I want to acknowledge and apologize once again for the considerable frustration and anger that some of our undergraduate student employees have expressed in person and in writing regarding being paid on time.

Leaders across campus have been working diligently all week to identify those impacted and get students, faculty and staff correctly paid for their work. I can assure you that this has been our highest priority.

I do want our community to understand the scope of this issue. UC Davis has about 40,000 employees, and the vast majority are receiving paychecks and direct deposits generated correctly and on time.

However, I fully recognize that if you are a student who did not get paid correctly and on time, that does not matter. About 500 faculty and staff reported issues, and those cases were reported and are being addressed. About 300 undergraduate students, most of whom are employed with ASUCD, did not receive payment on time. This is not acceptable. I take my responsibility for the welfare of our students very seriously, and I am very concerned about the impact this has had on them. We are doing everything we can to fix this problem.

Today, we corrected pay information for 95 students employed by ASUCD who were not being paid at the correct rate. The team is preparing retroactive payments for about 40 of those students today, and the rest will be paid on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We are doing everything we can to make sure this does not happen again.

For background, some (but not all) of these issues are related to UCPath, the new University of California payroll and management system that UC Davis migrated to on Oct. 1. All 10 campuses are required to adapt the new system, and UC Davis staff worked around the clock for more than a year to prepare our systems and our employees for the migration. However, many of the issues pre-date the transition to UCPath and are a result of our campus’s own hiring and onboarding processes, both of which will receive our immediate attention, review and improvement.

Having said that, we recognize that some in our community were not aware of how to prepare for UCPath. We recognize the need for better communication to students about Trailhead, the student employee resource center located in Dutton Hall, and online information.

If you are a student in need of emergency funds, please apply online for a UCPath Emergency Pay Advance. Financial Aid will expedite approval, generally the same day. You will be notified of approval by email and can go to the Cashier's Office in Dutton Hall to receive cash. Advances are up to $1,000, interest-free and are due on January 15. Today, we received and approved 12 applications and these students can receive cash immediately at Dutton Hall.

Finally, we need your help. Please notify your supervisor immediately and contact basecamp@ucdavis.edu if you haven't yet received your pay so that we can assist you. Please provide your full name, department and hours worked by day to make the process as efficient as possible.

This is an urgent problem. We are focusing on solutions right now, as we have been since we first became aware of the issues. Thank you for working with us to get this right. We will make every effort to rectify the current problems and make sure they do not reoccur in the future.