
university’s compensation problems and prevent them from
happening again,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Those include an expanded disclosure and approval process and
special training for UC executives.
Talk of firing administrators and assigning responsibility had
been discussed previously among policy makers. In February, Romero
said someone in the UC should take responsibility for the problems,
and suggested that one or more top administrators may need to be
fired. At that time she did not target Dynes in particular.
But some in the state and the UC said the exit of the UC’s
top administrator is not the best course of action.
“We really need to focus our time and energy on all of the
issues that are facing the UC system right now, rather than the
individual personalities,” said Richard Stapler, a spokesman
for Assembly Speaker and UC Regent Fabian Núñez, who
requested one of the audits.
“This is not about laying blame on any individual person,
it’s about rolling your sleeves up and getting some work
done,” he said.
Defense of Dynes has come in the form of systematic and
procedural explanations for the problems the UC has been
facing.
“The problem is one that has evolved over a long period of
time,” said Adrienne Lavine, chairwoman of the UCLA Academic
Senate.