Yudof

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Audio of Regents Meeting of 12-13-10: UCOF Approval & Post-Employment Benefits Plan Approval

Byuclafaculty

Below are links to the audio of the Regents meeting of 12-13-10. There are 13 segments. (A couple of minutes of noise at the beginning of Part 1 have been omitted during which there were problems in linking two locations. The meeting officially began once the link was established.) At this meeting, the Regents approved the UCOF (University Committee on the Future) report as well as the Yudof plan for post-employment benefits (pension & retiree health care). The Regents meeting took place with a video link to UCLA where some Regents attended. As the previous post on this blog noted,…

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UC Pension Solutions and the External Threats to Them

Byuclafaculty

In prior posts, I have noted that while the Regents can modify the UC pension plan in response to its underfunding problem, their actions could be overridden by external forces such as a ballot initiative covering all public pensions in California. Now comes word of another external threat, Congressional legislation that would effectively force public pensions to use a risk-free interest rate assumption in calculating their unfunded liabilities. The proposed legislation apparently would not technically force public pension authorities to do so but it would deny tax-favored status to their municipal bonds if they did not. I was alerted to…

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Academic Council Endorses Yudof Plan on Retirement Benefit Changes

Byuclafaculty

The Academic Council has endorsed the Yudof proposals for changes in post-employment benefits (pension, retiree health care) that will presumably be adopted by the Regents at the December special session. Below is the text of a letter confirming the endorsement. I have verified that the letter is a public document, although – at this writing – it has not yet been posted on the systemwide Senate website. November 24, 2010 MARK YUDOF, PRESIDENT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Re: Post-Employment Benefits Dear Mark: I am pleased to advise you that at its meeting on November 22, 2010, the Academic Council unanimously endorsed…

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A Misleading Headline: Darrell Steinberg Blasts UC and CSU Fee Increases

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert blog carries the headline “Darrell Steinberg blasts UC and CSU fee increases.” It goes on to describe a letter sent by California Senate President Darrell Steinberg addressed to Regents Chair Gould, UC President Yudof, and their counterparts at CSU. Here is an excerpt from the text of the Capitol Alert blog: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has written to state university chiefs to object to new fee increases after legislators restored and boosted state funding this year to the embattled systems. During tough budget negotiations, Steinberg said in a letter Thursday, “we provided…

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Regents Session on Retiree Health, Nov. 17

Byuclafaculty

The Regents will take up retiree health on Wednesday, Nov. 17, in a session beginning 10:15 AM. You can find the background materials at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f4.pdf The chart above, which does not appear very clearly as reproduced in this blog, is on page 5. It shows the retiree health program’s unfunded liability. In fact, the program is not prefunded so virtually all funding is pay-as-you-go. But the background report treats it in the same way that the pension plan is treated. The chart shows the unfunded liability – with no change in the participant contribution policy – rising from around $15…

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Yudof’s Pension/Retiree Health Plans Getting Outside Criticism

Byuclafaculty

As previous posts have noted, UC has proceeded on its proposed modification of the pension and retiree health plans with an inward looking focus. The external world may not be so receptive. Even before the formal presentation to the Regents later this week, there is public criticism. See below: UC changes barely touch retirement cost problem (excerpt) Daniel Borenstein, MediaNews columnist, Contra Costa Times Posted: 11/13/2010 09:00:00 PM PSTUpdated: 11/15/2010 08:34:45 AM PST GENEROUS retirement programs that have been irresponsibly managed for decades are pushing the University of California off a financial cliff. President Mark Yudof will ask regents this…

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Yudof Explains Tuition Increase in Public Letter: Tries to Mitigate Bad News with Good News But Comes Across as an Apology

Byuclafaculty

Most of the media coverage in fact focuses on the tuition increase, not the mitigating subsidies to lower income student nor the material on the quality of UC. Whether intended or not, the letter was likely seen as an apology for the increase.———————–Open letter to California fromUC President Mark G. Yudof 2010-11-08 The University of California was conceived in the immediate aftermath of the Gold Rush, and ever since the fortunes of the state and those of the university have been entwined. One would not be the same without the other. The university is both a creation of and the…

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All in the Same Boat on New Pension Plan?

Byuclafaculty

One of the elements of the Academic Senate’s reaction to the two-tier pension proposals has been that faculty and staff should remain in the same plan. (See earlier posts.) President Yudof rejected Options A and B and went along with a version of C. It was unclear (to me) what staff unions were going to say about the proposal. At least on the issue of “all in the same boat,” AFSCME appears to agree with the Senate. From a recent article in the Santa Cruz Sentinal: “The proposal is not good enough,” said Lakesha Harrison, president of AFSCME Local 3299,…

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Academic Council Comments on Lower-Tier Pension Options

Byuclafaculty

The Academic Council released a statement on the pension options. It appears that the process of commenting began well before President Yudof went for a version of Option C for the new lower tier. The Council noted the Yudof announcement (see earlier post for the annoucement) but produced a document that nonetheless referred to all three options: A, B, and C. Its key point is that there should be offsetting increases in cash pay. It also opposes separating faculty and staff into two different plans. The Council letter is at https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzVLYPK7QI_4OWRhYTYwMDUtZjFiYy00MmZhLTgwYTQtZTA3NjRkZjJhNjg4&hl=en&authkey=CNXzgOMD

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Two Unclear Issues in the Yudof Pension Proposal Clarified

Byuclafaculty

Our previous post reproduced the letter from President Yudof explaining what he will be recommending to the Regents in mid-November regarding changes in the UC retirement system. (The Regents are expected to make their formal decision in December.) In one sense, the letter was no surprise since it recommended a lower-tier pension for new hires of the defined-benefit variety. Essentially, Yudof is opting for a version of what has been previous termed Option C, a defined-benefit plan that is NOT “integrated” with Social Security (as Options A and B were). The letter, however, makes no mention of the proposal that…