The second casualty
16 hours ago
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
UPTE Press Release
University Professional & Technical Employees (UPTE) have issued a press release on the large pay increases awarded to UC execs here. (Link is to pdf download.) The release documents the creation of new executive positions and the increase in administrative stipends without clearly defined new duties. It might interest some readers of this site that a certain law school dean is the recipient of a $43,000 bonus for serving as "Special Advisor" to President Yudof.
5 comments:
Everyone should read this press release very carefully. The pay increases approved this past year by the Regents (some of them at the same meeting at which they cut the hell out of staff and faculty) are stunning, especially if you know some of the people who got the raises and understand their real worth in terms of talent and creativity.
A pair of examples that should make you gag:
Chief Campus Counsel and Associate General Counsel, UC San Diego Campus. Awarded a
13% retention increase of $27,500 to increase salary from $207,500 to $235,000.
Dean – School of Theater, Film, and Television, Los Angeles Campus at a salary of $325,000, a $121,100 or 59.4% increase over her predecessor, Robert Rosen who's 2008 salary was $203,800. Additional eligibility to participate in the university low interest mortgage program up to the current maximum loan amount $1.33M.
It is stunning. Is it just that folks cannot resist throwing money at each other? Or part of a crafty plan to make the crisis deeper? How does one respond?
Is there any knowledge of this going out to the media? I imagine UPTE will be raising a ruckus over this. But I've been quite surprised by how little play there's been on the public higher education crisis in the mainstream media.
"I've been quite surprised by how little play there's been on the public higher education crisis in the mainstream media"
I think there are two reasons for this. First, the public does not see it as a crisis; they cannot see what consequences the cuts will have on their or their children's education. This is why it is important to make furloughs visible.
In addition, many messages I've seen both on this blog and in other fora clearly show that for the public, by now accustomed to the most ruthless capitalism, higher compensation packages are, by themselves, proof that the recipients are more deserving.
It does seem like an odd conflict for the public. On the one hand, many comments on news articles on the matter run toward (a)wake up, there's a budget crisis; share the pain with the rest of us; public officials are overpaid and that's the real problem; go ahead and leave if you can get a better offer; the quality of the education is no longer improved by higher salaries; perks and salary increases are another sign of the greed and corruption of folks feeding off the public without accountability; poor babies;
and on the other (b) that's what it takes to have a top class educational system; these pay levels are still a lot lower than private sector; while there are abuses, we shouldn't lose sight of the importance of education; I value the education I received from (UC, CSU, ...); the state must restore its support for higher education;
while on third hand of this beast we have (c) this is a symptom of [pick one or more of] Republicans, prop 13, socialism, gerrymandering districts, elitism, racism, the initiative system, the dysfunction of the legislature, the dysfunction of the governor, the dysfunction of unions, the failure of higher education to matter, leftists in education, or an uninformed public; for this, a meltdown is actually good as it will drive the [any of those selected above] out and will serve them right.
These views seem more in the manner of a three-way rugby scrum than anything that drives toward a clear insight and plan of action. The crux isn't going to be the brilliance of any particular insight, but the gaining of leverage, through events, to a popular will.
Surfacing "look at the reckless pay while crying over budget cuts" will only push the scrum around a bit...as an event, adds bits of drama. If anything, it leads to the "they deserve to meltdown, the whole stinking lot of them" gaining ground.
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