State legislature orders audit of university funds

By Rachel Makabi
Daily Bruin Reporter

After accusations by state legislative members that the
University of California is misappropriating funds, the Joint
Legislative Audit Committee ordered an audit to investigate how
much money is allocated to summer school, faculty salaries and the
administration.

Though the audit was approved in September, the issues have been
tabled for at least another month because there aren’t enough
auditors to conduct the investigation, said chief deputy state
auditor Steven Hendrickson.

In a letter to JLAC requesting an audit, Assemblywoman Jenny
Oropeza, D-Long Beach, said one of the fastest rising costs at the
university is academic administration. She also said the audit
would determine how much of the funds allocated for new instruction
has been spent on faculty salaries.

The university’s statement regarding the audit says it
will cooperate with the auditors.

“UC currently provides regular accountability reports to
the legislature on a variety of university matters,” the
statement reads. “If the legislature wants to conduct
additional inquiries, UC will certainly give the state’s
auditors the necessary cooperation. The university fully expects to
satisfy any questions the state may have about UC
expenditures.”

The audit would also investigate if the UC is complying with the
Partnership Agreement, through which the state government would
allocate a 5-percent base increase to the UC budget every year if
the university improves the quality of education.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office Analysis of
the 2001-02 Budget Bill, 4 percent of this year’s base budget
increase will go toward salary and other cost increases, while 1
percent will go toward deferred maintenance, library acquisitions
and technology.

Vice chancellor of budget and finance Steve Olsen said the
reason most of the university’s expenditures go toward salary
increases is because the majority of costs are
personnel-related.

“There have been salary increases all over the university,
from Murphy Hall to Facilities Management,” Olsen said.
“We don’t make distinctions based on the titles of the
employees.”

According to Olsen, staff members who make under $80,000 a year
have had increases of up to 3 percent more than administrators,
adding that these people have probably had greater percentage
increases in salary than himself or the chancellor.

Due to changes in the economy, this year the government will
only allocate a 2-percent increase to the university instead of the
5 percent it had agreed to under the Partnership Agreement.

Olsen said none of this money will be redirected toward
“core costs” of deferred maintenance, library
acquisitions and technology, but that the entire 2 percent will be
allocated toward salary increases.

According to Paul Schwartz, a spokesman from the UC Office of
the President, the 2001-02 proposed salary increase will be 0.5
percent for all lecturers due to significantly reduced partnership
funding.

Olsen said UC staff and faculty will probably face compensation
cuts next year.

In addition to examining expenditure on salaries, the audit will
examine the University’s Instructional Activities Report over
the past three years and will determine if enough money is given to
UC summer sessions.

Olsen said the fees and academic quality of the summer sessions
are equivalent to those of the regular session.

Summer sessions director David Unruh declined to comment about
whether the summer sessions program receives adequate funding from
the university.

According to Beverly Hunter, chief of staff at Oropeza’s
office, the audit would also investigate if the university has
complied with the legislature in setting up a designated number of
classes.

“It is a trend where the legislature approves a number of
classes and then finds out that the number was not actually in
place,” Hunter said. “Somehow or another, we
don’t have the classes that the legislature has appropriated,
yet the money is being used.”

Schwartz said the legislature does not determine the number of
classes that are taught.

“UC does not receive funds from the legislature to
establish certain classes. More broadly speaking, the legislature
does not dictate UC curricula,” he said.

According to Hunter, the audit is estimated to cost $209,300 and
is not expected to be completed until spring of next year because,
in addition to collecting and comparing data from the different
UCs, auditors must interview all the people collecting the data to
make sure the methods are consistent.