Yudof

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Regents Contemplate the Budget & Admissions 1-19-11 – Part 1

Byuclafaculty

I am going to be posting the Regents meeting audio from the session of 1-19-11, morning. This session was devoted to the budget outlook and a proposal to expand “holistic” admissions. It takes me some time to get the audios in shape for posting. I am going to post four which deal primarily with the budget and one which gets into the holistic discussion. When I have time, I will continue the posting. However, the budget discussion – although no decisions were taken – may well be significant. If you listen to the speeches by Regent Gould, President Yudof, and…

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Yudof on Budget, Privatization, Pensions

Byuclafaculty

There is an interview in the LA Times today (1-15-11) of President Yudof by Patt Morrison. Below are excerpts. …Morrison: You’ve used the Ed Koch line, “How’m I doing?” After 2 ½ years, how’re you doing? Yudof: I think we’re doing well, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish. We have a $20-billion shortfall, long run, in the pension plan. I think it’s going to take 20 years to dig our way out, but we have a plan. We put the new [student] eligibility standard into effect; it’s going to be a less mechanical admission [process], looking at the whole…

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Come July 1, UCOP and the Regents Better Have a Plan B

Byuclafaculty

As appeared more and more likely when the Brown budget proposal was being leaked out, a critical part of the plan involves getting voters to approve an extension of temporary tax increases that were originally approved in Feb. 2009. An added complication – more political than legal – is that the income tax increase has expired. So withholding from paychecks has dropped and would be restarted retroactively if such a measure were passed. This fact will add to the argument that the ballot measure is a tax “increase” rather than an “extension.” Republicans have been increasing emphatic that they will…

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Media Continues Anger on UC Executive Pension Issue: Flogging a Dead Horse?

Byuclafaculty

PropZero blog, KNBC LA, Joe Mathews, 1/6/11 University of California President Mark Yudof this week rejected a demand for a boost in pension from some of the university’s systems highest paid employees. That was the right move, but it didn’t go far enough. The request came from executives who said it was unfair their pensions would be calculated only on their first $245,000 in income. They make more. Such a request — at a time of state budget cutbacks, cuts in university offerings and big tuition hikes — was so out of line that it deserved not just rejection, but…

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Pension Rejection Hits the Press

Byuclafaculty

In an earlier post, the press release from UCOP rejecting the lifting of the pension cap for high-paid execs was reproduced. So now the story is in, where else?, the press: UC’s top leaders reject bigger pensions for top earners: Thirty-six highly paid employees have threatened to sue if benefits were not based on full salaries. The UC president and the regents board chairman support the $245,000 limit. (excerpt) Larry Gordon, LA Times, Jan. 5, 2011 The University of California system’s two top leaders on Tuesday rejected a politically controversial demand by some of the university’s most highly paid employees…

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Yudof Declares There Is No Legal Pension Obligation to Raise Ceiling for High-Paid Execs

Byuclafaculty

The following news release was issued today by UCOP:UC Newsroom Statement on executive pension benefits http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/24746 Date: 2011-01-04Contact: University of California Office of the PresidentPhone: (510) 987-9200 In light of recent media reports about a letter by 36 University of California executives regarding pension benefits, Board of Regents Chairman Russell Gould and University President Mark Yudof today (Jan. 4, 2011) issued the following statement: Ten years ago the University of California sought a determination from the IRS that a proposed new method for calculating pension benefits complied with federal tax rules. The new method would have resulted in higher pension…

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UC Executive Pension Issue Discussed on Local Radio Program

Byuclafaculty

KPCC’s Patt Morrison interviewed Nanette Asimov of the San Francisco Chronicle who broke the story on the demand by high-paid UC executives for lifting the cap on their pensions. One tidbit that comes out is that – so far at least – no one has located a Regents vote in 1999 that said the pension cap would go up if the IRS approved. (The IRS did approve several years later.) Apparently, a committee of the Regents endorsed the idea back then, but if there was no vote of the full body, it is difficult to see how a legal commitment…

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Clash of the Titans: Coming to a Regents Meeting Soon

Byuclafaculty

Background: Readers of this blog will know that at the Dec. 13 Regents meeting, where changes in the retirement plan were adopted, one item was dropped from the agenda a few days before the meeting. You can hear the Regents meeting on this blog. But there is only one vague reference to the dropping. The item involved a 1999 Regents decision to seek IRS approval to exceed a ceiling on pension benefits. The approval was received but the pension plan was never modified to implement the approval. The PEB task force recommended such implementation as part of its other retirement…

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Newspaper Editorial Unhappy With “Happy Talk” About UC Pension Fix

Byuclafaculty

Yet another reminder that the pension/retirement issue at UC did not end with the December Regents meeting below: UC president’s happy talk not helpful (excerpt) San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial December 20, 2010 Like so many public agencies in the Golden State, the University of California has promised vastly more in retirement benefits for its employees than it can afford. Taxpayers should find the UC system’s woes particularly appalling because of this fact: For two decades, the state and UC employees didn’t put aside any money at all toward future pension costs, leading to a current overall shortfall of $13.4 billion….

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New Funding Model for UC: Details Uncertain

Byuclafaculty

Word has been circulating on campus of a new systemwide funding plan for all the campuses coming out of Oakland and President Yudof. It is referred to as a “revenue allocation model” for the campuses, whereby each campus will retain its own revenues. A “tax” will be imposed on each campus to support the central UCOP operation. The new model is slated to go into effect as a pilot program in 2011-12, with full implementation in 2012-13. Exactly what is entailed in this model is not clear, nor are its implications for campus operation or the faculty. Since we are…