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Readers of this blog will recall that at the last Regents meeting in July, there was a controversy over the appointment of a new student regent-delegate due to her support of a campaign to divest UC funds from Israel. Several regents spoke on the issue. One abstained from voting for her.

During the debate, outgoing President Yudof didn’t have much to say about the issue. That might not be surprising except for his remarks at a conference about a month before the meeting:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoyXqoJH7Ak?feature=player_detailpage]

Pay for the New UC Prez: Mellowing Newsom Likes It

Gov. Brown is out of the country and missed yesterday’s Regents meeting and won’t be at the meeting today. At the meeting scheduled for later today, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom might well attend. In the past, he has been against high pay for UC executives. But now he seems to have mellowed in the case of Janet Napolitano, the nominee for UC president. The Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert blog indicates that Newsom thinks the pay in store for Napolitano is OK:

…UC has not yet revealed how much Napolitano will be paid. That information will be made public tomorrow after regents approve her nomination. Outgoing UC President Mark Yudof gets a salary of nearly $600,000 plus additional perks that brought his total compensation above $800,000 in 2008-09. Napolitano makes $199,700 a year as the head of Homeland Security. Newsom said he’d been briefed on her proposed UC compensation package and that it is “in the ballpark of what I think is reasonable.”

Full story at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/lt-gov-gavin-newsom-said.html

But maybe he has just decided to accept the inevitable:

P.S.: The Bee editorializes that the new prez should take a lot less in pay than the old one:
www.sacbee.com/2013/07/17/5571668/will-napolitano-perpetuate-ucs.html

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/lt-gov-gavin-newsom-said.html#storylink=cpy

Listen to the UC Regents Morning Meeting of 7-17-2013

University of California Regents: July 17, 2013 – morning session

Agenda: Wednesday, July 17

8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session – includes public comment session)
9:30 am Board (open session)
9:40 am Committee on Finance (open session)
12:00 Lunch
(Note: Appointment of the student regent was moved from the 9:30 am session to after the Committee on Finance due to airplane delays that affected some regents.)

Highlights:

Outgoing UC President Yudof delivered observations that could be considered advice to the incoming president. He included a skeptical off-hand remark on the MOOC industry, noted that UCOP bureaucracy will tend to grow unless checked, declared the UC funding model as “broken,” and – in what appeared to be directed at state politicos – urged gradual, not abrupt, adjustments for UC.

During the public comment period, as suggested in a prior blog, there were speakers for and against selecting Sadia Saifuddin as student regent due to her anti-Israel activities, requests by resident docs at UC-Irvine to recognize their union, opposition to tuition increases for certain nursing/medical professional programs, complaints by union representatives about increasing pension contributions and about staffing levels, and a proposal by a student group to divest from fossil fuel companies.

UC Academic Council chair Bob Powell made cautionary remarks about state demands for performance standards, the student/faculty ratio, online education, and the need for adequate total compensation for faculty.

A presentation from the UC Staff Assemblies focused particularly on benefits and benefit plan changes.

There was a review of the UC budget situation and an assertion that the legislature now recognizes its obligations for the UC pension.

Tuition was raised for certain nursing and medical professional programs and was set for certain new tech-oriented programs.

Funding for UCOP was approved.

Pension contributions were raised as of July 1, 2014. Employer contributions were raised to 14% of payroll from 12%. Employees in Tier 1 will have their contributions raised from 6.5% to 8%. Employees in Tier 2 would remain at 7%.

Budget measures for the national labs were approved.

UC, whose credit rating is better than the state’s, assumed responsibility for certain general obligation bonds. In effect, the interest rate is lower for UC because of its better rating which frees up $80 million for the UC budget in a deal with the state.

It was known that Gov. Brown would not attend and thus was not present for the vote on the selection of Sadia Saifuddin as student regent, the last item taken up in the morning session. The discussion featured support for the appointment from all but one of the Regents who spoke. However, Regent Blum indicated major reservations – although he officially abstained rather than opposed the appointment.

