Auditor: UC Needs More Transparency

Outrageous (0.00 / 0)

....$6 billion was budgeted for the UC president's office over five years.....

THAT'S Outrageous !!
That kind of money should be Fully explained and Questioned

And That's why I support Leland Yee
Where's Jerry Brown ?
Where are the Democrats on this nonsense ??

Missing in Action  

---

by: frisco @ Fri Jul 29, 2011 at 18:12:41 PM UTC

I think (0.00 / 0)

that if you read the auditor's report you will see that the reporter isn't quite accurate on that claim.  There is 6 Billion in miscellaneous for the system not for the President's office itself.  That is bad enough.

---

by: call me ishmael @ Sat Jul 30, 2011 at 15:43:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

What exactly is an "Accounting Professor", anyway? (0.00 / 0)

"Heck, they have a whole fleet of accounting professors that can help them out with that."

Yes, because that is exactly why UCs hire world-class faculty.

/sarcasm

---

by: mfedder @ Sat Jul 30, 2011 at 08:18:12 AM UTC

Accounting Professor (0.00 / 0)

What exactly is an "Accounting Professor", anyway?

When I studied for my MBA, one of the courses was accounting.  In our case, it wasn't the process to become a CPA, but to be able to read and understand the balance sheets of corporations.

There are well understood rules, called GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) that define how you report different expenditures, how you can apply them in your current accounts, etc.  We delved into different types of depreciation for how you handle a fixed asset.  We learned the difference between cash flow and balance sheets, etc.  We learned how companies report -- and misreport -- pension liabilities.

75% seemed quite obvious, 15% seemed extremely counter-intuitive, and 10% seemed just bizarre...  But knowing those differences helps to understand the real financial position of a business.

Businesses (and I'll include UC in this umbrella) will employ accountants who will do their best to make the appearance of their business look as solid as possible.  However, unless they commit fraud on their balance sheets, you can read into those reports to get a clearer picture of the business's financial footing.  The problem is that the fraud can be very clever, and well hidden, so you may need an expert to figure it out.

---

by: CaliforniaCondor @ Sun Jul 31, 2011 at 17:02:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

All for transparency...but it's not free (0.00 / 0)

As someone inside the UC system with a (bottom-up) view of its opaque finances, a few points. (My hunch is that public attention to $6bn of 'miscellaneous' systemwide, or the per-campus funding, is largely red herrings, but there are some very real systemic as well as local problems).

1. Transparency is great, but be careful what you ask for. Unfortunately, calls for macro-transparency get translated by legislators and accountants into mechanisms for micro-management. My unit (a department with 5 staff) had two people, more and more frustrated, trying to keep up with all the new accounting rules and sub-rules and sub-sub-guidelines. Reimbursing a professor for travel to a conference became a nightmare of deadlines, ultra-specific rules about receipts and allowable expenses, and so forth. The amounts were usually only $100s, but they sucked up staff time. MEANWHILE: the big questions of how much income our campus has, and what assets, remain just as opaque as ever.

2. The reported per-campus student support is mostly a reflection of medical schools, whose per-student cost is way higher. It doesn't mean much. Right now, distribution of state and tuition funds to the campus is regulated by an enormous kluge of rules, starting with some basic rules, but then with innumerable epicycles and exceptions and supplementary distributions. Frankly, only a few gnomes have a clue how each campus's share of undergraduate FTE funds is derived...it's just a magic formula. There's actually a major project afoot to leave most funds at campuses that collect them in the first place (tuition), and to create much simpler scheme to distribute state funds. But huge vested interests are at stake (mostly UCB and UCLA, which et the same basic amounts for undergrads but benefit disproportionately from the layers and layers of epicycles, as I understand it), which will lead to complicated phase-in and transition and adjustment compromises.

3. The President's office in Oakland has been cut back drastically in the last few years, which most people don't know. Much of the cutback was overdue, but the knife has been dull, and good elements have been lost as well. The Regents apparently have every intention to keep cutting, and to put UCOP funding on a much tighter leash in the future as well (probably as a flat 'tax' on campus budgets, of 2-3%)

4. The real opacity nowadays is at the campus level, where Chancellors and their offices hide about half of their assets and revenue from Senates, faculty, and students. The numbers given out are not false, but they are clearly very incomplete at most campuses, and if they are complete, they are buried in very complicated multi-layer arrangements that no non-expert can read.

