According to Trent Eglin in an opinion piece in the Santa Cruz Sentinel , UC administrators have increased their own salaries as much as 20 percent in recent years, while most staffers have yet to see a single increase in their salaries. Although Greenwood does not have the direct ability to increase staffers' wages, many feel that she could be doing more to back her employees. Lectures include all the teaching staff except assistant professors, associated professors and full professors. Most of the Chancellor's work is external, and includes fund-raising, campus planning, and community relations work. Many aspects of the campus are left to the Executive Vice Chancellor John B. Simpson and much of the union issues are left to the UC Labor Relations.
Many people are unaware that contract negotiations take place at the state level.
Labor Relations does not have the power to negotiate contracts with unions, which adds to the time it takes to reach a settlement. The UC system plans to increase enrollment by 40 percent in the next several years, UCSC is aiming for 15,000 students by 2005. Staffers might not be the only ones who feel these growing pains students, too, will be impacted by the growing university. Because of poor pay and lack of a solid contact for all university employees, some staffers end up leaving UCSC for better paying jobs. UCSC jobs pay about 20 percent less the other comparable jobs in the area.