Regents focus on transparency
By Kassandra Reyes
Aug. 16, 2009 11:52 p.m.
The main conference room at the James E. West Alumni Center was full on Thursday as representatives from government, education and business discussed practices and polici es concerning the compensation of faculty and senior staff, as well as transparency, within the University of California.
The original task force was appointed in December 2005 by then-Chairman of the UC Board of Regents Gerald Parsky to create recommendations on how to improve the UC’s openness of such information to the public. The follow-up was scheduled to report on the UC Regents’ progress by this year.
Co-chaired by Regent Joanne Kozberg and former California State Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, the task force specifically reviewed topics such as competitive compensation and public disclosure, according to a statement.
The meeting consisted of an evaluation of the 22-point checklist of recommendations as well as a discussion of what will be brought up at the Regents meeting at UC San Francisco in September.
In terms of the topics presented at the meeting, 10 of 16 policies were reported to have been completely revised and implemented; the rest will continue the revision process and then be presented to Regents at the end of the fiscal year.
In regard to the public disclosure issue, the Regents have taken a number of measures to make information accessible to the public.
For example, a Web site presenting compensation information, reports and studies of the University of California was established as well as an official position to oversee public information practices and coordinate public information requests.
Additionally, an annual accountability report is now prepared, put online and mailed to elected representatives.
“We are deeply committed to disclosure,” UC President Mark Yudof said.
The task force also discussed the complexity of the UC and the number of businesses and markets in which the system is involved. It was mentioned that despite releasing compensation information to the public, some might not appreciate the context of the data.
“The university is in many businesses. Often that complexity is not appreciated,” Yudof said in an introductory statement.
“Even in an economic downturn … we work to pay everyone according to the market,” he said.
This led to a discussion of competitive compensation and how to maintain the UC as a strong research institute, despite financial constraints.
“Without competitiveness we are underinvesting in human capital. With per-pupil funding down from $15,000 in the 1980s to about $7,500 today, we need to continue to work on how to provide high-quality service,” Yudof said.
One thing that might be helpful would be to let campuses make compensation recommendations and to centralize the responsibility to the public, he added.
Overall, the task force decided that based on the progress made by the UC Regents to address their initial concerns regarding transparency and accountability, it would not be necessary to reconvene.
