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SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California's regents took further steps Thursday to try to resolve its long-running controversy over executive compensation, in many cases by giving retroactive approvals for deals previously granted without the required board signoff or disclosure. The corrective actions came in response to several audits last spring that detailed scores of instances in which UC leaders had failed to follow their own policies in granting additional pay or benefits to top managers. In most, the extras were provided without explicit regent approval. Those audits followed media reports that the university system had given millions in bonuses,...

The University of California's Board of Regents created three high-ranking jobs to supervise the system's troubled finances Thursday, the same day it agreed to let about 60 top executives keep some $1 million in extra compensation they weren't supposed to get. The regents retroactively approved the raises and other perks, most of which audits had revealed were obtained by the president's office without going through the proper channels. Three separate audits - performed by the Bureau of State Audits, an outside firm and the university's internal auditor - were launched after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that executives were getting...

An undisclosed number of UC executives will share $770,000 in pay raises to be discussed today behind closed doors by a key committee of the University of California Board of Regents. It will be the second round of pay hikes for some of the senior managers, who got an average 2.5 percent annual salary boost in November. ... --snip-- The names of those in line for the raises were not disclosed. ... --snip-- Because UC officials refused to release specifics on the pay package, it is unclear exactly how many of the university system's 300 top executives -- chancellors, vice...

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California has awarded $702 million in low-interest home loans to executives, faculty and staffers, including some to employees who did not qualify under university policy. There are nearly 2,000 active university-issued loans, most carrying interest rates of 3% to 4%, but some with much lower rates, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. Officials with the 10-campus system refused to reveal who received the money, citing employee confidentiality. But they released some details, including an unidentified UC Berkeley professor who was given a $250,000 home loan with an interest rate of 0.5% a year. An...

The University of California has issued thousands of low-interest home loans to executives, faculty members and other selected employees but has refused to reveal who received the money. That includes an unidentified UC Berkeley professor who received a $250,000 home loan at one-half of 1 percent interest a year -- far less interest than any bank would demand. ... --snip-- The university provided data showing there are nearly 2,000 active loans totaling $702 million but cited employee confidentiality in refusing to identify the recipients. In dozens of cases, UC wouldn't even reveal the titles of people who received the loans....

University of California officials have formed search committees for three new administrative posts to help improve fiscal oversight and management following a compensation controversy. The new positions are a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer who will oversee non-academic functions within the UC Office of the President and a compliance officer who will ensure that university practices and policies are followed. A number of reviews into UC pay practices found that administrators routinely circumvented or ignored policies in order to secure better salary deals for top executives. Salary ranges for the jobs are still being finalized, a university...

Getting fired for incompetence from the University of California system is apparently harder than it looks. How else to explain how UC President Robert Dynes kept his job? But if the UC Board of Regents wishes to stick with the current administration, the board had better explain how it plans to forestall further UC compensation abuses. The regents on Thursday supported Dynes despite his presiding over hundreds of secret executive pay deals totaling tens of millions of dollars. Over the past five years, three under Dynes' watch, the president's office approved more than 700 "separation agreements" -- a euphemism for...

SAN FRANCISCO - University of California President Robert Dynes gets to keep his job, butthe Board of Regents pledged Thursday to watch him more closely after outrage about millions of dollars in overpayments to top administrators that prompted calls for his resignation. The regents met in closed session for much of Thursday morning, discussing the situation with Dynes, before announcing their decision to allow him to stay. They pledged to increase their oversight of UC pay practices and policies. Dynes has been under fire since last fall, when reports emerged saying that UC administrators withheld information from regents and the...

SAN FRANCISCO – University of California President Robert C. Dynes, under fire over millions of dollars in bonuses and other perks secretly paid to top executives, got the support of his board Thursday. “He is the appropriate leader to resolve these issues and guide the university through this difficult chapter in its history,” UC Board of Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky said. Smiles and applause greeted the statement, read as the board held its regular meeting in San Francisco. Still, the regents had some stern words for their president, saying they “hold him accountable for the university's compensation problems and he...

UC regents and state lawmakers harshly criticized the University of California's pay practices Wednesday as an internal audit revealed scores of violations of university policy and UC President Robert Dynes admitted to a culture in his office of "trying to get away with as much as possible and disclose as little as possible." University auditors told the UC Board of Regents they had found that 143 exceptions to the university's compensation policies had been made to give extra pay or benefits to 113 senior managers. That's on top of the 91 exceptions identified last month by PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors for a...

