Unfortunately, your facts are wrong. This retirement mess came about because both the state and UC stopped contributing to the UC Retirement fund in 1990. That

Unfortunately, your facts are wrong. This retirement mess came about because both the state and UC stopped contributing to the UC Retirement fund in 1990. That went on for 20 years, until UC restarted it in 2010; the state is still not contributing. If they didn't do the holiday, the pension fund would have been more than healthy. Also, while older employees could retire at 55, the amount of benefits you get is dependent upon years of service (2.5% a year), and penalties if you withdraw earlier. I'm a new UC faculty member (2014), and personally, I'd rather have a 401k as I'm uncertain as to how long this would be around. Between 1990 and 2014, California has reduced state funding by 27%, while UC has increased enrollment by 43%. Since 2007/8, UC gets $460 million less in state funding. Finally, while there are many people at UC that make more than $400,000, they are mostly doctors (who bill through the UC hospitals), very senior medical directors (that are literally running billion dollar health care systems), and football/basketball coaches (who get their money from boosters). There are a handful of faculty that have actual salaries paid by the state that get regular pay of approximately get $400,000. At my institution (UCLA), there are only a few administrators that make above 400K and they are mostly medical center directors and the business school dean. Anyways, I think there could be improvements in reducing the amount of administration, but it's not going to be the sea change you expect.