University of California chancellors will get big pay increases — close to 30% or more in most cases — as the Board of Regents agreed Thursday that higher salaries were needed to bring the leaders of the nation’s top public university system closer to the pay of their colleagues.
The increases, which will be paid for from private sources rather than tuition fees or state funds, take effect this month and will vary by campus. They will bring chancellors’ annual salaries to: $785,000 in Merced; $795,000 in Santa Cruz; $810,000 in Riverside; $820,000 in Santa Barbara; $895,000 in Davis and Irvine; and nearly $1.2 million in San Francisco. Private funds already subsidize some of the chancellors’ salaries in San Francisco and Davis.
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive will voluntarily forgo her base salary raise for 2024-25.
The UC chancellor’s salary currently is about the 32nd percentile of the average pay of comparable university leaders nationwide. This increase brings his salary to the 48th percentile.
The new chancellors at UCLA and UC Berkeley, who were appointed this year with the highest salaries among all undergraduate campus heads, did not receive pay adjustments. Julio Frenk of UCLA He will earn $978,904 when he takes charge in January and Rich Lyons of UC Berkeley They received $946,450 and $220,000 in private funds.
UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla also did not receive a pay adjustment, as he was $500,000 increase Last year — with money raised by private donors — his annual salary rose to $1.14 million. The regents approved the pay raise to prevent him from accepting the presidency of an unnamed, private out-of-state school.
By comparison, public university presidents Highest Annual Base Salary The University of Texas at Austin has Jay Hartzell, who earns $1.4 million, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Andrew Hamilton at New York University tops the list of private university presidents with an annual base salary of $3.3 million.
“The chancellors who lead UC’s ten campuses, each of which is a top-ranked university in its own right, are renowned scholars and administrative leaders who have significant responsibility for ensuring teaching, research, and operational excellence and for continually advancing UC’s service to the public,” a memo from the UC president’s office said. “Although UC campuses consistently rank among the best in the U.S. and the world, UC chancellors are among the lowest paid compared to their peers nationwide.”
Regents also approved pay adjustments for six senior UC leaders, including a 25.3% raise UC President Michael V. Drake That would bring his annual base salary to $1.3 million. In addition, 27 senior managers, including Drake and Chancellor, will receive a 4.2% general raise.
Regent John A. Perez said he was “very uncomfortable with the excessive reliance” on a salary survey data compilation known as the Market Reference Zone used to make decisions about UC salaries. He said the UC uses that comparative tool only for the system’s highest-paid leaders and does not evaluate lower-paid employees in the same way. Board Chairwoman Janet Reilly said she would form a task force to review compensation issues.
Disappointing budget scenario
On other issues, UC Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom painted a bleak budget picture for 2025-26, when the university could face a state funding cut of 7.95%. UC is projecting a total state funding drop of about $270 million for that fiscal year.
He said one of the possible ways to raise more money would be to increase supplemental tuition for out-of-state and international students. one-time increase payment By each incoming resident class of California.
Brostrom said another idea would be to give individual campuses a range of potential nonresident tuition increases they could implement. Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, in an interview While working with The Times before stepping down in June, he advocated for campuses to have the freedom to set their own nonresident tuition rates.
Regents said they were willing to consider such a plan, but some expressed caution about departing from current system-wide tuition levels.
Campus police will get more weapons
The board also approved the UC police request. Buy more military equipmentUCLA police, who were called in to handle one of the nation’s largest campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war last spring, received approval to double their stockpile of pepper balls and sponge rounds, acquire eight more projectile launchers and buy three new drones.
All California law enforcement agencies are required by state law to report annually on the acquisition and use of weapons identified as “military equipment.” A UC spokesperson called the police request a “routine agenda item” not tied to protests or other special events.
“All of the campus requests are for non-lethal alternatives to standard-issue firearms to enable officers to de-escalate situations and respond without using deadly force,” UC spokesperson Stet Holbrook said in a statement. “The requested items are necessary to maintain operational readiness, support ongoing training programs, and above all, ensure public safety.”
Opponents of the weapons request briefly shut down the meeting Thursday, but the regents went into another room and voted to approve.
Several UCLA faculty and students have spoken out against the request for more weapons, saying they were wrongly used against peaceful protesters last spring.
The report reviewed by the regents said UC weapons were used primarily for training during calendar year 2023, the time frame it examined. The use of weapons during the spring protests will be reported next year. But critics said their experiences with police during the demonstrations raised myriad questions.
The UC board’s memo on the issue said the use of the equipment last year prompted no complaints and did not violate university policy. The memo said no UC campus receives surplus military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense.
UCLA Police were requested To add 3,000 additional chilli shells to its stock of 1,600; 400 additional sponge and foam shells, double the current stock of 200; eight additional projectile launchers and three new drones.
