UC Professors Demand Audit

A group of University of California professors is calling for an independent investigation into UC’s compensation practices after reports that the university has spent millions in recent years on bonuses and other perquisites for top UC executives.

About 50 faculty members at UC Berkeley and UCLA have signed a petition that was sent Monday to Gerald L. Parsky, chairman of UC’s Board of Regents, and UC President Robert C. Dynes, asking for a “truly independent investigator” to examine the issue.

The faculty letter also was sent to UC Regent Joanne Kozberg and former California Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, whom Dynes recently named as co-chairs of a task force to look into the compensation issue and decide whether policy changes are needed. Hertzberg also served as a regent during his term as Assembly leader.

But UC Berkeley education professor Bruce Fuller, who helped organize the petition drive, said Monday that faculty think an investigator from outside the university is necessary.

“We just need an independent group to dig into this in an objective way,” Fuller said. “Otherwise, how can the university regain its credibility in Sacramento or with the voters?”

The action followed recent reports in the San Francisco Chronicle that the university has spent millions on bonuses, relocation packages and stipends for senior executives in recent years despite a funding crisis that has meant five straight years of fee increases for UC students.

UC officials have defended the spending as necessary to attract and keep the best administrators, and say that on average, UC’s top executives make less than their counterparts at comparable universities. But Dynes has said that UC could do a better job of explaining the issue and being more open about the details of compensation packages given to its senior administrators.

In a statement Monday, a UC spokesman said the university takes seriously its obligation to be “publicly accountable and as transparent as possible.” The statement noted the establishment of the task force, along with an internal review now being conducted by the university auditor, and said UC officials expect those actions to address the faculty’s concerns.