Higher Education Perspectives
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: "UC President Dynes bows out after controversial 4 years"
By Associated Press
Aug 16, 2007, 17:28

However hard he tried, Robert Dynes could never escape a pay-and-perk controversy that overshadowed his four years as president of the University of California.

The episode, featuring outsized compensation packages for top administrators, marred his eventful tenure filled with accomplishments. The pay scandal, outlined by The Chronicle in 2005, was especially galling because students were facing higher tuition fees and the UC system was undergoing budget cuts. At the same time, other campus insiders thought Dynes didn't do enough to defend the university as its image was pummeled. The UC Board of Regents wasn't happy either.

Dynes, a physicist and former UC San Diego chancellor, still achieved much. A new Merced campus, though off to a shaky start, was launched in 2005. Despite reports of mismanagement, he kept UC in charge of two research-heavy national laboratories in Livermore and New Mexico. He correctly and courageously noted UC's problems in attracting a diverse student body and worked to broaden admissions to the 10-campus system.

Yet, the uproar over executive-suite pay was clearly his undoing. Salaries were supplemented with moving allowances, housing subsidies, car payments and other sweeteners. The packages were kept private, even from the regents, who signed off on the deals without knowing the full amount.

Dynes insisted he approved the compensation deals thinking they were in order. Attracting and keeping top talent meant paying top salaries, the argument went. But the methods violated the university's policies, laid down 15 years earlier when a similar furor arose over pay-setting procedures. ...

In the end, Dynes apologized and announced tougher rules on salary setting. The scandal was a dispiriting letdown for the university, regarded as a creative force in California's economy, society and culture. But running the $20 billion system, in which faculty, students, regents and state legislators all compete for attention, is a daunting task. ...

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- Associated Press