First off I’d just like to say that I’m welcoming all the harsh/constructive/tube-fed comments you guys can throw at me. So on to the show…

In an unprecedented all-too-common move, the Tri-Valley Herald reports that the UC Regents voted this morning to raise the salaries of its top administrators yet again. In all, these salary increases amount to over $770,000 for 33 UC administrators, plus plenty more in equity adjustments, including one for our very own Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

Employees receiving equity adjustments include UC Senior Vice President of University Affairs Bruce Darling, whose salary will increase 11 percent from $276,000 to $307,500 annually and UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Genaro Padilla, who will make $172,500, up from $169,400. Additional increases — totalling a combined $770,000 — went to dozens of other administrators at campuses throughout the state.

…

“Now that controls are in place, the regents felt it was appropriate to go ahead and give them the money,” [UC Spokesman Paul] Schwartz said. He added, “These people are underpaid, as are many employees within the university, and everybody within the university deserves to be paid appropriately, and this is part of the annual program that all employees participate in.”

He’s right to say that many University employees are underpaid, but to give the first raises to those who make some ten times as much as the day-to-day laborers at our universities is simply preposterous.

While these increases are relatively small compared to those that elicited controversy over the past few years, it still shows that the Regents aren’t afraid to dole out money to those at the top of the system while ignoring the students who will take the brunt of the UC system’s debt as well as the rest of the UC employs who barely make a living wage as it is.

Update: The Regents are now also planning to restart a program requiring Union workers within the UC system to start paying out of their salaries for parts of their retirement plans starting in July 2007. This is the first time in 15 years where such dues would be required, and could amount to up to 8% of everyUC worker’s paycheck; according to the President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. The University’s own actuary, Venuti & Associates, has already denounced the plan as unjustified.

3 Little Bears said...