UC Berkeley to eliminate 500 staff jobs

Financially troubled UC Berkeley will eliminate 500 staff jobs over two years to help balance its budget by 2019-20, The Chronicle has learned. Chancellor Nick Dirks sent a memo to employees on Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to “a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff worforce.” The job elimination message comes as the campus is projecting a deficit of $150 million this fiscal year — about 6 percent of its operating budget of $2.5 billion, which campus officials have blamed largely on state allocations that have not kept pace with campus needs. The news was greeted with anger by some labor union leaders, who criticized Berkeley and the entire UC for what they say is excessive spending on executive salaries at the expense of lower-paid workers. “My concern and the public’s concern is that UC Berkeley is going to start cutting the people it can ill afford to lose — the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics,” said Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents such workers at Berkeley. Dirks said he expects other savings to come from reducing travel expenses and spending less on students’ health insurance premiums, among other efforts.