EDUCATION: UC doles out raises for chancellors

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Four University of California chancellors – including Riverside’s Kim A. Wilcox – were awarded raises this week as part of a strategy to make pay more competitive with salaries of counterparts at some of the nation’s major universities.

Wilcox and chancellors at campuses in Merced and Santa Cruz each had base salaries reset to $383,160 per year at a UC Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, according to the university. They are the three lowest-paid leaders in the 10-campus system.

For Wilcox, the man who has been at the helm of UCR since August 2013, the decision meant a 5.1 percent increase from $364,620.

Merced and Santa Cruz chancellors – who were making $319,300 – saw salaries bump up 20 percent.

Also receiving a 20 percent increase was UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang, whose salary rose from $324,450 to $389,340.

“President (Janet) Napolitano and the regents felt strongly that it was important to adjust the salaries of our lowest-paid chancellors as a first step toward longer-term changes that will make UC pay more competitive with other peer public and private universities,” said Steve Montiel, a spokesman for the UC Office of the President.

“President Napolitano will come back to the Regents in six months with a plan to do that within the next two to three years,” Montiel said by email Friday. “This is all about maintaining the quality of leadership required to preserve the excellence of UC campuses.”

However, the decision was sharply criticized by a union leader who represents UC system employees.

Todd Stenhouse, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, representing 22,000 health care, food service, custodial, security and transport workers, termed the timing alarming.

Stenhouse said the decision comes at a time when there is a need to address on-the-job safety in the wake of a spike in employee injuries.

“It’s a question of the fiscal priority at a given point of time,” Stenhouse said in a telephone interview. “Think of the message that this sends to the public.”

The move did not affect the highest-paid chancellors.

Topping the list is San Francisco’s Sam Hawgood, who earns $750,000 a year. In Southern California, UC Irvine has agreed to pay its new chancellor $485,000 a year. Howard Gillman took over the helm there on Thursday.

RANKING OF UC CHANCELLOR SALARIES

• San Francisco, Sam Hawgood, $750,000.

• Berkeley, Nicholas B. Dirks, $501,404.

• Irvine, Howard Gillman, $485,000.

• UCLA, Gene Block, $428,480.

• San Diego, Pradeep K. Khosla, $423,417.

• Davis, Linda P.B. Katehi, $412,000.

• Santa Barbara, Henry Yang, $389,340.

• Riverside, Kim A. Wilcox, $383,160.

• Merced, Dorothy Leland, $383,160.

• Santa Cruz, George Blumenthal, $383,160.

Source: American Association of Universities, UC Office of the President

[Source]: The Press Enterprise