UC

|

UC Compensation Data Report for 2010

Byuclafaculty

UC has released its annual compensation report for 2010. Below are some highlights: *Approximately 40% of compensation in 2010 went to academic employees, primarily to faculty and researchers. The remaining 60% went to non-academic employees, including those who support academic departments, student services, patient care and other university functions. As in previous years, the “top 10 earning” employees at UC in 2010, based on total pay, were health sciences faculty members – typically world-renowned specialists in their fields – and athletic coaches. • Market positions have eroded and are expected to worsen due to lack of salary increases, rising employee…

| |

UC opts out of controller’s public pay database (and shouldn’t)

Byuclafaculty

Below is a news article and a comment by yours truly that follows the article: UC opts out of controller’s public pay database (excerpt) 8/18/11, San Diego Union-Tribune Hundreds of government agencies across the state, from the Vista Irrigation District to the Governor’s Office, have provided state Controller John Chiang with detailed salary and benefit information on public employees. Not the University of California… The UC system is the only state agency that has not complied. UC officials said they already maintain a listing of employee salaries, with formulas to estimate the cost of other benefits. The complete database of…

| | |

How Transparent Should UC Foundations Be? The Governor Will Give Us His View Soon

Byuclafaculty

Bill on university groups’ public disclosure heads to Jerry Brown CapitolAlert, 8/18/11 Leland Yee is hoping the third time’s a charm. Senate Bill 8, which would expand the authority of the California Public Records Act on the state’s college campuses, is heading to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration. The San Francisco Democrat’s two previous bills to subject college auxiliary organizations, such as foundations, to the state’s public records act were vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Senate approved amendments to the current version today, 36-1, sending it to Brown’s desk. …(L)ast year the foundation at California State University, Stanislaus,…

| |

The Sun Rises on UC Online Education

Byuclafaculty

In the 1950s, you could take college courses via “Sunrise Semester” on your black and white TV. Now we have online ed, where you don’t have to get up early in the morning to watch your course and it is in color. See below: UC takes first steps into online education (excerpt) Lisa M. Krieger, 8/18/2011, Contra Costa Times Going online to get a college degree has been championed as a cost-effective way to educate the masses and challenged as a cheapening of academia. Now, the online classroom is coming to the vaunted UC system, making it the nation’s first…

| | | |

No More Hired Guns?

Byuclafaculty

Governor blasts California universities’ hiring of pricey presidents:Jerry Brown criticizes the trend of paying high salaries to ‘hired guns’ from out of state instead of seeking Californians who might take less Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday criticized leaders of California’s public universities for recruiting highly paid “hired guns” from across the country to run campuses instead of looking for home-grown talent that might be willing to work for lower salaries. The governor said officials at California State University and the University of California appeared in recent salary decisions to have adopted a…

| | | |

Could Washington Debt-Ceiling Impasse Adversely Affect UC?

Byuclafaculty

The simple answer is – as someone said – you betcha! Chaotic financial conditions – if such occur – can damage the economy, e.g., 2008, and ultimately cut into state tax revenue. Drops in the value of financial assets hurts the pension fund (and the individual 403b and 457b accounts of UC employees) and other funds UC maintains. Significant funding flows from the federal government to UC in the form of research contracts, Medicare payments, etc. Will that be interrupted? Who knows? This is one social science experiment we would do well not to undertake. Bottom Line: There is no…

| | | | |

Higher Ed Dream Act (One of Them) Signed by Governor

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown signed AB 130 by Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) – Student financial aid: eligibility: California Dream Act of 2011. The new law allows illegal alien children who have been raised in California to receive financial aid in public higher education institutions (UC, CSU, community colleges). However, the aid to which the law refers is private scholarship money. The issue of such aid has arisen in the controversy over tuition increases at UC. Although the university provides assistance to lower-income students, it cannot do so with public monies including tuition money to illegal alien students. Protests over UC tuition…

| | | |

Fee vs. tax

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee today runs an article on a shift in the new state budget towards “fees” and the impact on particular households. Temporary tax extensions ended in the last fiscal year. The legislature raised certain fees as a result. However, as the excerpt above shows, the dramatic fee increases occurred at UC and CSU where tuition went up, not directly by action of the legislature but through the governing boards of the two systems. The full graphic from which the excerpt above was taken and the accompanying article are at: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3790500/california-lowers-taxes-raises.html

|

OC Register Gives UC Financial Aid Program Bad Marx

Byuclafaculty

As is well known, UC tuition charges are partly recycled into financial aid for lower-income students. In an editorial, the libertarian-leaning Orange County Register finds this practice to be Marxist: …The Republican caucus describes this wealth transfer as “from each according to his ability … to each according to his need.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because it was coined by Karl Marx. We wonder how many of those from whom the money is taken agree with the concept. We know it should not be done without the consent of those paying the fee. Full editorial at http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/students-309035-fees-pay.html I guess…