UC regents consider furloughs, budget cuts

Facing angry protesters, the University of California regents convened a tense and somewhat raucous meeting this morning in San Francisco to consider a plan to have most faculty members and employees take 11 to 26 unpaid furlough days to cope with cuts in state funding.

More than 100 demonstrators from UC labor unions picketed outside the meeting at a UC San Francisco facility, and some later interrupted the proceedings with chanting against the proposal, which would amount to pay cuts of 4% to 10% on a sliding scale depending on salary levels.

"We have a plan which is fair but nobody is happy about it," conceded UC President Mark G. Yudof. The alternative, he said, would be layoffs, which nobody wants.

The regents are expected to approve the plan during the two-day board meeting. But agreement will be needed from unions representing about half of UC employees, and labor leaders say they oppose the proposal unless UC looks more at tapping other potential revenue sources like endowment funds to maintain salaries. 

UC officials contend that most such funds have restricted uses and cannot be diverted to support across-the-board pay increases.

-- Larry Gordon in San Francisco

Comments

[Omida]

The problem is that they are not cutting salaries and the perks of the high-paid UC and CSU exec. While they shamelessly cut low paid employee salaries, they continue benefiting excessive house and car allowance. This is not fair!

[cantab]

I am a professor at the University of California, and I want layoffs. In the last 20 years there has been permanent expansion of the number of staff. Many of these provide no direct services to students or faculty or patients.

That said, the proposed plan is reasonable and fair. The unions want to protect their current members at the expense of everyone else, including taxpayers and potential future employees.

It is important to understand that many UC staff are unionized, but faculty are not. UC is reasonably efficient and flexible at the faculty level. It is not efficient at the staff level.

[Andrea T.]

Layoffs would not be such a bad option. There is a lot of dead wood within the UC bureaucracy. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like anyone is willing to do the legwork to find and cut it out.

[Jacob]

Cut their pensions. Why pay someone for doing nothing. Cut from the top. Car and housing allowances? No wonder we are in such a mess. Greedy bastards. What about the 5,100 individuals who pull in 100,000 plus in pensions. One lady was getting 500,000. Why are we paying so much to people who are doing didly squat.

How much more can you raise tuition? No one will be able to go to school and than who will pay your salaries... don't forget, its about the students and not your high paying mortgages, the vacations in europe, and blah blah blah

Like they said in france back in the days, "off with their heads"... Are we going to let it get that far?

[OCTwinMommy]

Do you mean to tell me that with all of the brain power at UCLA and UC Berkeley and UCI, the best option the board of UC Regents can come up with is to either lay off or have mandatory furloughs? Please,...U..C..if you can come up with something better.

[Friend of staff]

"It is important to understand that many UC staff are unionized, but faculty are not. UC is reasonably efficient and flexible at the faculty level. It is not efficient at the staff level.

I have friends and a fiance who are, or have been, staff members at UCLA, and I can tell you that, whatever the inefficiencies of UC staff, the faculty are worse. They may not be unionized, but they have tenure protection. Many are prima donnas whose worlds revolve around themselves. So, to the faculty member who was pointing the finger at the staff (classic denial of responsibility), I say that UC's problems have been a team effort.

[Just Sayin, YourTown, YourState]

I agree with Andrea T and cantab.

I wholeheartedly support public education. Yet, we have all seen waste that has accumulated over the years at all levels, from pre-K, K-12, to college. We all have pals that are in the educational system, and have heard first hand accounts of the waste.

I also support the teacher in the classroom in general. But there too, are some problems. There are some teachers that you can tell really don't want to be there anymore. Just check out ratemyteachers dot com. To me, the teachers unions have been too successful in job protection, protecting the occasional bad apple along with all the good apples. Get a clue- having a bad apple really *annoys* the good apples! Takes forever to let go of a felonious teacher.

[debeer]

The number if socialists, communists and bums that read and comment in the LA Times is staggering. Time to grow up and earn your keep. I or society owes you or your family nothing. Get a good education and or work hard at getting a good job and take care of your own! Pay your own way...Food, housing, utilities, college education, medical, dental on and on. Why should I have to pay for you and yours? ENOUGH!

Don't be jealous of anyones success. Their success does not diminish your chance at success at all. You folks remind me of the 5-9 year waiting list for section 8 housing. People wouild rather sit and wait for government handouts for years as opposed to improvong their lot in life themselves. I am not talking about those with mental or physical hardships, but the lazy bums who mooch off the system.

BTW how many students at UC should not even be there?

