UC Berkeley to eliminate 500 staff jobs

Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley Campus Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley Campus Photo: Zipporah Films Photo: Zipporah Films Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close UC Berkeley to eliminate 500 staff jobs 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Financially troubled UC Berkeley will eliminate 500 staff jobs over two years to help balance its budget by 2019-20, The Chronicle has learned.

Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to “a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff workforce.”

Berkeley employs about 8,500 staffers, from custodians to administrators. Faculty members will not be affected. Dirks said the reductions will be done in part through attrition and did not mention layoffs.

But the campus is in the process of laying off about 60 employees, spokesman Dan Mogulof said without identifying the departments they’re from.

Some staff members in at least one area, residential student services, were told by managers two weeks ago that they should prepare to be laid off, sources said. Other departments are bracing for similar news.

The job elimination message comes as the campus is projecting a deficit of $150 million this fiscal year — 6 percent of its operating budget of $2.5 billion, which campus officials have blamed largely on state allocations that have not kept pace with campus needs.

Berkeley’s deficit was $109 million last year and $12 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year, campus officials told The Chronicle in February.

The campus will receive at least $200 million in loans and debt restructuring from University of California headquarters and is identifying other areas to cut and raise more cash.

An estimated $50 million will be saved by eliminating the jobs, Dirks said in the memo, which offered few details.

The news was greeted with anger by some labor union leaders, who criticized Berkeley and the entire UC for what they say is excessive spending on executive salaries at the expense of lower-paid workers.

“My concern and the public’s concern is that UC Berkeley is going to start cutting the people it can ill afford to lose — the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics,” said Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents such workers at Berkeley.

“There’s a very clear need for those front-line services. But the question is whether there really is a need to hemorrhage resources on executives.”

Meanwhile, campus sources say that departments have been told to reduce their budgets by 10 percent and can choose how to do so. Employees say they are hopeful that large numbers of layoffs can be avoided by leaving vacant positions unfilled or by shrinking programs.

Dirks said he expects other savings to come from reducing travel expenses and spending less on students’ health insurance premiums, among other efforts.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov