University faculty and nonrepresented staff earning less than $200,000 annually will be eligible for merit raises under a plan announced this past week by the UC Office of the President.
The pool of funds — included in the budget passed last fall by the UC Board of Regents — was set up to finance the university’s effort to recruit and retain high quality academic and non-academic professionals — an effort that has been severely weakened by California’s budget crisis.
“Our non-represented staff members have not received a merit or cost-of-living increase for nearly four years and took pay cuts from the furlough program,” UC President Mark Yudof wrote in a letter to the 10 university chancellors. “Many are working longer hours as a result of budget-induced layoffs of their coworkers.”
The raises would be set at 3 percent of overall base pay and would use the existing evaluation criteria for faculty and non-represented staff. The funds for the merit increase come primarily from medical center revenues and grant funds, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel.
“About 18 percent of the money budgeted for all salary merit increases is coming from state general funds and slightly more than one-fifth is coming from other core funds,” Montiel said. “These include student fee revenue and UC general funds.”
The overall cost of the raises for non-academic staff is roughly $83 million, while faculty salary raises are expected to cost $57 million.
Academic Senate Vice Chair Robert Anderson contended that although this is a start, a longer term pay raise plan is necessary.
“In 2007, the Regents adopted a four-year plan to bring faculty salaries to competitive levels. Unfortunately, they abandoned the plan after one year, as the budget deteriorated,” said Anderson in an email. “The Academic Senate has strongly argued for the need for a multi-year plan to restore the faculty salary scales to competitive levels.”
The evaluation process for academic personnel will be the same as it was during the last merit pay raise process in 2007, Montiel said.
“For academic personnel, there are ongoing performance evaluations that happen roughly every three years,” said Montiel. “They have gotten merit raises in the past — under this program anyone whose most recent performance evaluation was positive will get a merit raise.”
The process for non-academic personnel — more than two-thirds of whom earn less than $80,000 a year — is somewhat different, according to Montiel.
“For non-academic staff, the performance evaluations happen in the fall, and any merit raises would be retroactive to July 1st of this year,” Montiel said. “Performance evaluations will happen for all nonacademic staff every year. For academic personnel, their reviews happen every three or four years.”
Four hundred members of senior management will be left out of the merit pay raise increases — even though “the vast majority of (UC) senior leaders are compensated below market-levels, as study after study has documented,” according to Yudof.
Montiel said that all these actions are related to Yudof’s desire to strengthen UC chancellors’ recruiting tools.
“It’s also about excellence, academic excellence,” Montiel said. “Yudof is aiming to ensure that chancellors have another tool for recruiting and retaining faculty members at all levels.”
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Typical two faced criminal Chancellors who enjoy
having peaceful protesting students
assaulted and battered with pepper spray and night sticks by their police while
having the balls to vote to raise the salaries of campus administrators and,
using their other face, try to explain the reason for higher student tuition is
the budgetary cuts! What a crock!! Get rid of these criminals!!!
I love the University
of California (UC) having been a student and lecturer. But today I am concerned
that at times I do not recognize the UC I love. Like so many I am deeply
disappointed by the pervasive failures of Regent Chairwoman Lansing, President
Yudof and the ten campus Chancellors from holding the line on rising costs and
tuition increases.
Californians are
reeling from19% unemployment (includes those forced to work part time, and
those no longer searching), mortgage defaults, loss of unemployment benefits.
And those who still have jobs are working longer for less. Faculty wages must reflect California’s ability to pay, not what others
are paid.
Pay increases for
generously paid Faculty is arrogance.
UC Berkeley (ranked #
70 Forbes) tuition increases exceed the national average rate of increases. Chancellor
Birgeneau has molded Cal.
into the most expensive American public university.
President Yudof and Chancellor
Birgeneau have dismissed many much needed cost-cutting options. They did not
consider freezing vacant faculty positions, increasing class size, requiring
faculty to teach more classes, doubling the time between sabbaticals, cutting
and freezing pay and benefits for all chancellors and reforming the pension
system.
They said such faculty
reforms “would not be healthy for University
of California”.
We agree it is far
from the ideal situation, but it is in the best interests of the university
system and the state to hold the line on cost increases. UC cannot expect to do
business as usual: raising tuition; granting pay raises and huge bonuses during
a weak economy that has sapped state revenues and individual Californians’
income.
There is no
question the necessary realignments with economic reality are painful. Regent Chairwoman Lansing can bridge the public trust
gap with reassurances that salaries and costs reflect California’s economic reality. The sky above UC will not fall
Opinions? Email the UC Board
of Regents [email protected]
This is Yudoff’s Buyoff.
That is exactly what it is, and it should be regarded as such from this point forward. He is buying the silence of the faculty and staff as he and the Regents impose further cuts and further shift the tuition burden onto students and families. When the students ratchet up the protests, Yudoff will expect the faculty and staff to close rank behind him. And being the bought-off cowards that they are, most of them probably will, necessitating bolder, more disruptive tactics.
“He is buying the silence of the faculty and staff”
Highly unlikely. Only a few people will qualify for merit increases. The rest will probably be even more dissatisfied. And nobody at Berkeley is noted for remaining silent.
Payoff of Academic Senate and Academic Council for supporting YUDOF!
Cal tuition, fee increases exceed national
average rate of increase. Self serving tuition increases used to increase pay,salary of facultty. The message that President Yudof, UC Board of
Regent Chair Lansing, UC Berkeley Birgeneau are sending is they have more
concern for generously paid chancellors, faculty
UC Berkeley most expensive public university in USA
UC Berkeley Chancellor displaces qualified for public university education at Cal Californians with $50,600 FOREIGN students
have an opinion? summ up your courage and email UC Board of Regents [email protected]
Note that the raise is for “nonrepresented” staff. As the University’s funding has collapsed, unions have insisted on getting pay raises, mainly by accepting layoffs of their low-seniority members. Now there’s a significant pay differential between union an non-union job classifications.
That’s such bullshit. Employees represented by CUE haven’t had a raise in over 6 years, and salaries of represented and non-represented employees in the same job classifications are nearly the same. In fact, the University has much more discretion to give merit raises for non-represented employees, and this particular instance seems more like a flippant “fuck you” to represented employees, most of whom are getting bupkes this year.
If by “bupkes”, you mean that unionized staff are getting “gold plated pension and health care”, then I completely agree.
No, Cappy, as a matter of fact I am paying more this year for my mediocre PPO than I was this time last year. There’s nothing gold-plated about it, nor about the UCRP.
Not that this is the first time you’ve run off at the mouth without knowing what you’re talking about…
LOL, so the truth comes out. You’re another UC staff employee who spends hours a day trolling the comments of the student newspaper from your campus computer. Priceless.
Maybe if you actually did some productive work you would receive a larger compensation. (Shocking concept, I know.)
Hours? It takes 15 minutes, tops, out of the day to read anything on here worth reading, and to respond accordingly.
Captain Morgan nailed your sorry ass.
“the University has much more discretion to give merit raises for non-represented employees”
Well, of course. Raises for represented employees are entirely non-discretionary, the result of negotiations with the bargaining unit. UC is trying to keep pay for everyone roughly equivalent. Unfortunately, there’s only enough money for merit raises, not range adjustments.
[Employees represented by CUE haven't had a raise in over 6 years]
They can always quit, join the > 10% unemployed in the private sector in this state, and look for a new job if they think they have such a raw deal…