UCLA faculty and employees will soon be paying more out of their paychecks for retirement.
What is less certain is how much that increase will be.
Amid widespread confusion, campus and University of California leadership hosted a town hall meeting Thursday afternoon, drawing a crowd of about 350 people to Royce Hall and 100 more to the online viewing.
“I’m trying to figure out what’s going on,” said Steve Engels, a lab manager in the animation department and a 10-year employee of UCLA.
The retirement plan once had a funding surplus, but has lost that status in the past decade. Due to declining stock market and lack of contribution from the state into the retirement fund, costs could grow from $2 billion to $13 billion by 2015.
Because of this, the UC required employees to start paying into the retirement fund in mid-April for the first time in 20 years.
“Ramping up contributions may be painful to us and to our employer, but it’s got to be done, and done quickly,” said Shane White, chair of the University Committee on Faculty Welfare.
The UC-wide consensus seems to favor paying more to receive a better deal in the long run, said Lubbe Levin, assistant vice chancellor of Campus Human Resources and a panelist at the town hall meeting.
At the town hall, Levin told the crowd the UC is at a “very critical stage of consultation” on post-employment issues and urged employees to give feedback. She also told unionized members to share their views with union leadership. The UC Board of Regents could vote on a retirement proposal as early as December.
A new, lower-cost pension plan may become an option for employees who are willing to accept a lower payout down the road. UC is assessing whether the IRS would even allow such a plan to exist.
UC is also looking at changing eligibility requirements for health benefits. This was a concern for Elizabeth Paray, a newly hired academic personnel officer who attended the town hall meeting.
“As (a new employee), I’m a little sad I’m not going to be grandfathered into it,” Paray said. “We have less of a voice right now.”
Benefits for current retirees are protected and will not change.
Because of the impact of the retirement plan upon the quality of the institution, students should research the topic themselves and provide input for moving forward, said Gerard Au, president of the UCLA staff assembly. He said the retirement package has historically been a large part of drawing talented professors to the faculty.
“Students should be as concerned as employees,” Au said.