Yudof picked as new leader of UC

The regents are following a corporate pay model that does not fit a public school, said Kalmijn, whose union represents more than 12,000 lab and medical workers, among others. Yudof seems well qualified, Kalmijn said, but most UC staffers "want someone who is committed to public service in California. We don't want someone who is committed to making lots of money."

Louise Hendrickson, president of the UC Student Assn., said many students will be unhappy with Yudof's pay. Yet Hendrickson, who met with Yudof on Thursday, said student leaders were "cautiously optimistic" about his leadership and would hold him to "very high expectations" given the price tag.

Yudof, a legal scholar, has led the 15-campus Texas system since 2002 and was president of the University of Minnesota before that.

Although no firm date was set, he is expected to start his UC job this summer, succeeding Dynes, who received $421,000 last year.

Yudof, Philadelphia-born and son of an electrician, said it won't be easy to leave Texas and joked about how he will miss easy access to breakfast tacos. But he said he could not resist the chance to lead what he called the greatest public university "in the world."

"When push came to shove, I decided this was the place to be," he told reporters.

In Texas, Yudof pushed accountability standards with more student testing and more measures of faculty productivity. On Thursday, he quoted former New York City Mayor Ed Koch's favorite query, "How am I doing?" and said he would apply that to UC.

"I think the university has to be able to answer that question. And it can't be just that 'we're great.' You have to demonstrate that you are getting the job done, that you are accountable to the taxpayers, to the board of regents, to the students, to the parents for what you do," he said.

Yudof would not be the highest paid UC employee. Dozens of medical school professors with clinical practices and some sports coaches earn more. UCLA's new head football coach, Rick Neuheisel, is to get $1.25 million plus potentially large bonuses, according to a campus spokesman. And many top private research universities pay salaries similar to or more than Yudof's.

Some national experts in higher education say his pay reflects marketplace reality. Public universities compete for executives with top private universities that tend to have bigger endowments and more flexibility.