Economics students such as myself are led to believe that money is everything.We’re obsessed with cash: where it goes, what it does and how it’s counted.
And from an economic perspective, the recent report from the Center for Investigative Reporting detailing approximately $2 million in luxury travel arrangements and entertainment expenses by UCLA deans and administrators from 2008 to 2012 doesn’t seem outrageous.
After all, considering the more than $2 billion in donations UCLA says it brought in over that same time period, it would seem like a good return on investment.
But the money brought in doesn’t justify the expense. At a time when finances weigh heavily on students’ minds, it’s in poor taste for the university to indulge in luxury. Administrators do a good job of raising money, but it’s not unreasonable to ask them to make more frugal decisions when traveling on UCLA’s dime.
Given the reaction the report garnered among many members of the community and the widespread scrutiny of the expenses by news media, the university should voluntarily release all travel expenditures in each academic year.
Such a move would allow serious scrutiny of administrative spending and dialogue over the necessity of certain travel arrangements. In a time of belt tightening, it’s not unreasonable for students to expect some sacrifice on both ends.
If executives want to indulge in first-rate accommodations, the costs that exceed the more reasonable and frugal choices consistent with university policy should be covered by the deans themselves.
For example, Teri Schwartz, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, spent more than $1,000 on a four-day stay in a hotel in Long Beach, Calif. for the 2010 TED conference, according to documents scrutinized by the CIR. This was in direct violation of university policy, which states that hotel reimbursement can only occur if the event is 40 miles away or more. Her hotel was about 30 miles from campus.
The expense was approved on UCLA’s tab, despite the fact that Schwartz had already raked in more than $342,000 in base salary from the university in 2012.
Then there’s Chancellor Gene Block,who spent $40,000 in private chauffeured car services from 2008 to 2012, which he sometimes justified by saying he needed “private setting with ample light,” according to documents obtained by the CIR.
Block brought home more than $424,000 in total pay in 2008, the first year of the CIR’s report.
The situation is not entirely the fault of the administrators. State disinvestment from higher education has forced the administration’s hand, and fundraising provides an alternative to budget cuts and tuition raises. Many times, it’s donor money that keeps programs afloat.
Fundraising is an incredibly valuable resource. But the current situation begs the question of efficiency. Fundraising can be done more cheaply, and the money saved can be put toward other things.
Moreover, there’s nothing wrong with the school providing for its traveling deans and other administrators. After all, they’re doing it in service of the university. However, if university policy specifically states that Schwartz can’t stay in a hotel within a certain range of campus on the school’s dime, and she doesn’t want to commute between Long Beach and Los Angeles, then she should pay for the stay.
Knowing that their expenses would be made public in a travel report would encourage the university’s executives to reconsider their options before making an expensive accommodation, especially one in violation of university policy.
And even if other schools are running up similarly inflated tabs, that’s not an excuse. UCLA isn’t responsible for the administrators at UC Berkeley or USC or Stanford. It’s responsible for the students, staff and faculty in Westwood, and to continue to spend extravagantly while so many students are taking out loans and pinching pennies showsa lack of empathy for the student population.
Rather than justify consistent excess with a playground mentality, UCLA owes it to its students to recommit itself to righting its course, regardless of what other schools are doing.
