Regent Angry Over Birgeneau Salary
Today's Daily Cal contains a somewhat angry denunciation from Velma Montoya over the process used to select Birgeneau, as well as his salary. For more information on Montoya, see her biography.
Here are some of her objections, from the article (it's long, but worth reading the whole thing):

I voted against the compensation. Consider its backdrop: UC administrators could not find monies to admit 7,500 UC-eligible students, neither UC faculty nor staff have received cost-of-living raises for three years, and student fees will be substantially raised for the second year in a row.
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UC’s Academic Senate reviewed UC administrators’ compensation and found comparisons of UC chancellor salaries with other public and private universities “problematic.” The Senate found comparison salaries are not always negotiated at arms’ length. Close relationships often exist between administrators and their governing bodies.
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Higher education experts raise concerns about large disparities between the salaries of university leaders and their faculty. Harvard University president-emeritus Derek Bok warns that a great disparity between the salary of the top campus administrator and the faculty diminishes the top administrator’s effectiveness in leading the faculty, particularly in difficult times.

My reactions to her arguments:
1. Her main thesis, that we could have found someone within the system willing to accept a promotion to chancellor for less than Birgeneau seems plausable. The decision to pick Birgeneau seems like more and more of a gamble to me, especially with the questions about his fund-raising abilities (see the post and comments). So, not only is he a gamble, but an expensive one.

2. There has been a substantial amount of labor unrest in Berkeley lately. Compare Birgeneau's salary and an article like this, "UC Grants Five-Digit Pay Raises in Heat of Fiscal Crisis" with recent labor troubles such as "GSI Strike Set for This Week" and "Staff Condemn Layoffs, Hiring Practices at Protest". It seems like continuing the trend of massive salary increases for top administrators when our campus is facing record budget cuts is not something that should be done unless there are no other options, which there seem to be.
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