Substances That Float to the Top

These are bizarre times at the University of California -- but before I can talk about them, you should take a moment to watch UC President and lumbering land mammal Mark Yudof shrug and sigh his way through an interview with the New York Times. Why did he go to work in the field of education? Well, you know, he just, I don't know, sort of, um, I guess that, like, I really wanted to work for a law firm, but, I don't know, whatever. (Shrugs, sighs.)

With leadership like this, how can we fail?

Here are three facts about the UC system to put together for a clear picture of the problem:

First, libraries on my campus, UCLA, are sharply reducing their operating hours. Night Powell, the hugely popular all-night study hall at the College Library, is scheduled to close. Saturday library hours are gone entirely, campus-wide, except for libraries at the professional schools (which are closed to, or have sharply limited access for, most students). If you want to study, use a research database, or check out a book, UCLA is not the place for you. We have other spending priorities.

Like our metastasizing executive paychecks:

"At the UC Regents meeting in July, several executives were appointed at salaries from 11 percent to 59 percent higher than their predecessors. The Regents also voted to give 'administrative stipends' ranging from $24,000 to $58,625 to several employees, without any extra duties, and added several new highly paid executive positions. All told, the Regents approved nearly $2 million in monetary compensation increases at just one meeting."

So we're closing libraries and raising tuition, but boosting salaries for people who never see a lab or a classroom. That's the second item.

And here's number three: Last Sunday, the governor vetoedSB 86, a bill that would have politely asked the independent UC Board of Regents to consider holding back pay raises for executives in years of fiscal crisis. God forbid the UC president be asked to live on nothing more than his $600,000 salary and $168,000 in housing allowances (which he gets after telling the regents that the Blake Mansion, the state-owned residence of the UC president, wasn't nice enough for him to live in.) These are tough times -- the man needs a raise.

In a recent column in the Guardian, UC Professor Judith Butler lamented the decline of the university, pointing at all the usual causes. She saved this question for the eleventh column:"Why in this age of slash and burn has the UC administration bloated by 283%, as their own public financial reports make plain?"

The university -- both the system and the campuses -- has begin to reorganize and cut back on administrative overhead. But it's too little, too late.

In his latest comments on the crisis, Mark Yudof ends with his usual tactic, pointing elsewhere:"Anybody game for a march on Sacramento?"

I'm game for a march on Oakland. With a bucket of tar and a sack of feathers.