Editor, Daily Nexus,

I’ve been working alongside students here at UCSB for 12 years, and I am genuinely distressed that our situation has degenerated to a point where I say, “Welcome to the Ripped-off by the Regents Club!”

Recently, the UC regents awarded dozens of chancellors and other high-level administrators raises of up to 25 percent. That’s on top of salaries already starting at around $200 thousand per year. At the same time, they refused tenured faculty, lecturers, TA’s and clerical staff raises enough to even keep up with the rising cost of survival. Their excuse was, and continues to be, that there just isn’t any money. Now they’re jacking up student fees for the same reason.

The truth is, there’s a lot of money available. The University of California has over $2 billion in unrestricted funds sitting in the bank. If you go to http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/cao/reports/2002/svp.html you can see for yourself the UC crowing about how well it’s doing financially.

The money is there. The UC’s regents just don’t want to share it with you or me.