Jump Onboard

Since the Chronicle last month broke the story that top University of California administrators were making hand over fist in bonuses and incentives, legislators across the state have been trying to jump on the media gravy train. The Senate Education Committee will be holding hearings on the matter. And today, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez announced he would ask for a JLAC (Joint Legislative Audit Committee) investigation, to be led by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra. Here's an excerpt from his Saturday radio address: Just last month I voted to oppose student fee increases that would have further shifted costs to students and their families. But recent media accounts have revealed that the UC system gave out millions of dollars in bonuses and incentives to senior administrators and faculty – while simultaneously raising student fees.  It’s painfully obvious that the University of California, one of our state’s most respected institutions, needs to enhance the transparency and disclosure of its compensation system. We also need to find out why the UC has added hundreds of high-paying jobs, while cutting services and increasing class sizes, while at the same time freezing pay for thousands of low-paid workers.  For these reasons, I’ve requested that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, chaired by Assembly Member Nicole Parra, initiate an audit of the compensation practices of the University of California.  This audit will look into: ·        salary and non-salary compensation; ·        the extent to which compensation is disclosed to the public; ·        and the disclosure practices in comparable institutions around the country.   We may need to provide enhanced compensation packages to attract the best and brightest to our finest universities, but our University System is a public institution with a public trust. That trust means that these salary and bonus decisions need to be fully disclosed to the public at large.  As servants of the people of California, it is vital that we are open, clear and fair in all of our employment practices.