Cash-strapped UC hands out millions in raises

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(08-17) 17:10 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The University of California will spend $140 million raised from increased student tuition, general fund money and other UC sources to give merit raises to thousands of faculty members and nonunion employees earning up to $200,000, UC officials said today.

UC is experiencing what officials have called the worst financial crisis in its history, losing million of dollars in state funding over the last few years while steadily raising tuition and laying off employees to compensate.

But the regents also agreed last November to set aside money for merit raises. Faculty have consistently received such raises during the last few years, but the salaries of nonunion staff members have been frozen for four years.

These employees include supervisors, managers, financial analysts and many others. While some earn close to $200,000, about two-thirds earn less than $80,000 a year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/17/BAH11KON2P.DTL

How do you propose to keep productive faculty at UC if you're not giving merit raises?

It's a very dishonest article. It mentions faculty who make $200,000 a year. Some even make $400,000! Wow! Yeah, well who exactly is that? Some famous law school professor?

Most junior faculty in the UC system are hired at just over $50,0000/ year. They have also been furloughed consistently and often over the last three years, along with other state employees. The difference is that the job of an assistant professor doesn't "stop" because a day is designated a furlough day: nobody adds time to your tenure clock. Similarly with other ranks. For faculty, a furlough is just a pure pay cut.

The vast majority of UC faculty make under (indeed, well under) $100,000/year. It's not a glamorous job. You work hard. And if you contribute to your field and the University, you may get a 2% raise. Are we so bitter that a 2% raise for a middle class working professional earning $65,000 in some of the most expensive cost-of-living markets in the country is some kind of outrage? Really?

If so, carry on. We'll hire the young professors flooding out of the UC system (or refusing to take jobs there) over here, and you can then complain about the decline of quality at UC.

I've been to UC - its a good college, but its no picnic there. The immediate area is a bit rough, commuting is very difficult, and the cost of living anywhere you go is still very high.

Neither is UC San Diego. Just curious.

I studied accounting and business at UCLA for a couple of years - which I still think is the most beautiful campus anywhere - and had to go to USC a few times for different things, which was a stark contrast (though some excellent departments there!).

According to my friends working in Cal-State system, they were not allowed to work or even to come to
campus on furlough days. With their tenure clocks merrily ticking away. And all that on top of an actual
10% pay cut.

Of course, since junior faculty would presumably have access to research resources away from their offices and labs, the furlough system for faculty is literally asking them to work for free.

http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/

It looked to me last time I checked that most of the PROFESSORS making loads of money were medical school professors.

However, there are loads of administrative people making six figure salaries. Seriously, how many people at the average CSU who aren't professors should really be making six figures?

Humboldt State, which has a student body of 7,700 students, has 39 people making over six figures. Of those people, 6 are professors and 2 are the school doctors, which leaves 31 administrators making a lot of money.

(Assuming that the salaries of the 31 admins average out to 120K apiece, that's $3,720,000 a year, or $483 per student per year. EDITED TO EMPHASIZE: THIS IS NOT FOR ALL ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, JUST FOR THE 31 PEOPLE AT THE TOP.)

I also think it's a steaming pile that the two people in the whole STATE GOVERNMENT who make over $2 million a year are both in athletics. I think athletics should be the first on the chopping block.

Usually the coaches have a base salary that is pretty much in line with what other faculty members make, and then receive a "talent fee." (on edit: the talent fee is usually the seven figure part). IIRC, here are restrictions on where talent fee money can come from. More specifically, I don't believe it can come from state allocated funds. It either has to come from alums/boosters, or from corporate sponsors (which for most UC schools would mean Nike).

A base salary alone (not counting summer camps, corporate $$$, perks, etc.) of $300,000 plus is not even in the same ballpark with what an average professor takes home in a year.

They also bring in major revenues to their schools.

That point aside, I certainly agree with you on several points relating to administrators and certainly athletic issues.

What I disagree with is the notion - certainly present in the article, and implicit in the OP - that professors should not receive merit raises because they are some kind of overpaid class of employees. It's simply not true.

because they don't have research profs (well, very few) and that hopefully keeps the levels of bureaucracy down a bit.

Also, $100,000 in Arcata is different than $100,000 in the Bay Area. :P

:thumbsup:

some with $100K in debt or more get a merit raise.
:eyes:
I am starting my first year of my professorship, and I can assure you, unless I write a best-seller, I won't see $200K/year. Ever. Probably not even half of that. Most of us don't do it for the money, but we have to eat, pay loans and support families.

:sarcasm:

Check out the investment officers for the state reirement systems.... they are all pulling down 400K+....

There are about 15 of these at various retirement agencies....




CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES' RETIRE

PUBLIC EMPL'S RETIREMENT SYS

2010 Pay

Base pay: $383,762.00, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$168,290.00
Total pay: $552,052.00

2009 Pay

Base pay: $281,192.00, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$127,518.00
Total pay: $408,710.00

2008 Pay

Base pay: N/A, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$0.00
Total pay: $0.00


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-details/?firstname=Joseph&lastname=Dear&totalpay=408710&agency=PUBLIC+EMPL''S+RETIREMENT+SYS#ixzz1VMCQDlE4

They're the ones that are bloated. I'll bet they're getting nice, juicy raises, too. Yet the Chron chooses not to make a big fuss over that. :eyes:

"Went to Disneyworld", for some talks with "other" schools and they found enough money to double his salary.

So you take a 3 megabuck basketball coach, a football coach who makes over a million, a University president who banks almost 1/2 a million, some $150,000 a year professors, and a whole bunch of peons who make 8-14 bucks an hour.

Average those numbers together and you get a resentful local population who thinks the "gownies" are overpaid and underworked.

Oh, yes, the Townies have all the answers, first off, cut EVERYBODY'S pay by 50%.

Never mind that you can't legally pay 1/2 the service staff that little. Honestly, we got clerical staff who make $17,000 a year. And a basketball coach who makes millions.