UC execs—unbelievable!

When we heard that a crew of high-paid executives from the University of California had threatened to sue UC unless it spends millions to increase their pensions—well, we couldn’t believe our ears. How could people making hefty wages by almost any standard attempt to bully an institution facing billions of dollars in cuts, reduced benefits for staff and a nearly $22 billion unfunded pension fund?

In all, 36 muckety-mucks statewide signed the December 9 “threat” letter.

(Interestingly, the execs issued it just as UC students—who are forced to pay ever-skyrocketing fees to attend school—were leaving for holiday break.)

Embarrassingly, four of the executives hail from our local campus, UC Davis. They are: Steven Currall, dean of the Graduate School of Management; Claire Pomeroy, medical school dean and CEO of the UC Davis Health System; William McCowan, chief financial officer for the UC Davis Health System; and Ann Madden Rice, chief executive officer of UC Davis Medical Center. (The lowest-paid among these makes nearly $300,000 a year; the highest makes more than $500,000 a year.)

People, have you no shame? The executives should rescind their threat and learn—as most all of us have these past few years—to live with less.