UC Berkeley Spends $3 million to Learn how to Stop Spending. UC Berkeley will be spending $3 million plus expenses to have Bain & Co. tell the university how to reduce its spending. Earlier this year, the UC campus had to make $150 million in budget cuts, and hopes the Boston-based firm will suggest further cost-effective solutions.
Senator Gloria Romero, chair of the Senate Education Committee, told the Contra Costa Times: "UC has hired managers at hundreds of thousands of dollars each. They should have the expertise on campus already."
According to Senator Romero, the funds used to pay the high cost of hiring outside consultants could have been used to make up for state budget cuts, student fee increases, furloughs and layoffs.
The full $3 million plus expenses will be paid out over a two-year period, and was taken from the campus infrastructure fund.
Vice Chancellor Frank Yeary, who left Citigroup to return to his alma mater said: "Self-diagnosis is not always the most beneficial method. And the intensity of the effort does not lend itself to asking our faculty to go offline for six months to help us."
Administrators expect that the study will improve services. (Source: Contra Costa Times, October 2)
Cal-Taxletter, October 2, 2009
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