University of California employees may soon be feeling the effects of the recent downturn in the stock market.

An 18-year “contribution holiday” during which both the university and UC employees were not required to contribute to the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) will likely come to an end as early as next summer, according to a Sept. 12 letter from the UC Office of the President to all UC employees.

The UC first suspended university and employee contributions in 1990 after a period of tremendous returns on investments led to a nearly 40 percent surplus in the $42 billion fund. Since then, the plan has been completely funded by the surplus but is now in danger of dipping below 100 percent in funding unless contributions are reinstated, said UC spokesperson, Paul Schwartz.

“For the last 18 years [UC] has been using the surplus to pay for the operating costs and payment obligations of the pension plan,” Schwartz said. “That, combined with a decline in investment returns because of the state of the stock market has meant a decline in the surplus. This is causing us to restart contributions.“

The UCRP’s payment obligations include $155 million in benefits each month, Schwartz said. It is estimated that 80 percent of current UC employees have never had to contribute to the UCRP, according to the UCRP website.

In the process of reinstating contributions, UC will face some obstacles, including opposition from some unions. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 20,000 UC employees, is protesting the reinstatement because it says that UC employees do not have a direct voice in the management of the fund.

“We are the only state employees that don’t have a role in the management of our pension,” said Lakesha Harrison, president of the union. “The university has not had to pay money towards the pension fund for 18 years. We do not know what happened or what was done with that money. Before [employees] start making contributions again, we want to have a seat at the table.“

Schwartz said that holiday was “simply an avoidance of an expenditure for the university and its employees” and that the university “has not been banking the money that would have been put towards the contribution.“

While AFSCME has raised objections to the reinstatement of employee contributions, Schwartz said that the general reaction from unions has been mixed.

“It is the norm for pension plans to require employee contribution,” he said. “Some of the unions understand that we have been very lucky to enjoy such a long run without it, but obviously during tough economic times, no one likes to see more money coming from employee paychecks.“

Though the level of university and employee contribution has yet to be determined by the regents, it will be a gradual increase and employees will not see any changes to their take home pay for the first year, Schwartz said.

“During the 18-year holiday period, employees were contributing two percent of their paychecks into individual UC Defined Contribution Plans, which are different than the UCRP,” Schwartz said. “For the first year, that money would just be re-directed into the UC pension plan so the employees would not see any initial impact.“ The next step for the university will be a presentation to the regents, during which an actuary will make a recommendation based on what will keep the pension plan sufficiently funded, according to the Sept. 12 letter. The regents will then meet in January to determine how the costs will be shared between the university and the employees.

Schwartz said the university is committed to keeping the employees‘ contribution significantly lower than the university’s.

“Our long term goal is to share costs in a way that is similar to the state’s pension plan,” he said. “Right now the state’s plan is at about a two to one ratio … but no matter what, UC’s contribution will always be lower than employees‘.“

ERICA LEE can be reached at adbonde@ucdavis.edu

Apparently nothing gets hormones pumping like climbing trees – or they’ve all maxed out their 10 free condoms per week from the Love Lab. Whatever the reason, it’s been the eastern fox squirrels’ time of the season for loving for too long – and their campus population has become unmanageable, spawning a birth-control research program.

“They’re an invasive species in California,” said Sara Krause, the doctoral student in the department of ecology in charge of the program. “They’ve only been here seven years and they have no natural predators in the area, especially not on campus.”

Krause said there’s no definitive answer as to how a squirrel that belongs in upstate New York made its way to California. Speculation is that they came by car, either as someone’s pet or as stowaways.

“And then they arrived safe and happy, and the birds and the bees took over,” said Sal Genito, director of the Buildings and Grounds division of Facilities Management.

Eastern fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) are between 10 and 15 inches long, and weigh between 1.5 and 2 pounds. They can be identified by their orange-brown color coat and bushy tails with reddish topped hair, according to Americazoo.com

A birth-control research program to combat the population explosion will begin next week, in which traps will be laid under trees and around lawns. Ensnared squirrels will be looked at, marked with a dye and freed to be observed by researchers through fall and winter.

Squirrels with dyed tails will be brought back in summer and given a hormone injection to prevent reproduction, while others will be given a placebo for comparison. If squirrels administered the real injection act differently, it will prove the hormone successful.

The program intends for the population of eastern fox squirrels to then plateau, before declining to a small, sustainable number in five to 10 years.

Birth control is the most non-invasive, humane way to go about limiting the population, said Krause. The traps are simply wire mesh inviting the squirrels in to eat the acorn before the box shuts. The boxes give them room to move around, and will be covered with canvas – about as comfortable as a temporary shelter for a squirrel can be.

The birth-control idea was a product of public outcry to the previous eradication method of poison bait.

“Lethal control is very challenging, because it’s socially unacceptable,” said Krause. “Poisons are also difficult to aim and it’s hard to ensure they don’t end up in non-target species.”

Not administering birth control puts the campus community at risk for several things, including injuries.

