May 21, 2001 State releases two audits of UC employment and hiring practices By Jennifer McNulty The California Bureau of State Audits has released two new reports regarding employment at the University of California. The first audit found some past inconsistencies in the employment of temporary staff at UC campuses and acknowledges the positive impact of recent policy changes that will expand benefits for many temporary employees. The state audit examined UC's practices related to temporary employment before these changes were made. "The University of California welcomes the findings of the Bureau of State Audits with respect to temporary employment at the university," said Judith W. Boyette, UC associate vice president for human resources and benefits. "Temporary employees fill critical needs at the university and are an important part of the UC community. We appreciate the bureau's useful evaluation of the University's policies and practices relating to these employees." UC recently enacted major policy changes extending additional benefits to many "limited-term" employees, formerly known as "casual" employees. These changes are a result of extensive policy review and successful negotiations with the unions that represent the affected staff employees. Effective January 1, limited-term employees who accumulate 1,000 hours on pay status in a consecutive 12-month period will become eligible for membership in the UC Retirement Plan and full health coverage. In addition, employees with limited appointments who accumulate 1,000 hours on pay status in a consecutive 12-month period, without a break in service of more than 120 days, will be converted to full career appointment status. Also, one-time "look-back" review programs are being implemented to ensure that casual employees who met the above criteria based on their past employment at UC are awarded the appropriate career status and benefit levels. The report is called "University of California: New Policies Should Make Career Appointments Available to More Employees and Make Campus Practices More Consistent." The second report, "University of California: Some Campuses and Academic Departments Need to Take Additional Steps to Resolve Gender Disparities Among Professors," was requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in light of concern about employment opportunities for women at the university's ten campuses. Based on UC hiring data for the past five years, the report found "a significant disparity" between the proportion of female professors hired and the overall proportion of female doctorate recipients nationwide. Investigators concluded that three decisions made by academic departments reduce the proportion of women in the labor pool: focusing some searches on associate and full professors rather than assistant professors and on specific fields of study where men predominantly hold degrees, as well as opening positions to international candidates. These decisions reduced the proportion of women in the labor pool from 46 percent to an estimated 33 percent; UC hired only 29 percent female professors during the audit's five-year review period. Moreover, not all campuses and departments make sufficient efforts to address gender-parity issues when hiring professors, the audit noted. For example, the search committees for nearly two-thirds of the 242 professors whose hiring was reviewed included either no women or only one woman. Search committees averaged six members in size. In addition, while the searches for 83 professors had no women on the committee, only nine committees did not have any men. Also, some departments did not use data regarding the proportion of women in the labor pool when they planned searches. Departments also varied in their ability to obtain applications from women in proportion to their availability in the labor pool. Finally, although the audit's comparison of starting salary data found that female professors generally earn from 90 to 92 percent of male professors' starting salaries, the report concluded that factors other than gender appear to be the cause, including the demand for certain academic disciplines, specializations, and individuals. However, regarding the Santa Cruz campus, UCSC and UC San Francisco hired the highest proportion of female professors, 36 percent, of any of the campuses during the five-year period covered by the audit. UCSC is also one of four UC campuses, along with Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Riverside, that hire assistant professors in higher proportions than others. During the five years studied, 61 percent of professors hired systemwide were at the assistant level, but at least 70 percent of hires at UCSC, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Riverside were assistant professors. Santa Cruz also is one of only four campuses, including Berkeley, UCLA, and San Diego, that prepares "deselection documents." Designed to track the progress of applicants and to record why applicants don't advance in the hiring process, such documents help maintain the integrity of the hiring process, the audit said. The full audit report is available on the web. Return to Front Page