UC Hires $400,000+ Chancellors during Budget Crisis

The till tapping of the University of California by managers demonstrates that to the capitalist class, our school system is just a cash cow to be milked for their benefit. None of them should be receiving more than $200,000 a year with no allowances of any kind. Only the healthcare should be paid for. Considering the people who perform the physical labor on these campuses qualify for food stamps as their wages are too low and the clerical workers do not do much better, this is more than generous. Anything more is STEALING OUR TAX DOLLARS FOR THE BENEFIT OF PARASITES, namely chancellors and presidents.
From: University of California faces scandal over chancellors
By Oliver Richards
24 June 2009
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/ucda-j24.shtml
In the midst of massive budget cuts, the University of California regents are coming under fire for hiring new chancellors with exorbitant salaries, one of whom is in the middle of a scandal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

In early May, on the same day that the UC regents decided to raise student fees by 9.3 percent (or $693, for a total of $8,720 per year for in-state undergraduates), they also hired two new chancellors.

Susan Desmond-Hellman was named the new chancellor of UC San Francisco with a salary of $450,000, a nearly 12 percent increase over her predecessor. Earlier this month, she informed students and staff that the budget crisis in the state would force sharp cuts in university programs and services.

Linda Katehi, who has been hired to be the next chancellor of UC Davis starting on August 17, with a salary of $400,000, will earn $85,000 more than her predecessor, Larry Vanderhoef. This will be an increase from her current salary of $356,000 as the provost of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Katehi will also be provided a generous compensation package that includes a $100,000 relocation allowance, free housing, a $9,000 annual automobile allowance, a generous health and pension package, a low-interest home loan and a faculty position when she ends her service as chancellor.

The pay increases for the UC chancellors were defended by UC President Mark Yudof, arguing that their pay is in fact low in comparison to the salaries of chancellors at similar universities.

“I felt like I got a pretty good discount, as a matter of fact,” Yudof stated.

Yudof’s salary runs at about $900,000 a year.

Katehi’s salary and compensation package is not the only source of controversy. Katehi is currently the provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which is reeling from an admissions scandal. Over the last five years, it is alleged that under-qualified students were admitted due to political patronage.

For more, see:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/ucda-j24.shtml