July 2006

Dear UC San Diego Community Members:

You may have read news stories this week regarding the compensation agreement for my service at UC San Diego.  I am eager to ensure that the campus community understands the agreement that University of California President Bob Dynes and I had reached several months ago regarding UC’s commitment to honor the one-year sabbatical I had earned during my six-year tenure at North Carolina State University.  Recent press accounts inaccurately portrayed the agreement, despite our many efforts to provide reporters with a straightforward explanation and documentation that specifically clarifies these issues.

The University of North Carolina system has a clear policy about academic leaders who serve as Chancellor.  After five years, chancellors receive a one-year sabbatical for their service as chancellor.  (I served NC State from 1998 to 2004.)  When Bob Dynes recruited me to the University of California, we discussed the sabbatical I had earned but had not yet taken.  In his offer letter, Bob stated that he had “approved funds to honor the sabbatical leave you have earned but not yet taken.”  As you may know from coverage in the media, in 2005 UC San Diego issued to me a $248,000 payment, the salary I would have earned had I taken a one-year sabbatical in North Carolina.  The payment of a lump sum, rather than a credit of one year’s sabbatical in the future, resulted from a misunderstanding between the campus and the Office of the President.  The mechanics that resulted in the payment began months before my arrival in San Diego and culminated in the 2005 payment.

Bob and I agreed that we need to focus on the true business of the university: educating students and recruiting and developing excellent faculty and staff.  Thus, we reached a simple agreement.  When I step down as Chancellor and take a one-year sabbatical, the $248,000 I have already received will be deducted from the annual salary I would earn that year.  In addition, we agreed I would pay 3% interest on that amount.  In accordance with UC policy, I will return to academic service at UC San Diego following my sabbatical.  In academia, the provision for sabbatical leave for faculty is a common and accepted practice; payment for leave as an added incentive for employment acceptance is a mechanism that is often used in a senior level recruitment. 

At yesterday’s UC Regents meeting when the description of my entire offer package was presented for the first time, the Board agreed to honor the language – and therefore to fund – the sabbatical credits that I had earned at NC State, just as UC has done for other chancellor and senior academic administrator hires.  The Board’s action was one of many to bring its past written promises to new and/or existing employees into accordance with UC policies and our resolve to be open and transparent about hiring and compensation. 

I am tremendously proud to be Chancellor of UC San Diego.  It is an honor to lead a university so forward thinking and firmly established on a path toward greater national and international recognition for our exemplary students, faculty and staff.  Our success is in large measure a result of the support of our friends like you who serve the University on a variety of levels, including service on the important Boards that guide our progress. 

I pledge to you my unwavering dedication to our continued success, and thank you most sincerely for your friendship and support.

                                                                        With warm regards,

                                                                        Marye Anne Fox
                                                                        Chancellor