SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California Board of Regents met Wednesday at UC San Francisco Mission Bay to discuss, among others, plans for a unified payroll system to be used across all nine campuses.
Nathan Brostrom, executive vice president and chief financial officer, defended the UC Payroll, Academic Personnel, Timekeeping and Human Resources project, or UCPath, which has incurred increasing costs and delays.
“We really had no choice,” Brostrom said. “Our existing payroll system is 35 years old and employs antiquated technology.”
Officials estimate UCPath will now cost $375 million. The program cost the UC $200 million more than initially planned in 2011.
The board said UCPath has moved project in-house to better meet the UC’s needs and to promote knowledge retention. The program is set to be deployed across campuses in four waves and is estimated to be completed by 2018. The UCPath Center already supports UCLA and UC Santa Cruz in advance of deployments.
The board also discussed the possibility of creating the board’s UC Health Board, which would be composed of the UC president, four regents, four outside advisers, representatives from campus and medical center leadership and the external vice president of UC Health.
The board said they would seek to prepare UC Health to better deal with future uncertainties in the health care industry such as the impact of the Affordable Care Act.
Avi Oved, student regent-designate, said the board should add student representation, which the current proposal does not include. The board defended their decision not to include a student representative because they said they only chose to include members with experience or interest in health care who could concretely contribute to the plans. However, they said they are open to discussing the possibility of adding a student to the board.
During the public comment section, representatives from Students for Justice in Palestine at multiple UC campuses said they think the new definition of anti-Semitism set by the U.S. Department of State is politically motivated and favors Israel. The UC Regents meeting in September will include a discussion about the possibility of adopting the U.S. Department of State’s definition of anti-Semitism to ensure that all UC campuses are better able to avoid religious discrimination.
The U.S. Depart of State’s version of the definition matches the resolution condemning anti-Semitism, which the UCLA undergraduate student government passed in March.
Unionized registered nurses who work for UC medical centers also spoke out in the public comment in opposition to the proposed pension reforms because they believe the changes might threaten their retirement security.
The changes are resulting from a budget agreement between the UC and Gov. Jerry Brown, which allowed for a two-year tuition freeze and more money to repay the pension debt in exchange for an altered retirement system with a tiered pension plan and lower compensation cap.
The board will meet again Thursday, the last day of the three-day meeting.
Compiled by Jillian Frankel, Bruin senior staff.
Please note the typo: “The U.S. Depart of State’s version of the definition […]”