Spooked by the University of California’s pension revolt – in which its highest paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC fattens their retirement benefits – a Democratic state lawmaker introduced a bill Thursday to prevent all public employees from gaining dramatically increased pension benefits. And Republicans are applauding. "You’re witnessing a moment of bipartisan joy," said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-San Bernardino, vice chairman of the Higher Education Committee. "I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of this myself."

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: January 7th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

While I have great respect for the four UC Davis leaders who signed this letter and understand their perspective, this demand comes at a time when our university is being asked to make many sacrifices and, as such, I do not support a change in the university’s policy that would increase their retirement benefits," Katehi’s statement says. "In just the past few days, many members of the campus community and friends of the university have written to me to express their concerns about the negative impact that the letter and the potential for a lawsuit will have on our fundraising efforts as well as our ability to continue to receive adequate support from the state. I do share these concerns. The coming year will be a particularly challenging one for the university, and this issue is likely to add to our challenges."

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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: January 7th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The statement from Yudof and Gould argues that even though the IRS lifted the cap, UC is not compelled to grant the higher pensions. “For reasons of fiscal prudence in a changing economy,” Yudof and Gould said, UC never gave final approval to augmenting the pensions. The fatter pensions the executives seek would cost UC $5.5 million a year, according to UC documents, plus $50.6 million more to make them retroactive to 2007, as the executives request. The Berkeley Faculty Association announced Tuesday that it had started circulating a petition opposing the executives’ request for larger pensions and that nearly 1,000 professors and staff had signed in the first two days of signature-gathering.

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by Laurel Rosenhall, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: January 6th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

University of California President Mark Yudof this week rejected a demand for a boost in pension from some of the university’s systems highest paid employees. That was the right move, but it didn’t go far enough. The request came from executives who said it was unfair their pensions would be calculated only on their first $245,000 in income. They make more. Such a request — at a time of state budget cutbacks, cuts in university offerings and big tuition hikes — was so out of line that it deserved not just rejection, but punishment. And the situation points to a fitting punishment. Cut the pay of these complaining executives down to $245,000. Then there are no extra pension benefits or calculations to worry about.

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by Joe Matthews, NBC LA.

Posted: January 6th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California is under no legal obligation to raise the pensions of its highest-paid executives, and it’s too expensive to do so, UC President Mark Yudof and regents Chairman Russ Gould said Tuesday, speaking out for the first time since dozens of top employees signed a letter threatening to sue over the issue… "The hypocrisy is that Mark Yudof is standing on a soapbox and positioning himself as the guy against high benefits for executives," she said. "But guess what? He’s got the highest benefits paid in the history of the University of California." Yudof earns $600,000 a year. His contract raises his pension significantly each year for seven years, as long as he remains employed at UC. If he retired this year, Yudof’s annual pension would be $92,000. If he stays until 2015, it rises to $350,000.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: January 5th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Let’s consider this projected $28 billion budget hole with some perspective: If we close all 33 of our state prisons, fire 30,000 prison guards and release 165,000 felons, we would save $9 billion. If we eliminate all support for the University of California and California State University systems, we would save $5 billion. We would save another $4 billion if we cut all support for our community colleges. Include the elimination of services for the developmentally disabled, our successful welfare-to-work program (CalWORKS) and In-Home Support Services for the disabled, and we would save another $7.8 billion. All totaled, our budget deficit would be whittled to about $2.3 billion – but not yet resolved. This is the severity of our situation.

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by Mark Leno, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: January 5th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

"These are valuable employees, but I think they have misread the situation," Gould said of the three dozen top administrators, deans and others who signed a Dec. 9 letter to Yudof. "We certainly don’t feel there is an obligation." And granting the increase, he said, "would be another hit on the pension fund." The regents are expected to discuss the matter at their regular meeting later this month, but labor unions, students and other UC critics are all but certain to protest any pension increase. "Quite frankly, I don’t see any traction [for it] among the regents," the board chairman said.

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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: January 5th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Current employees will have to pay an increasing amount into the fund. Within two years, 5 percent of an employee’s salary will go toward retirement. Faculty and staff have accepted relatively lower salaries for years in anticipation of secure retirement benefits. Several years without a cost of living increase has tightened wallets across the board. That’s a problem, said Shane White, chair of the UCLA Faculty Welfare Committee. "Of this time, university leadership understands that salaries lag, but no realistic plan has been proposed," White said.

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by Devin Kelly, The Daily Bruin.

Posted: January 4th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

As state budget cuts lock students out of community-college classrooms or force them to stand in class, for-profit colleges are attracting hundreds of thousands of poor and minority students, charging up to 10 times as much for the same degree. The industry, including Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan University, has tripled enrollment to 1.8 million in the past decade by pouring billions of dollars into marketing and recruiting, offering flexible online classes and outfitting more-modern campuses while states slash funding for community colleges. As much as 90 percent of revenue at each for-profit college comes from federal student aid.

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by John Lauerman, Bloomberg.

Posted: December 31st, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday named his chief public employee pension critic to the University of California’s governing board, which was rocked this week by a pension controversy. David Crane, 57, was named to fill a seat vacated by Joanne Kozberg on the Board of Regents. The governor will make dozens of appointments before leaving office Sunday at midnight. Crane has been one of Schwarzenegger’s top economic advisers since 2004 and a vocal advocate for changing the state’s public employee pension system.

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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: December 31st, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.