UC President Janet Napolitano announces salary freeze and voluntary pay cuts
Reported by the San Francisco Chronicle
According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, UC President Janet Napolitano sent a letter that the University of California system will freeze salaries of some employees and start a voluntary 10% pay cut for university presidents and chancellors. The article also states that the UC system is estimated to take a loss of $1.2 billion from the duration of mid-March to April, with the bulk of the loss being for UC Health and costs due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Read more from the article by Alejandro Serrano of the San Francisco Chronicle below.
The salary freeze will apply to non-unionized employees while a freeze on salary scales will apply to non-unionized administrative staff.
The sprawling system has about 270,000 students and 230,000 employees.
The letter followed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement last week that state officials plan to slash UC funding for the 2020-21 school by 10%, or $372 million.
“We anticipate these losses will continue to climb in the months ahead,” Napolitano said. “Needless to say, this significant loss of revenue is having an enormous negative effect on our budgets.”
UC officials plan to talk with union leaders about “the current reality of our financial circumstances,” identify costs that can be reduced — like eliminating non-essential travel and renegotiating service agreements — and develop budget scenarios for locations that anticipate cuts, according to the letter.
Cuts will not be necessary across the system, according to the letter, as each location “faces unique circumstances.”Officials are also working with state and federal officials to secure more funding, most of which is designated for student financial aid. They don’t anticipate reimbursement for losses.
“We are a strong organization and will work over time to address our losses and recover,” Napolitano said said. “The present realities and ongoing uncertainties, however, require us to take actions in order to adjust to current circumstances, resume our in-person research and teaching activities in a safe and gradual way, and help protect employees’ jobs.”
I remember going to Cal Lobby Day as a student to ask our state legislators to support funding for our public schools. That was over a decade ago, and the situation has only gotten worse. Meanwhile, the same legislators decry "increasing costs for students." Well, yeah...if the state doesn't fund STATE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, who do they think is going to pay for it? This is bad for students, bad for families, bad for the schools, and ultimately, bad for the community.