A recent graduate of the University of California Berkeley law school (Boalt) responds – in a comment thread – to his dean’s leadership of that group.
I’m an ’07 alum. I still have significant debt. Yet I work in BigLaw and I dedicate a significant portion of my salary to charitable contributions–which up to now included Boalt.
I usually ignore the letters and pleas and do all my donations in a big chunk at the end of the year, so this news couldn’t have come at a better time for me to be able to avoid giving to Boalt this year. I’ve been hearing for six years from [Dean Edley] how CA is in dire financial straits, the UC can’t afford anything, the law school needs private donations just to operate, let alone to be able to award scholarships, pay for tech improvements, embark on building campaigns, etc etc etc. I dutifully–and happily–contributed. Boalt did a lot for me and I wanted to give back.
But I’m done until DE leaves or provides me a convincing explanation for why he deserves an even fatter pension when he knows damn well UC and the state can’t afford it. Yes, he could make more in the private sector–sort of. For anyone who can show me a private sector job with the same sort of salary and guaranteed retirement benefits, I can show you 100 where the salary is the same (or even lower) and most compensation comes from stock and options.