Uc Regents

SAN FRANCISCO - In what was described as a brainstorming session, UC regents on Wednesday raised the possibility of controversial policy changes - including varying tuition rates by campus and sharply hiking the number of out-of-state students - to cut costs and raise revenues. Those ideas and others could gain traction if voters reject the tax increase measure backed by Gov. Jerry Brown on the November ballot. UC officials also repeated their warning that if Proposition 30 is defeated, UC will lose $375 million in funding and students probably will face a midyear tuition hike, possibly as much as 20% or about $2,400.

Reporting from San Francisco -- The University of California regents Wednesday heard grim predictions on how proposed state budget cuts would affect students and faculty even as officials sought to soften the blow by slashing spending at the UC headquarters and shifting the savings to the system's 10 campuses. "The painful truth is that we are at the point of compromising educational quality," UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal told the Board of Regents. He was among several campus leaders who gave the board forecasts about reduced class offerings and staff layoffs that are likely next year.

If the UC Regents do indeed find it necessary to approve a 21% pay raise for hospital administrators in order to attract and retain quality leadership, then it would seem that their secondary goal is to lower the quality of care delivered at UCI Medical Center since most rank and file employees here have been denied raises for the past two to three years as well as being subjected to pay cuts and time reductions. Furthermore, the regents seem to have no qualms about raising student fees once again, a measure that goes one step further in guaranteeing a university education only for those in upper-income brackets.

S. Stephen Nakashima, a longtime member of the University of California Board of Regents, has decided to resign from the board because of a stroke he suffered eight months ago. Nakashima's resignation, which is effective immediately, tilts the political balance of the board, which has been dominated by conservatives for more than a decade. The 26-member board has three vacancies to be filled by Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat.

University of California regents Thursday expressed support and financial trepidation about a proposal that the university play a key role in reopening Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital near Watts in 2012. Several regents said they want ironclad assurances from Los Angeles County supervisors and state officials that UC would not be held responsible for any costs or liabilities for what is expected to be a 120-bed facility with an emergency room. The hospital, which once had 233 beds, was shut down in August 2007 after repeated failures in patient care, including some that led to deaths.

University of California regents approved controversial rollbacks in pension and retiree health benefits Monday, including raising the earliest retirement age for future employees to 55, to help plug huge financial gaps in the university's plans. The changes now face tough bargaining with the unions that represent about half of UC's 115,000 employees. Labor leaders said they are most upset about UC creating a two-tier workforce and contend that the changes would disproportionately affect blue-collar laborers who tend to retire earlier and with more health problems than faculty.

The University of California regents took steps Thursday to shore up the university's badly underfunded retirement plans by raising the amounts employees and the university will be expected to contribute to them. FOR THE RECORD: UC Regents: An article in the Sept. 17 LATExtra section about actions by the University of California board said that $250,000 of a $410,000 raise for UCLA hospital executive David Feinberg would come from private donations and the rest from hospital revenues.

Two of Enron Corp.'s creditors asked a judge to strip the company's top management of power by ordering an independent trustee to run the energy trader as it reorganizes under the largest-ever Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The Regents of the University of California and the Absolute Recovery Hedge Fund said in court papers filed late Friday that Enron's "management has inherent conflicts of interest" that are detrimental to the Houston-based company. They asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J.

Gov. George Deukmejian and University of California President David Gardner are among 12 UC regents who own stock in American companies with ties to South Africa, it was reported Sunday. Ten of the regents, including Deukmejian and Gardner, own stock in the same companies that they will be asked to consider dumping from the university's portfolio because of the controversy over investments in firms doing business with South Africa, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Security was tight Thursday as University of California regents opened a two-day session at the UC Extension Center where they will finally debate today what students, professors, legislators and newspaper columnists long have been debating for them--university investments in American firms that do business in South Africa.