As we have noted in prior posts, we continue to provide an indefinite audio archive of the regents meetings since regental policy is to preserve the recordings for only one year. You can hear the full morning meeting at the link below:

A short-cut to excerpts from President Yudof’s remarking on MOOCs, bureaucracy, and funding can be heard at:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNBfxg7GYU?feature=player_detailpage]

A short-cut to the student regent appointment is at:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LxXT8ocax4?feature=player_detailpage]

The Candidate

As readers of this blog will know, UC is looking for a new president to replace Mark Yudof who is resigning in August. What you may not know is that there is talk in university circles that the next president should be someone atypical with political skills rather than an academic. Such thinking characterizes not only the UC search but similar searches at other public universities. An example is columnist suggestion that UC should choose Gray Davis:

…(D)oesn’t this sound like a job for Gray Davis? Say what you want about California’s only recalled governor, but he knows politics and state government. He’s got the brains and academic credentials to raise universities. And he’s a former chief of staff to Brown. And you want to talk fundraising? Davis was so effective as a fundraiser that it became a political liability for him. He’s also the right personality for this moment. And that personality is prickly. He’ll yell at people who get in his way. That’s usually not an effective way to lead, but the UC badly needs someone who won’t be stepped on…

Full op ed at http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2013/04/gray-davis-for-uc-president/

Would the Regents agree? I think the general idea – not necessarily Davis – is circulating at that level.

Nobody here

The LA Times today carries an article about the search for a new UC president to replace Mark Yudof who is resigning in August. It’s a slam on the current crop of UC campus chancellors and UCOP administrators since apparently the Regents think they have no feasible inside candidates.

…The search is secretive; officials say the selection process is a confidential personnel matter. Leading the effort is a committee of 10 UC regents, including Gov. Jerry Brown and student and alumni representatives. Its members declined to comment and so did the executive search firm—Isaacson, Miller. Matthew Haney, executive director of the UC Student Assn., said he expected the next UC president to come from outside the state, as did Yudof, who previously led state university systems in Texas and Minnesota. (Yudof is retiring in late August after five years in the UC job.) “It doesn’t seem as if [the UC regents] have elevated internal administrators for systemwide leadership to prepare them for this role,” Haney said. The campus chancellors “don’t have a significant or noticeable systemwide leadership presence,” he said, and other top administrators don’t have the national prestige that the faculty seeks in a president…

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-president-20130415,0,7690756.story

So they will search beyond UC:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdtozW3EBSU?feature=player_detailpage]

More on Yudof Private Thoughts

In an earlier post, we reproduced part of a Daily Bruin article that dealt with UC President Mark Yudof’s comments on “privatizing” the UCLA Anderson School of Management at the March 7 IMED Seminar. Below is a link to what he actually said (audio with a still picture). Yudof’s comments were more ambiguous than the news item suggested. First, the interviewer, Prof. Lee Goodlick, used the word “privatize” without defining it. (The P-word hasn’t been used in actual proposals regarding the Anderson School; “self-sufficiency” is preferred. In addition, the latest version of the proposal referred only to the MBA program and not the entire School.) Yudof interpreted it to mean a stand-alone school which was affiliated with UCLA but more or less autonomous. Using that definition, Yudof said it was incompatible with a public university, in part because a privatized school might disregard such public goals as access. Second, he said he could imagine a situation in which Anderson paid more of its own bills and thereby freed up taxpayer monies for other departments. Third, he noted the issue is before various levels of faculty review. The interviewer joked that the process might take a hundred years. Yudof said he hoped it would be faster. But, of course, after the end of August, it will be some other UC president’s problem.

The actual Anderson portion of the interview can be heard below:

The earlier post is at:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/03/mark-yudof.html

Mark Yudof’s Not-So-Private Thoughts

“Yudof… said he opposes the privatization of parts of the UC, specifically mentioning the UCLA Anderson School of Management, which had been considering becoming financially independent from UC funds. He said he is concerned that privatization would shift priorities away from those of a public university.”

