Posts Tagged: regents

Pensions have role in UC’s competitive edge

The campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Photo: LAgirl5252

by ED MENDEL posted 05.21.2015

Calpensions: In the competition for top talent, the University of California has been able to offer something increasingly rare among leading private universities: a generous lifetime pension. Now a much lower cap on pensions for new UC employees is part of an agreement to freeze UC resident tuition for two years announced last week by Gov. Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano.

The UC Board of Regents’ decision to increase tuition over the next five years brought a swift – and negative – reaction from Sacramento, signaling a fiscal showdown when the state budget is unveiled in January. “To UC students and their families, please know that the fight over this nearly 28% fee increase is not over,” said Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins.

The governor, who has described himself as tight with a buck, set out to prove it before the UC Regents when he said they needed to bite into a “reality sandwich” if they were thinking of getting more than a 5 percent hike in state funds. The increase Brown granted in this year’s budget was relatively modest but desperately needed to fill some gaps for UC.