SUBJECT:

Town Hall on Post-Employment Benefits

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to invite you to attend a town hall meeting on the proposed changes to UC retirement benefits. This will take place on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. in the Liebow Auditorium in the Basic Science Building.

This town hall is being organized by the San Diego Division of the Academic Senate to both provide information for the San Diego faculty and to solicit comments from Senate members for discussion by the Academic Council at the systemwide level later this month.

Professor Joel Dimsdale, Chair of the University Committee on Faculty Welfare (UCFW), and Professor Ross Starr, member of the UCFW Task Force on Investment and Retirement will lead the town hall. Because of their extensive involvement with these issues, both are very knowledgeable about our current retirement benefits and have insights into the proposed changes and the future implications for the University.

Documentation on this complex issue is available for your review prior to the town hall. The Office of the President website on the Future of UC Retirement Benefits, http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/, has links to the recent webinar, the report of the President's Task Force on Post-Employment Benefits, the Dissenting Statement submitted by the faculty and staff members of the three work groups of the Task Force, and the response to the Dissenting Statement. This link and additional information is posted on the website of the San Diego Division of the Academic Senate at http://senate.ucsd.edu/. You may also want to visit the UCOP At Your Service web page, http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/, for a current picture of your estimated retirement income under the current plan.

The proposed changes are important to all of us for how they will affect our overall remuneration, our ability to recruit and retain excellent scholars, and overall impacts on the budgets of the University and the campus. I look forward to seeing you on October 6 for an informative presentation and lively discussion. You may also send any comments you might have to me at academicsenatechair@ucsd.edu.

Sincerely, Frank L. Powell, Chair Academic Senate, San Diego Division