Full story from yesterday’s Daily Bruin at:
http://dailybruin.com/2013/03/08/mark-yudof-featured-speaker-at-institute-for-molecular-medicine-seminar/

Now he tells us!

Yeah, sure. We believe you, Mark.

From the LA Times:

…Governor Jerry Brown suddenly became active in UC policies and Mark Yudof resigns. Is there any connection?
There is really no connection because I’ve been pondering [resignation] for a long time. The governor is extraordinarily intelligent, he is extraordinarily passionate. It does require some energy to respond to his ideas, but I’m fine with that. That would not be a reason to move on. If anything, I have some confidence that out of this passion of the governor, some very positive things for the university can come…

Of course, we believe you, Mark…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjTVYQ-Xcg?feature=player_detailpage]
…But there were the good old days:

You can read the full LA Times interview with Yudof at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-yudof-20130203,0,7317927.story

Listen to Radio Interview with President Yudof on UC Future

Yesterday, KPCC’s Airtalk with Larry Mantle featured an interview with the heads of the three segments of higher ed in California: President Mark Yudof of UC, Chancellor Timothy White of CSU (and until recently Chancellor of UC-Riverside), and Brice Harris, Chancellor of the community colleges. The full broadcast ran about three quarters of an hour. I have pulled out just the Yudof excerpts which run about one third as long.

As blog readers will know, Yudof has resigned as UC president, effective August. So he may now be a bit freer to say what he wants – but, of course, not totally free since he continues to serve and will have to deal with the governor for several more months. He discusses tuition (frozen for now), pensions (which he cites as the major rising cost factor for UC), the rising student-to-teacher ratio (which he says is why other costs have not risen), and faculty pay (which he says is below what private institutions pay but faculty at UC do it for the social good). He stresses that the state doesn’t pay for research which brings in outside funding. Also discussed are elitism, the $10,000 degree pushed by various governors, state support, online education and larger classes. Since the state won’t pay and tuition can’t rise, the only solution is some mix of larger classes, online ed, transfers from community colleges, credits for work experience. Will this hurt quality? He hedges but says that’s what is coming. Yudof is annoyed, and says so, about media complaints concerning high executive pay. UC pays less than the privates, you have to pay attention to the labor market, and that there is the social good argument. (Administrators, like faculty, work for less than market due to the social good.) He would like to see UC take 30,000-50,000 students more than it does due to population increases and the rising Latino population. And he would like to see regular faculty do more undergraduate teaching.

You can hear Yudof’s comments at the link below:

Peter Schrag on Yudof Retirement

Peter Schrag, a former columnist for the Sacramento Bee, wrote an op ed about President Yudof’s retirement. Excerpt:

…All told, the UC is in far better shape now than when he came. But it’s unlikely that it can ever again exercise the kind of influence, both in this country and abroad, that it did in its glory days under Clark Kerr in the 1950s and 1960s. It was an era when new UC campuses and new programs were created one after another, when students paid low “fees” and not tuition, and when California adopted a master plan that promised every Californian who could benefit from it a place somewhere in its three-tiered higher education system. UC was that rarest of rare institution, a tax-supported world-class research university that was elitist and democratic at the same time.

Ever since he came, Yudof promised to resist privatization, but privatization has come in any number of ways: in spiking tuition; in recruiting and admissions policies increasing the percentage of foreign and out-of-state students and the high tuition they pay; in the pursuit of industry contracts. UC is still the nation’s premier public university. But in its attempt to keep pace with Harvard and Stanford, it’s becoming more like Michigan and the University of Virginia, nominally public universities that started down the road to privatization even before UC did.

Yudof had been thinking about retirement well before he made his announcement last week. But it’s hard to imagine that Gov. Jerry Brown’s muscle flexing at recent meetings of the regents – even his pointed reminder that he is the legally designated board president – did anything to encourage Yudof to stay…

Full op ed at
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/25/5139675/uc-president-had-unheralded-victories.html

Bottom line: We’ll miss him when he’s gone:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8xM7N0Tzm8?feature=player_detailpage]

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/25/5139675/uc-president-had-unheralded-victories.html#storylink=cpy