“More and more eastern fox squirrels are approaching students on the Quad and at Lake Spafford,” Krause said.

While nobody has been hurt yet, encounters are dangerous because of the bacteria squirrels carry and the skin infections or stomach and intestinal illnesses that can result from scratches or bites.

Crops threatened by overpopulation include almonds and walnuts at campus research farms and orchards, and the bark of redwood trees in the arboretum.

Ecologically, the non-native squirrels cause competition with plants and animals that are native to the area, said Krause.

“Eastern fox squirrels eat the same foods as native gray squirrels and birds,” she said. They have also been known to eat eggs and baby birds.

Genito said they’re entrusting the student body to be respectful of the experiment.

“We’re hoping people see these traps around campus and leave them alone,” he said. “There’s a lot of passion on both sides of the issue – other people want to leave it to nature and let the population take over, so it should be an interesting couple of years seeing how this goes.”

MIKE DORSEY can be reached at adbonde@ucdavis.edu.

A year ago this month, UC Davis veterinarians rescued over 418 seabirds in the San Francisco Bay Cosco Busan oil spill, which released over 58,000 gallons of crude oil into the bay.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network, which is managed by the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, provided rescue and rehabilitation to the oiled birds. The OWCN oversees 25 organizations in California and brings them together in instances like the Cosco Busan oil spill on Nov. 7, 2007.

“During non-spill times, we’ve reached out to organizations to find out what their interests and their capabilities are if an oil spill occurs,” said Michael Ziccardi, director of OWCN. “We have the ability to coordinate all these different people and organizations so that when the spill occurs we can hit the ground running.”

The Cosco Busan spill occurred when a container vessel hit the S.F. Bay Bridge in the early morning hours. That afternoon, Zicarrdi and his staff were in San Francisco, evaluating the damage and coordinating help.

When a bird is oiled, toxins break down the feathers that retain their body heat, often resulting in hypothermia. In addition to this danger, the birds may also ingest oil, causing severe physiological damage. While the Cosco Busan spill released only a moderate amount of oil, the thick crude is especially damaging to seabirds.

Following the spill, OWCN conducted the second largest rescue effort of oiled birds in recent California history, establishing a distinguished world reputation for their care, said Nils Warnock, recovery and transportation coordinator of the OWCN

“[The OWCN] is a unique program and plays a huge role in the state of California,” Warnock said. “We’re real leaders in the state in treating oiled wildlife and people look to the university for advice from all over the world.”

However, the rescue didn’t end when the birds were released. The network saved roughly 38.5 percent of the birds collected, which is relatively low compared to the 50 to 60 percent rescue rate of other spills. Though this can mostly be accredited to the already poor condition the birds were in as a result of the winter season, OWCN leaders saw a few aspects of the rescue they hope to improve.

The network highlighted three areas of improvement: a greater amount of qualified staff for search and collection efforts, a more organized volunteer base and lastly, better technology to improve post-rescue survival.

Assembly Bill 2911, introduced earlier this year, ensures that the OWCN will have the amount of qualified staff they believe is necessary. It allowed them to hire staff members such as Warnock, who has a Ph.D. in ecology and has worked on oil spills since 1984 with direct expertise in Pacific flyway birds.

“My role is to create a system for collecting the oiled birds and bringing them to treatment centers,” Warnock said. “These birds can hurt you and you can hurt them, so it’s important that we are practicing good capture techniques.”

In addition to a larger, more qualified staff, the OWCN is also improving its rehabilitation techniques and post-rescue health tactics. Given the amount of birds taken in after an oil spill, it is difficult to administer individual care to each, so the network has been conducting studies to examine and track the health of oiled birds.

Also, the network has hired full-time volunteer coordinator Kaiti Ferguson to ensure that in the case of an oil spill, volunteers will be better organized and prepared to handle necessary tasks.

“Having a strong volunteer base is an extremely important aspect of our rescue efforts,” Ferguson said. “They do anything from medically evaluating the oiled birds to cleaning the facility, which is very important.”

Julia Burco, a Ph.D. student in the UCD veterinary school who works under Ziccardi at the OWCN, has been studying diseases in birds and offered veterinary care during last year’s oil spill clean-up. Knowing that the fungal disease, Aspergillus, was common in birds in captivity, Burco was able to provide information for the network after they collected the oiled birds. She was also able to enhance her own research on birds in captivity.

“No one wished a big oil spill would happen but we were able to use it as an opportunity to do research in a real life setting,” Burco said. “That had a huge impact in future oil spills.”

Though the number of oil spills in California has decreased in the past 15 years, there are still approximately 20 per year, of which the OWCN responds to about 10. There are also currently heightened regulations on ships carrying oil in order to prevent the devastation oil spills create.

“Seeing a bird coated in oil is one of the most pathetic sights you’ll ever see,” Warnock said. “We’re trying our best to get them back into the wild so that they can be like any other bird and have an equal chance of survival.”

