Compensation task force hears progress report

Three years after the Task Force on UC Compensation, Accountability and Transparency offered recommendations for improving university policies, the group met again to review university accountability and disclosure practices related to executive pay.

The independent task force, meeting at UCLA on Aug. 13, reviewed a 22-point checklist of recommendations made in 2006 after UC's handling of administrator pay practices was criticized. Of the policies targeted for change, 16 have been updated, and the remaining six are in the process of being revised.

Among the changes since 2006:

• Regents established a process to publicly disclose itemized details of executive compensation packages.
• UC now annually reports the salary and gross pay of all university employees systemwide.
• Regents established a Committee on Compensation and created oversight standards for the review and approval of compensation policies and other HR-related activities.
• Any actions taken by the president, chancellors or lab director for staff whose total annual compensation exceeds $214,000 are reported to the Regents at each meeting.
• Policies governing senior management relocation, automobile allowances, bonuses and other compensation-related items have been revised and put into practice.

"Transparency and accountability for me are two issues critical to university governance," President Mark G. Yudof told the task force. "We in higher education need not only adjust to them, but to embrace them."

Yudof took over as UC president one year after the task force first convened. UC Regent Joanne Kozberg and former California State Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg chair the task force. Members include representatives from government, education, business and journalism.