Critiquing the UC system's payment plan.

A MAJORITY OF THE FACULTY AT THE UNIVERSITY of California system has cried foul over the way executives are compensated. A pay increase sanctioned by the regents this fall brought President Robert Dynes salary to $403,916, according to published reports, and increased the annual compensation of 10 chancellors from $253,600 to $358,900. Numerous other high-level executives have received millions of dollars in severance, bonuses, stipends, and other compensation.

Meanwhile, the regents have raised student fees for five straight years--the Latest hike is an 8 percent increase that brings the annual total per student to $6,141.

Faculty members are calling for an investigation as to how payment is determined for the UC system's executives, and argue that a full accounting of all compensation should be spelled out under the California Public Records Act. Regents and system spokespeople counter that the salary increases for UC executives are necessary to keep the system competitive. UC is still not in line with comparable public and private institutions and the system's executive pay lags the competitive market by 15 percent, they say.

Dynes has conceded that the UC system could do a better job of explaining its pay practices to the public and has formed a task force to study the matter.

After weeks of watching the controversy unfold, state lawmakers jumped in and claimed they would hold their own hearings on the issue in the spring.

Caught in the crossfire was UC Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, the system's second highest official, who resigned in Late November. UC officials are investigating whether she had a role in helping her son Land a $45,000-per-year internship at the UC Merced campus and in helping Lynda Goff, a UC biology professor, get a bigger job in the UC system's initiative to improve K12 science and math instruction in California. Goff, it turns out, is also a real estate business partner of Greenwood's. They co-own a rental property.