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Regents Give 3 Percent Raise to Top UC Brass 

Higher fees will hit University of California students for the fifth year in a row as the Board of Regents voted Wednesday to increase costs by as much as 10 percent. The board also voted Thursday to increase salaries of hundreds of top university administrators by about 3 percent. 

  The unusual move to approve a UC budget in November, two months before the governor releases his proposed state budget in January, followed an accord the regents made in 2004 with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. That deal, in which regents agreed to a lower level of UC funding in exchange for no further cuts, was made at the height of Schwarzenegger’s power despite protests from the UC students’ association (UCSA). 

  State Assembly speaker and UC regent Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) proposed on Thursday to postpone the vote until January in hopes of garnering more state funding. Núñez’s proposal, along with one from Regent George Marcus to eliminate graduate student fee increases, was overturned. The regents approved the budget 17-2.  

  The student fee hikes will bring resident undergraduate tuition costs to about $7,300, roughly an 80 percent increase since 2001-2002. Tuition will increase by 10 percent for in-state graduate academic students, 8 percent for instate undergraduates, and 5 percent for graduate professional students.  

  The budget includes the provision that if the legislature can work to fill UC’s funding gaps in the January state budget, the fee hikes will not go forward. Núñez said he would commit to that effort. 

  “We will work to discuss the budget with the governor and Don Perata (D-East Bay) to ensure this fee hike doesn’t happen,” said Richard Stapler, a spokesman for Núñez. 

  UCSA president Anu Joshi pledged to work with Núñez to prevent the fee hikes. 

  “UC can find the money to fill the budget gap. It’s ridiculous that undergraduate fees have gone up so much, especially with all of this information coming out about executive salaries,” said Joshi, referring to recent revelations about hidden compensation to top university brass. 

  “It’s not that we think they shouldn’t make that much, it’s just that we shouldn’t have our fees raised to pay for it,” she said. “They need to be honest about why they’re raising fees.” 

  Many regents, including ex-officio regent and UC president Robert Dynes, expressed some regret at raising fees but said funding levels at UC are simply too low to maintain its competitive academics.  

  “We still have serious ongoing funding gaps—relating to the student-faculty ratio; relating to salaries, which are now significantly behind the market for both faculty and staff; and relating to the libraries, technology, and other infrastructure that support the academic enterprise,” Dynes said.  

  “Make no mistake: This university’s quality, and the magnitude of this university’s contribution to California, are still at risk today,” he added. 

  Citing the need to bring salaries for top university officials up to national standards, the regents approved “annual merit” increases averaging about 3 percent. Dynes’ salary will increase from $395,000 to $405,000; Senior Vice President Joseph P. Mullinix’s salary will rise from $350,000 to $358,000, and Senior Vice President Bruce Darling’s pay will from $269,000 to $275,700.  

  Theses figures still lag behind those of officials at other top public universities, UC representatives said. Mary Sue Coleman, of the University of Michigan system, will make $724,604; fifty-three of 139 presidents surveyed by the Chronicle of Higher education will receive at least $400,000 in total compensation. 

But for many students, those numbers may not mean much. 

“This is definitely rough because my family gets stuck paying more for my tuition every year,” said UC-Berkeley sophomore Charles Banh, a biology major from Los Angeles who may be joined at Cal next year by his younger brother. 

“For my parents, that’s a burden times two,” he said. “Most of all, I think people get frustrated because they don’t really know why the fees are going up. I’m sure there’s a good reason but we’re all in the dark about it.” 

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