published in the SACRAMENTO BEE February 22, 2006 (Op-Ed page B7)
Commentary: UC regents skip faculty's lesson
By Charles Schwartz -- Special To The Bee
How can we understand the recent scandalous revelations about excessive
executive pay and perks at the University of California? I think it
arises from the Board of Regents, who behave as if UC were just another
big business enterprise - where the top executives are naturally
thought to deserve extremes of pay. They don't understand how a
university is a very different kind of institution.
In 1992, UC President David Gardner announced his retirement - and then
someone up high spilled the beans about the $1 million package the
regents promised Gardner behind closed doors. This came during a
recession when UC was cutting back classes and raising student fees
astronomically. Amid all the public noise over the revelation of
Gardner's package, the faculty at UC Berkeley held a special meeting of
their Academic Senate and passed a resolution. I helped write that
statement.
What follows is the Academic Senate's resolution approved in 1992. What
a pity the higher-ups paid no attention to the faculty's views then -
or now - as judged by the current uproar about UC's administrative
compensation.
* * * * *
The current controversy over large salaries,
perquisites and retirement benefits provided to top executives of the
University of California raises a number of questions of deep concern
to the faculty. In what follows we wish to be understood as passing
judgment not on the validity of any past contractual commitments nor on
the value of any individual university administrator, but rather on
general principles which we believe ought to guide administrative
policies henceforward.
The central claim has been that these high
levels of compensation for top administrators in the university are
appropriate, in view of the large size and complexity of this
institution, and necessary in order to be competitive in recruiting the
best talent available for the job. We believe these views are based
upon standards derived from the commercial sector, standards which are
fundamentally inappropriate to the academic world, and especially wrong
for a publicly funded university.
In private business making a dollar is the
definition of success, and so the most successful chief executives are
paid top dollar. In the university, however, we have fundamentally
different values. Professors are quite accustomed to seeing their
students go on to the world of commerce and earn much higher salaries
than their teachers get; but we have chosen to devote ourselves to the
calling of scholarship. This commitment is what makes the university so
valuable to society, and this value cannot be measured in dollars.
It may not be too severe to say that a
university president who is dissatisfied with her/his salary is a
university president who should look for another job. Yet, we also
recognize that any individual administrator would be foolish to settle
for less than the going rate. What we are faced with is an inflated
market based upon distorted priorities; and our present goal is to
renormalize this situation.
We need not elaborate on our own unhappiness
upon learning of the rich payments given to top executives of this
university during a time when the salaries of all staff members,
including ourselves, have been frozen.
This controversy also has multiple impacts
upon our students. In terms of fairness, it is difficult to see how
increasing benefits for top administrators can be reconciled with a
decreasing budget - when students are required to finance a major
portion of the deficit. In terms of education, it undercuts our efforts
to impart the virtues of knowledge, critical thinking and intellectual
creativity - when the almighty dollar is held up as the principal
measure of the worth of university leaders.
Beyond protest, however, we take this
opportunity to declare a position of principle, as follows, which we
advocate for adoption by the Regents of the University of California
and by the governing bodies of all other universities as well: It
should be the policy of any institution of higher learning that the
total compensation paid to any executive officer should not exceed
twice the average amount paid to its Full Professors.
RESOLUTION: The Berkeley Division of
the Academic Senate of the University of California endorses the
preceding statement and directs its chair to circulate copies of this
statement, along with appropriate supporting documents, to faculty
leaders at the other campuses of this university and, to the extent
feasible, at other major universities across the country.
* * * * *
- Faculty statement, approved at the May 6, 1992, special meeting of
the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate of the University of
California
About the writer:
Charles Schwartz is professor emeritus of physics at the University of
California, Berkeley. Reach him at schwartz@physics.berkeley.edu