Carry the deadwood in place of the achievers and the system collapes...as we are witnessing here in California

[Todd]

John Garamendi is trying to use this meeting to get the UC regents and chancellors to support a tax bill that no one has even read! Totally classless

[Jonathan]

I don't understand why the unions are complaining about the graduated pay cut. Initially the pay cut was going to be 8% FOR EVERYONE. Even people who are paid through grants through the federal, not state government were going to get cuts (how is that fair, or even economically a good decision?) Now with 4-10 (more likely 4-12 or higher) % graduated cuts the unions STILL WANT MORE?

The protests for the cuts, say "Cut from the top" Do they mean cut from professors and faculty or cut from the management staff? If you cut from faculty, why would any professor want to work at a UC rather than a different institution. All this will do is run good professors, who get investment from the government for federal research, out of town.

[CHOP FROM THE TOP!]

CHOP FROM THE TOP!

[CW]

The UC Regents are lying to the public. It is not "accept this plan or there will be layoffs." There have already been major layoffs of STAFF at many campuses. They have just done a nice job keeping it quiet so the Regents can have PR on their side. I purposely said STAFF because faculty sure aren't losing their jobs after putting in 10, 20, 30 years of service the way staff have been.

[Andrea T.]

Regarding cantab's comment that faculty at UC are reasonably efficient and flexible ... that is not entirely true. Faculty moonlight on personal projects, protect pet projects, and often prefer to teach small graduate seminars then deign to teach the larger undergraduate classes (which can be left to lower paid lecturers). Their compensation packages can include generous relocation benefits and even jobs for their spouse or life partner. UC spends too much retaining faculty in order to maintain the illusion of prestige. UC is not Harvard or Yale. It needs to come to terms with the fact that it is a public school and that its main purpose is to educate the children of California. UC can't compete with private schools in terms of straight money. Instead, UC should revamp its staff to provide a work environment that minimizes bureaucracy and compete for faculty on the basis of superior work environment and the opportunity to serve the greater community.

[right]

I work at UC too and I am staff but not union. The unions at UC are like the ones in the auto industry. Watch them bleed the system dry if they get their way. It's hard enough to fire UC union employees and usually all these union employees do are complain about their low wages and DO NO WORK as staff like me pick up the slack. IT IS DIFFICULT TO FIRE A UNION EMPLOYEE. Let's face it, with a state unemployment rate of +10%, there are people who will work those union jobs.

Regarding the comments from Just Sayin. did you just compare the UC to K-12? Are you that ignorant? California K-12 is ranked at the bottom of the US school system out of all 50 states. The UC has a world class system that is admired around the world. I respect a number of the productive faculty that work their butts off to get research grants and to publish ground-breaking research in their fields.

[Jennifer]

The regents want to cut all UC workers salaries in the interest of being "equitable". My salary is supported by FEDERAL grants. The state of CA does not pay a dime to support me or my benefits. Cutting my pay will not help the UC's bottom line. That money cannot be diverted into other funds. The same can be said for hospital staff. UC has billions in rainy day funds that could be used during this torrential downpour. The UC is going to lose faculty to universities that will pay and support staff who actually get the work done. UC is only considering the implications of 09-10 and not long-term if student, staff and faculty decide to find a better education out of state.

[mishi]

debeer spews - "The number if socialists, communists and bums that read and comment in the LA Times is staggering. Time to grow up and earn your keep. I or society owes you or your family nothing. Get a good education and or work hard at getting a good job and take care of your own! "

Well, apparently the readership contains at least one offensive right-wing jerk, huh? My partner has worked - WORKED HARD - for over 25 years at UCSF in a technologist's for pay that didn't match the private sector's and now - thanks to the glories of boom-and-bust capitalism you apparently have multiple orgasms over - has to take a chunky pay cut right before he retires. I hope that should you be in a care crash and be taken to UC, or some other publicly supported hospital, a copy of your insulting, red-baiting screed will be pinned to your chest. It would be nice to let the slackers responsible for saving your evil-tempered life to know who they're dealing with.

Come to think of it, I'd rather that you keep off the communistic publicly supported freeways, that MY tax dollars are paying for, and maybe commute by broom instead.

[gi228]

I work at UCSF and have worked there for the past 20 years. The entire nation is hurting, we must buck up and do this. I for one am happy to have some extra time off and would much prefer to suffer a bit of pain than see good people laid off.

As a nurse, I certainly hope that CNA does not make a ruckus and make us look like greedy special people, we are all in this together.

Time will pass and everything will be right again.