UC Execs’ Pension Plea is Demoralizing

The Sacramento Bee published an excellent rebuttal, written by faculty association members, to the demand by 36 senior UC administrators for higher retirement. The link to the Bee’s online version of the article is:

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/06/3302627/uc-execs-pension-plea-is-demoralizing.html

Here’s an excerpt:

Recently the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “three dozen of the University of California’s highest paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars to dramatically increase retirement benefits for employees earning more than $245,000.”

Some of these “Gilded 36” receive salaries in excess of $500,000. All will receive sizable pensions, even without this increase, while their salaries, bonuses, and perks allow opportunities for additional retirement saving and investment. These are opportunities most UC employees and Californians can only dream of.

In their letter to UC President Mark Yudof, these executives and deans stated that failure to increase their pensions would be “demoralizing.”

We – faculty who teach and guide students toward careers and contributions to society – point to far more demoralizing trends on UC campuses: Tuition increases that force students to borrow more, take on second jobs and withdraw before finishing degrees; budget cuts that vaporize classes, wipe out library access and leave unfixed broken chairs, projectors and lavatories; layoffs of skilled staff that gut essential services; declining graduate student funding that leads the best applicants to choose private universities over UC; realizing that teaching and working at UC does not mean that you can afford to send your children to its campuses.

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