University of California President Robert C. Dynes said Wednesday "overactive secrecy," helped create a situation where millions in perks were quietly doled out to top executives. Fallout over the extra compensation intensified with some calling for Dynes to resign. But it was unclear whether he had lost the confidence of UC's governing Board of Regents the only people with the authority to fire him. Regents met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss Dynes' role in approving violations of UC pay policies and board Chairman Gerald Parsky said he would have no comment on UC leadership until Thursday. Concerns about how...

Robert C. Dynes, the president of the University of California, holds one of the most influential and visible positions in American higher education – and he faces the possibility of losing it. For months, Dynes, a physicist and former chancellor at UC San Diego, has struggled to emerge from a controversy over undisclosed pay and perks for UC executives and faculty. To some, Dynes is a victim, someone who inherited a culture that defied university rules and has simply followed the practices of his predecessor. To others, Dynes is an ineffective administrator who, despite assurances, cannot be trusted to make...

Robert Dynes says he has "quite a unique opportunity" to redefine the office of the president of the University of California in the wake of the executive compensation scandal. He's correct. The office of the president needs to change -- beginning with its occupant. Within the past month, a UC Regents task force and two outside audits of the university reached the same conclusion: UC violated its own policies when giving employees millions of dollars in bonuses and perks. Dynes "either knew about all of these secret compensation deals and looked the other way, or he was completely unaware of...

An institute of higher education should be a pillar in our community. A university should not be average, but it should shine bright. It should be looked upon with reverence, integrity and above all else, it should be held to a higher standard. I believe many of our colleges and universities not only meet these high standards, but exceed them. Unfortunately, when one university or one school system, does something inappropriate, and then tries to cover it up, then all universities are impacted by the one who dropped below public expectations. Of course, I am talking about the Office of...

The audits just keep coming. The whopping revelations just keep mounting. The University of California just keeps shelling out, mired in a longtime culture that has to change. Examples from the just-released report of the state auditor illustrate the problems, past and present. Eight years ago, UC San Francisco granted the senior vice chancellor for finance and administrative services loans totaling $1.2 million on sweet terms, including buying back his house near campus for $643,000. Just two months ago – with the pay controversy roiling, UC Board of Regents in high dudgeon and UC President Bob Dynes promising reform –...

Some people want Bob Dynes' head, but the University of California president isn't about to give it to them. "Do I look like I'm crumbling?" Dynes shot back when asked during an hourlong interview Thursday whether he were more the type to harden under pressure or crumble. Dynes' comments came the day after three state senators called for him to be replaced over revelations of hidden executive compensation, and two days after the Bureau of State Audits blistered UC officials for, among other things, circumventing compensation policies set by the governing Board of Regents. Dynes answered those blasts indirectly at...

Three state senators called Wednesday for the ouster of University of California President Robert Dynes over a pay-perk controversy that has roiled the prestigious public research institution. Sens. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, and Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, called on Dynes to resign at a news conference in Sacramento. In a related move, Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, called UC Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky and asked him to fire Dynes. ``Dynes still doesn't get it,'' Denham said in a statement. ``While at times, he has been a good cheerleader for the UC, he has been a horrible manager. He seems to think...

It took all of 48 hours for University of California President Robert Dynes' vow to begin a new era of honesty and transparency on compensation issues to be undercut by fresh examples of institutional arrogance and secrecy. Last Wednesday, Dynes appeared before a state Senate committee to take questions after a series of newspaper reports detailed how UC officials had hidden millions of dollars in compensation for top executives and given sweetheart deals to departing officials. Many of these deals were cut without the required approval of UC regents. Many blatantly violated policies the UC system adopted in the early...

The University of California gave President Robert Dynes' office assistant a relocation and moving package usually reserved for top executives and faculty, according to a newspaper report. Eileen O'Callahan, who manages Dynes' schedule and correspondence among other duties, received a $520,000 low-interest housing loan and a 25-percent pay raise to $106,250 a year when she agreed to follow Dynes from the chancellor's office at UC San Diego, the San Francisco Chronicle said. The compensation package approved roughly three years ago also included a $26,563 relocation allowance that came on top of O'Callahan's reimbursed moving expenses, according to documents obtained by...

The University of California's Board of Regents last week abrogated its oversight duties by granting near autonomy to the UC president for setting the salaries of top executives. The taxpayers -- and students who have faced tuition hikes for five straight years -- deserve better. UC President Robert Dynes has gained the authority to grant up to 7.5 percent annual raises to most of the 400 executives throughout the 10-campus system who make between $117,000 and now, potentially, $887,000 a year. An analysis in The Sacramento Bee showed that, for instance, the chief executive officer at UC Davis Medical Center,...