Berkeley, April 1 - The University of California, already under scrutiny for management practices, is being sued over its stewardship of employee pension funds.

        The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, April 1 in Alameda County Superior Court by the Coalition of University Employees and the San Jose Mercury News, accuses UC officials of making risky investments, violating the California Public Records Act, and withholding information other public pension funds now disclose routinely.

        "UC is flunking math, civics and history," said Karl Olson, the attorney who prepared the brief. "California's flagship educational institution is behind the times and below the standard for full disclosure. Do they have something to hide?"

        The Coalition of University Employees asked UC to disclose the "internal rate of return" of venture capital funds last December, on the heels of a decision by the California Public Employees' Retirement System to disclose the same information. The San Jose Mercury News also asked UC to disclose the information after successfully suing CalPERS to force disclosure of the venture capital losses. But UC has refused to turn over the records, even though CalPERS, the California State Teachers Retirement System, the University of Texas Investment Management Co., the University of Michigan and other public pension funds all release returns of individual venture capital funds.

        The lawsuit seeks to force UC to turn over the venture capital funds' returns as well as records of closed sessions UC held in 2000, when it adopted a new asset allocation plan and hired an outside advisor, Wilshire Associates; and in 2002, when UC fired its entire equity investment staff and decided to hand out the $15 billion in funds to multiple outside managers.

        Joining CUE and the Mercury News in the lawsuit is Professor Charles Schwartz, a retired physics professor at UC Berkeley who has acted as a watchdog over UC's investment activities. His series of critical articles, "What's Happening With the Pension Fund?" are available on-line at http://ocf.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz.

        The Coalition of University Employees represents 18,000 clerical employees, including administrative and library assistants, cashiers, public safety dispatchers, and child care workers, at the nine UC campuses, associated medical centers, Office of the President and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. For more information, visit www.cueunion.org.