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In the first such meeting in 40 years, University of California campus newspaper reporters met with University of California System President Mark Yudof and UC Irvine President Michael Drake regarding the UC budget crisis. UC spokesman Lynn Tierney said it was the first student-president meeting in about 40 years, reported UC-San Diego’s “The  Guardian.”
 
President Yudof received many questions regarding the policies that he implemented, specifically having to do with changes to tuition for students, financial aid policy, and executive pay.
 
Reporters asked the President about a financial aid policy that would concentrate the available funds for low income students, leaving middle income students with large families without funding. He said that because UC only had so much funding “we have to take care of the poorest kids first.”
 
Reporters also asked President Yudof about his policy of keeping executive pay “competitive” at the expense of student aid.  He defended the decision arguing that the reports of high executive pay has been exaggerated, especially in light of the fact that executive pay was cut 10% across the board and that the “chancellors’ latest pay cut is 40 percent below market. It’s already 40 percent below market.”

Chancellor Drake additionally stressed the importance of retaining good executives, saying that “we got to be who we are by having the best people and supporting them in their best work.”
 
Finally, Yudof refused suggestions that he  take another pay cut as a gesture to the students whose fees are rising because of his policies. His response was that the 10 percent cut along with other additional cuts were “gesture[s]. How many gestures do you want?”

More from the Guardian at the University of California San Diego