System claims tuition hike ‘was not done in response to pension costs’
The University of California 10-campus system is spending upwards of tens of millions of dollars on increasingly generous pensions for faculty, while raising in-state tuition for the first time in seven years.
More than 5,400 UC retirees received pensions over $100,000 in 2016 and the number of UC retirees collecting six-figure pensions has increased 60 percent since 2012, according to The Los Angeles Times.
One particularly striking example is the pension of former UC President Mark Yudof, who is receiving a pension of $357,000, even though he only worked at the school for seven years.
“That’s the way it works in the real world,” Yudof said in a recent interview with The Times.
Yudof negotiated his pension arrangement directly with the UC Board of Regents, according to University of California spokeswoman Dianne Klein.
“Please note that the modest tuition increase that went into effect this fall – which most students do not pay – was not done in response to pension costs,” Klein told The Fix via email.
Tuition increased by 2.5 percent starting this school year.
“UC has enacted extensive pension reforms that will reduce its long-term pension cost structure by 16 percent and annually save $99 million over 15 years,” she continued.
Klein said that it’s impossible to say precisely how much of the tuition increase will go toward retirement costs, according to The Times.
Yudof and the UC Board of Regents did not respond to multiple inquires by The College Fix.
At a Regents meeting last month, university officials discussed the possibility of another tuition increase sometime in the near future, according to The Times.
It is unclear whether the Regents would approve another tuition hike.
According to a September report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, tuition fees at American universities are among the highest in the world.
Average public tuition in the U.S. is $8,202 annually, while for private colleges the average is $21,189 per year.
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