Board awards pay increases to administrators across UC

By Bimal Rajkomar
Daily Bruin Contributor

Because many university employees are getting raises this year,
most were more accepting of the $1.6 million being given to top
administrators than they were in past years.

The UC Board of Regents approved salary increases for the third
straight year during the Sept. 14 meeting at UC San Francisco, with
only Student Regent Justin Fong voting against it.

To raise salaries that are above $168,000, a regents’ vote
is required.

Chancellors and other officials earning above $168,000 were
eligible for basic merit pay increases of about 3.5 percent, which
are given to reward good work.

UC President Richard Atkinson received a $11,800 increase to
$349,100 and UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who took a pay cut
coming here from Harvard, received a $10,300 increase to
$304,800.

“Salary has never been a major consideration about my
excitement at being at UCLA. As with any employee, I think its
important for people to be treated fairly. I took a decrease to
come here and I’m very glad that I did,” Carnesale
said.

UC Merced Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, whose campus is
still being built, received the smallest raise out of all the
chancellors, $10,000.

Frances A. Ridlehoover, Chief Operating Officer, Hospital
Systems of the UCLA Medical Center received the largest raise at
UCLA ““ $61,800.

“It is an effort to recognize the achievements of top
leadership,” said UC spokesman Brad Hayward.

Last year, Regent Velma Montoya voted against such raises
because she said there was concern over the reasoning behind some
of the raises.

But she said this year during the closed session discussion of
the raises, those same fears were raised. Montoya said it was
brought to her attention that one of the regents said there was
comparison data provided this year for people working in the UC
Office of the President ““ though this later turned out to be
false.

Comparison data is used to determine whether employees are
underpaid for their position.

When asked if she would have voted differently knowing this, she
said, “Right now, I think it’s more important to get
the information.”

The action comes after the state allocated $19 million to the
university to give raises for lower-paid employees.

“It is a broad program to make the university more
competitive, but this year the real emphasis has been on lower-paid
employees,” he continued.

But Howard Ryan, an organizer for University Professional and
Technical Employees union, said he wishes the university could have
shown more of a concern for lower-paid workers in the past few
years.

“I think it should be pointed out that they have gotten
raises over the last two years,” Ryan said. “They seem
to have more of a concern for the top-level administrators than
workers at the other end of the UC hierarchy.”

Unlike the past two years, this year there were no
across-the-board equity raises, which are given to make salaries
more competitive. Instead, top administrators were eligible for
market-based merit raises which account for inflation.

According to an independent survey by William M. Mercer, Inc.,
the UC chancellors’ average September 2000 salary was 19.4
percent below the salary average at 26 comparable public and
private universities.

This is even more than last year, when top administrators were
9.5 percent behind other universities, despite two years of equity
raises, because the other universities had raised salaries as
well.

Because UC administrators were being paid less than those with
comparable jobs, some students did not have a problem with the pay
increase.

“Its important for people to be paid what they are
worth,” said Paul Killion, a first-year electrical
engineering student. “It’s a lot of money, but its not
more than what other people with similar jobs are
making.”

TOP UC OFFICIALS GET RAISES Every year, the UC
chancellors and other top level administrators receive raises to
keep them at the university and equal their pay with other
administrators at similar colleges. Name
Position Title Current Salary
Rate October 1, 2000 Salary Rate Richard
Atkinson UC President $337,300 $349,100 Michael Bishop
Chancellor-San Francisco $335,300 $346,700 Robert Berdhal
Chancellor-Berkeley $294,500 $304,800 Albert Carnesale
Chancellor-Los Angeles $294,500 $304,800 Ralph Cicerone
Chancellor-Irvine $260,500 $271,200 Robert Dynes Chancellor-San
Diego $262,000 $271,200 Larry Venderhoef Chancellor-Davis $262,000
$271,200 Henry Yang Chancellor-Santa Barbara $262,000 $271,200
M.R.C. Greenwood Chancellor-Santa Cruz $250,000 $260,000 Raymond
Orbach Chancellor-Riverside $250,000 $260,000 Carol
Tomlinson-Keasey Chancellor-Merced $235,000 $245,000 SOURCE: UC
Office of the President Original by MAGGIE WOO Web Adaptation by
AVISHAI SHRAGA/Daily Bruin Senior Staff