---

by: PQuincy @ Sun Jul 31, 2011 at 22:58:18 PM UTC

University of California Berkeley wasteful, not transparent: findings (0.00 / 0)

Like any addiction, admitting you have a problem is the first step toward correcting it. University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau ($500,000 salary) has forgotten that he is a public servant, steward of the public money, not overseer of his own fiefdom.

Recruits (using California tax $) out of state, foreign $50,000 tuition students who displace qualified sons, daughters of Californians from public university    
education.
Spends $7,000,000 + for consultants to do his & vice chancellors work      
(prominent East Coast University accomplishing same 0 cost).
University accrues $150 million of inefficiencies over his 8 year reign.
Pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures.
In procuring $3,000,000 consultants failed to receive proposals from other firms.
Latino enrollment drops while out of state jumps 2010.
Ranking : QS  academic falls below top ten
Tuition to Return on Investment drops below top10.
Cal on 100 most expensive in nation list
NCAA places basketball program on probation: absence institutional control.

These are not isolated examples: it's all shameful. There is no justification for such irregularities by a steward of the public trust. Absolutely none.  

Birgeneau's practices will not change. University of California Board of Regents Chair Sherry Lansing must do a better job of vigorously enforcing oversight by President Yudof than has been done in the past to Birgeneau who treat the university as his fiefdom.

Until demonstrable action is swiftly applied to chancellors by the UC Board of Regents/President Yudof, the University of California shouldn't come to the Governor or public for support for any taxes, additional funding.

I have 35 years' consulting experience; have taught at UC Berkeley, where I observed the culture & the way senior management works. No, I was not fired or downsized & have not solicited contracts from Cal.

Honorable retire Cal Chancellor Birgeneau.  

---

by: Cal Cal @ Tue Aug 02, 2011 at 01:43:49 AM UTC

Some complaints are fair, others.... (0.00 / 0)

If Robert Birgenau has spent too much money on consultants and outside administrative talent, by all means go after him.

But Berkeley's decision to recruit out of state undergraduates is a direct and sensible response to more and more cuts in state support for the UC. Remeber, the per-student undergraduate funding is now less than HALF of what it was 12 years ago -- and that was after two big rounds of state cutbacks.

If the state won't pay -- and state funds are now probably less than 15% of Berkeley's budget -- the state also doesn't get to call the shots.

I'm not from UCB, by the way...work at another campus that would love to have half as much money as Berkeley does!

---

by: PQuincy @ Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 02:26:03 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau (0.00 / 0)

Chancellors, Faculty University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) have cleaned up at the expense of students, California taxpayers. Californians face mortgage defaults, 12% unemployment, pay reductions, loss of unemployment benefits. UC Berkeley shares sacrifices? No Chancellor, Faculty layoffs or wage concessions. UC Berkeley tuition, fee increases are arrogance. If wages better elsewhere, chancellors, vice chancellors, tenured, non tenured faculty, UCOP apply for positions. If wages are what commit you to Cal, leave for better paying job.
UC Berkeley wages must reflect California's ability to pay, not what others are paid. There is no good reason to raise tuition, fees during the longest, deepest recession in USA history when wage concessions available from Chancellors, Faculty. The sky will not fall on UC Berkeley.  
Share the sacrifices UC Berkeley Faculty, Vice Chancellors, Provost, Chancellor:
No furloughs.  
18 percent reduction in UCOP salaries & $50 million cut.
18 percent prune of campus chancellors', vice chancellors' salaries.
15 percent trim of tenured faculty salaries, increase teaching load.
10 percent decrease non-tenured faculty salaries, increase research, teaching load.
100% elimination of all Academic Senate, Academic Council costs, wages.

(17,000 UC paid employees earn more than $100,000)

UC Board of Regents Chair Sherry Lansing can bridge public trust gap with reassurances salaries of Chancellors, Faculty reflect depressed California wages.
With UC's shared sacrifices, sky will not fall on the 10 campuses.

 

---

by: Cal Cal @ Fri Aug 12, 2011 at 04:03:20 AM UTC

[ Parent ]