Editorial: UCSD head’s salary boost an insult to UC staff

When Marye Anne Fox takes the reins of UC San Diego, she will
receive a salary of $350,000 a year ““ a 25 percent increase
over her predecessor, current UC President Robert Dynes.

The salary increase is part of a trend of rising executive
salaries at the University of California and other schools across
the country. At the UC, however, the trend stands in contrast to
stagnant faculty and staff salaries. In this period of budgetary
crisis, pay increases for executive officers seems insulting, if
not unfair.

Admittedly, the pay of UC chancellors is still below the
national average at comparable schools. Fox will be the second
highest-paid UC chancellor at $350,000, and the average at
comparable schools stands at $424,000. But that figure includes the
pay of many top-flight private institutions.

The average public school head earns about $290,000 ““ a
figure now exceeded by Fox’s salary.

And faculty salaries across the UC have been stagnant for
several years. Right now, faculty salaries lag at least 9 percent
behind salaries at comparative schools. Similarly at UCSD, the last
two years have seen almost $24 million in cuts to the budget.

These numbers stand in stark contrast with the $69,000 increase
in the chancellor’s salary at UCSD.

Many of the people affected by these cuts do not make six
figures a year ““ and they would be right to resent top
executive pay increases larger than their entire salary.

Working at a state university must be seen as a public service.
Like an engineer who chooses to work for the state or a lawyer who
serves as a public defender, state university employees must know
they will never be paid as well as private sector workers with
similar credentials. Similarly, top university executives should
see their jobs as having a service element.

Simply put, no top UC executives could be considered poor or
needy. UC chancellors all make six figures and are provided with
private homes at taxpayers’ expenses.

Today it seems entities of public higher education increasingly
are forced to compete with the private sector (and themselves) to
recruit top talent. Across town, the University of Southern
California recently set aside $100 million to help recruit 100 top
professors, highlighting the extreme costs that can be associated
with hiring the best people possible.

While high salaries for star hires might be unavoidable in the
long run, the UC also must consider the impact of the current
budget crisis when setting salaries.

Considering the state of the UC budget ““ and its impact on
staff salaries ““ pay increases for top executives send the
wrong message. At any respectable corporation, executive salaries
are tied to company performance and revenues.

Arbitrarily raising top salaries is a slap in the face for
rank-and-file workers who toil through the year and then are told
there is no money to give them cost-of-living raises. The next time
the UC Board of Regents considers changing executive salaries, it
should consider what kind of message it will send to the rest of
the UC system.