Free Republic

For months, University of California President Michael V. Drake has been unnerved by a series of security threats at his Berkeley home: Racist graffiti. A smashed window. A break-in. Trespassers who jumped a fence surrounding the property that was erected in March. In one particularly disturbing attack in May, a vandal spray-painted racial slurs and profanity across the front and back of the presidential residence. Drake, the UC system's first Black president in its 155-year history, was not at home. But the attack shocked the UC and Berkeley community, led to an ongoing hate crime investigation by local law enforcement...

Regents scrap meaningless Principles Against Intolerance and form a committee to rework the language. Shana Tova! Great start to the new year! After hearing from dozens of students, faculty, alumni and Jewish groups yesterday at the meeting, and more than 3,000 University of California (UC) stakeholders over the past six months, the UC Board of Regents publicly acknowledged our concerns about antisemitism on UC campuses and promised to address them. In a huge victory for AMCHA-led coalition efforts: The Regents – for the first time – publicly acknowledged the necessity of addressing the problem of antisemitism on UC campuses. The...

Protecting Free Speech By Ari Bussel The expression “ugly” or “naked” truth hits one squarely in the face. No makeup, costumes or other tricks of the trade, just plain, exposed reality. One we often do not like when we see it. Many times it takes a child, someone naïve, unbiased and innocent, to expose things as they really are, not the way we were grown accustomed to see them. Without any pretense or illusion, without lighting or sound effects, the child declares, “Naked is the King,” and we are astonished at the simple truth we see for the very first...

UC Berkeley’s recent elimination of popular sports programs highlighted endemic problems in the university’s management. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s eight-year fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians in Sacramento, since they stopped giving him every dollar he has asked for, and the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means. A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies in the system and then crafting a plan to fix them. Compentent oversight by the Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him...

Students from 19 states yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from California officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges. The 42 plaintiffs say California state lawmakers and the University of California board of regents knowingly violated a federal law enacted in 1996 that says any state that offers discounted in-state tuition to its illegal aliens must provide the same lower rates to all U.S. citizens. California has a "unique" statute barring discrimination on the basis of geographic origin, said lead attorney Michael J. Brady. Some students in the...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Manatt, Phelps & Phillips partner George D. Kieffer to the University of California Board of Regents. ... Kieffer, 61, is based in Manatt Phelps’ Los Angeles office, where he serves as chair of the firm’s Government and Regulatory Policy Division, overseeing major business litigation, business transactions and land use matters. He is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of ManattJones Global Strategies LLC, an international consulting firm and wholly-owned affiliate of Manatt Phelps. Admitted to the State Bar in 1973, Kieffer joined the firm as an associate that...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the following appointments: (snip) Bonnie Reiss, 52, of Malibu, has been appointed to the University of California Board of Regents. Since September 2007, she has served as operating advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private equity firm based in New York. Reiss also currently serves on the board for the Women's Conference, Afterschool All-Stars and the California Dream Team. She previously served as senior advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2003 to 2007, where she advised the Governor on all major policy initiatives including education, the environment and children's issues. From 1994 to 2003, she...

San Francisco financier Richard Blum has built his reputation - and his multimillion-dollar fortune - by swooping in and turning around troubled corporations. His first major coup was putting together a partnership in 1968 to buy the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for about $8 million - and then selling it for $40 million four years later. So it surprised no one that Blum adopted an alpha dog approach when he became chairman of the UC Board of Regents last year in the aftermath of the university's widely publicized management meltdown. And he's gotten results: the imminent departure...

University of California leaders raised prices for professional schools Thursday, rejecting arguments that the increases close the door on poor students. The increases, under which some campuses will be charging more than lesser-known branches, were a departure from the tradition of having more-or-less uniform fees by discipline across the 10-campus system. Voting 13-5, the board approved fee hikes for the upcoming school year and endorsed increases for the following two years, although those hikes will require formal approval on a yearly basis. Several professional schools asked for increases of 7 percent, which is in line with previous years, but some...

LOS ANGELES Embarrassed by revelations that some executives got pricey perks on the quiet, University of California board members are tightening their grip on the system's finances. UC regents exhibited a new, more activist approach this week as they met at UCLA, asking pointed questions about the budgeting process and voting Thursday to take control of UC President Robert C. Dynes' office budget. Dynes, who has accepted responsibility for the compensation irregularities, is voluntarily giving up a raise this year because of the controversy, saying "the buck stops on my desk." Despite the problems, board Chairman Gerald Parsky said Dynes...

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,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two well-connected Southern California Republicans to the University of California Board of Regents on Friday, filling two vacancies on the 26-member body. William De La Pena, 52, is a prosperous ophthalmologist in Whittier (Los Angeles County) with chains of eye clinics serving Latino communities in East Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Bruce Varner, 69, a civically involved Redlands lawyer whose clients include grocery chain Stater Brothers, is a friend and contributor to longtime Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands (San Bernardino County). Lewis, who is under federal investigation for his ties to lobbyists and contractors, wrote...

BERKELEY A judge has ruled that University of California regents can't decide how much to pay top executives behind closed doors, although they may hold discussions on the issue in private. The ruling this week by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith came in response to a suit by the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper sought to make the compensation committee of UC's Board of Regents discuss executive pay in public. Previously, committees have arrived at recommendations on executive pay in private and then the full board has voted on those recommendations in public. Smith ruled that regents' committees...

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...

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....

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...