LAUREN STEUSSY can be reached at adbonde@ucdavis.edu

UC Davis is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that its intercollegiate athletics program discriminates against women.

Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. certified Brust et al. v. Regents of the University of California as a class-action lawsuit on Oct. 24. The suit claims that the university is not in compliance with Title IX, a federal law enacted in 1972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program receiving federal funds.

The suit seeks several remedies, including a declaration that UC Davis has violated and continues to violate Title IX, a halt to sex discrimination in the administration of university athletic programs and an increase in varsity athletic opportunities and financial assistance for female athletes.

Two club field hockey players and one club rugby player filed the suit in July 2007. All are current UC Davis students: Kelsey Brust is a junior and Jessica Bulala and Laura Ludwig are seniors.

In the suit, Brust and Bulala stated that they have sought varsity status for field hockey on several occasions. Ludwig believes rugby is similarly qualified for varsity status.

In July, the university approved women’s field hockey for varsity status and the team will begin competing at the ICA level next fall. But that is not enough, the plaintiffs‘ attorneys say.

“[UC Davis‘] argument that they are continuing to expand women’s teams is too little, too late,” said Monique Olivier, an attorney for Sturdevant, a law firm representing the plaintiffs. Equal Rights Advocates is also providing counsel to the plaintiffs.

Since the suit is now certified as class action, it includes all current, prospective and future female students who wish to participate in or are deterred from participating in intercollegiate athletics at UC Davis.

A school can qualify for Title IX compliance under any of three criteria, or “prongs“: There are athletic opportunities substantially proportionate to student enrollment, a demonstration of continuous expansion of athletic opportunities for women or accommodation to sufficient interest and ability of students who can sustain a viable team.

Nancy Sheehan, the attorney for UC Davis, said the university has a “history and practice” of expansion of opportunities for women.

The university has added six women’s varsity sports since 1996: lacrosse, rowing, water polo, indoor track and field, golf, and field hockey. There are currently 14 women’s varsity sports and 12 men’s varsity sports at UC Davis. Universities have an average of 8.4 women’s varsity sports, according to a UC Davis fact sheet.

Sheehan said the university has a committee to ensure Title IX compliance and has examined the issue thoroughly as part of its transition to Division I.

“UC Davis has a whole process and procedure of making an assessment every couple of years,” she said. “It has a strong Title IX workgroup presence, and in order for the campus to go through NCAA Division I certification, it had to go through a very, very detailed assessment of its gender equity program.”

But Olivier said UC Davis only added women’s golf and hockey as a result of pending litigation.

“Our position is that even with those teams, they don’t meet the legal test under the law for legal expansion. The addition of those teams should be looked at with a critical eye,” she said.

The plaintiffs allege that the university should be fielding at least four more varsity teams to be in compliance with the substantial proportionality prong of Title IX.

In 2007-2008, 43.8 percent of UC Davis undergraduates were male and 56.2 percent female. However, 48.12 percent of varsity athletes were male and 51.88 percent female. Since UC Davis has over 23,000 undergraduates, the 4.32 percent difference translates to about 80-100 more varsity slots for women, said Whitney Huston, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Huston said that while Title IX does not have an exact percentage window for compliance, “five percent at one school with 12,000 enrolled is very different at a school with 100 people enrolled.“

“There are 80 to 100 slots for women they would need to add in order to meet proportionality – enough to field four or five varsity teams,” Huston said.

But Sheehan said the proportionality argument is irrelevant because the university already meets the continuous expansion prong of the test.

“You only have to show compliance under one prong. The university is striving for prong one compliance, but it is has complied with prong two in the interim,” she said.

The plaintiffs also claim that UC Davis pads the women’s varsity sports rosters with extra athletes to be closer to prong one compliance.

Lisa Leebove, an attorney for Equal Rights Advocates, said UC Davis has a total of over eighty extra women on its rosters as compared to NCAA Division I team averages.

“It’s really a question about not so much the number of teams but also the number of women who have an opportunity to meaningfully participate,” Leebove said.

But that allegation is false, Sheehan said.

“The very adamant answer from [UC Davis Athletic Director] Greg Warzecka is that he’s never directed coaches of women’s teams to increase their roster,” she said.

The Brust suit is not the first Title IX case the university has faced. Four women who believe UC Davis does not adequately provide opportunities for female wrestlers filed a suit in 2003. Last April, Damrell ruled that the plaintiffs in Mansourian et al. v. Regents of the University of California failed to notify UC Davis that they were making broad allegations about the athletic program and dismissed the suit. The plaintiffs, also represented by Equal Rights Advocates and Sturdevant, are currently appealing the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit.

Sheehan said she plans to file a motion for summary judgment in the Brust case. If the motion were to be granted, that would mean the judge would have dismissed the case after reviewing the facts. Sheehan estimates the ruling on summary judgment will take several months.

If the motion for summary judgment is not granted, the case will go to trial in October 2009.

PATRICK McCARTNEY can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.