University of California President Robert Dynes promised reforms
of the UC’s compensation practices and apologized for a past
lack of transparency during a state Senate hearing in Sacramento on
Wednesday.
In his opening testimony to the California Senate Education
Committee, Dynes admitted the UC has not always met its obligations
to the public regarding transparency in the UC’s policies and
vowed to “renew (the UC’s) spirit of dedication to the
public interest in the management of the university.”
“I take responsibility for the fact that the University of
California has not always met its obligations to public
accountability in matters of compensation and compensation
disclosure,” he said. “And I believe I owe you, the
members of the legislature, an apology for that
shortcoming.”
The hearing, along with a slew of criticism from California
policymakers, was prompted by a San Francisco Chronicle report last
November that stated that the UC paid its employees an unreported
$871 million in raises, bonuses and other forms of compensation,
and about $599 million of that went to 8,500 employees.
During the hearing, Clifford Brunk, chairman of the UC Academic
Senate and a UCLA professor, said the Chronicle report was
misleading.
He said $600 million of the total came from clinical fees for
health sciences faculty and went to campus faculty from grants that
do not come from taxpayer dollars.
The rest of the unreported compensation was reserved for bonuses
and stipends to recruit the best faculty and staff, according to a
UC report.
The criticism of the UC’s compensation practices, which
was the impetus for the Senate hearing, first surfaced a week after
former Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, who was the university’s
second-highest-ranked individual, resigned amid an investigation in
which she was found to have violated UC conflict-of-interest
policies.
Greenwood was reassigned as a UC Davis faculty member at a
salary of $301,840 a year, an issue some senators discussed during
the hearing.
“Normally, I think when someone violates policy you
don’t reward them with a new job. It seems to me that what
rights and privileges (Greenwood) has ““ it doesn’t
automatically follow if someone violated policy and resigns,”
said Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced.
Dynes told the committee the benefits reported by the Chronicle
were necessary to attract qualified administrators for the UC
system, reiterating the position the UC has maintained since the
Chronicle ran the story late last year.
“It is fundamental to getting and keeping the best people
here in California, doing the best work anywhere in the world. The
competition for people is fierce, and the packages we put together
… do make an important difference in recruiting and retaining
people,” Dynes said.
During his presentation to the committee, he said the UC Regents
agreed to cooperate with the Joint Legislative Audit
Committee’s review of the university system’s
compensation decisions.
Dynes pointed to some steps the UC has already taken toward
reform, including an independent external audit of its practices
and the creation of a committee to oversee compensation
matters.
“We’re trying to be really proactive in what we need
to do better and being more transparent on compensation issues and
dedicated to doing the right thing and taking steps in that
direction,” said UC spokesman Noel Van Nyhuis.
Some state senators present at the hearing were dissatisfied
with Dynes’ testimony because he did not address how the UC
allowed the unreported compensations to build up in the first
place.
“I am disappointed with the message overall that you have
given to the legislature. My hope had been … that you would help
me understand how we got here,” Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los
Angeles, told Dynes.
The UC said the Chronicle made another error in its report by
not looking at the university’s severance pay program on a
national spectrum, compared to other public universities.
But after a morning of vows and proposals, Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said he hopes the UC
administration will stay true to its word.
“A lot of promises were made today by the University of
California administration to be more transparent, to try harder to
be open with the people of California about how public funds are
used,” he said. “I appreciate that commitment, and I
truly hope that the UC administration follows through with their
promises fully and completely.”
With reports from Sara Taylor, Bruin senior staff.