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The UC Board of Regents meets every other month with little fanfare, but when the regents meet this week, more eyes than usual will likely be focused on them.

In what many consider to be a critically important meeting, which begins today in San Francisco and continues Thursday, the regents plan to address the executive compensation problems that have plagued the UC since a series of newspaper reports beginning in November exposed excessive pay practices among the university’s high-ranking officials, often out of the public eye.

UC President Robert Dynes has taken considerable heat in recent weeks for the scandal, with several legislators calling for his resignation and one calling for his firing. But in a series of newspaper interviews, Dynes has defended himself and eschewed any talk of stepping down.

To add to the intrigue of this week’s meeting, it is slated to be UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale’s last before he steps down from his post at the end of June. But as the date draws near, no replacement has been announced. Several media outlets have reported that Syracuse University Provost Deborah Freund, the leading candidate to replace Carnesale, bowed out of negotiations for the position last week, leaving a void in the chancellor search process.

The regents will hear the results today of an audit detailing compensation practices relating to a large number of UC managers. This audit, like the previous two audits released over the past month, is expected to display repeated violations of university policy without the public’s – and sometimes the regents’ – knowledge.

As numerous audits have shown a pattern of questionable pay practices, some have tried to make Dynes the scapegoat for the UC’s problems. Earlier this month, State Sens. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who are expected to attend the meeting, issued a joint call for Dynes’ immediate resignation.

“Enough is enough,” Romero said in a press release on May 3. “President Dynes has had over two years to clear up accounting and compensation abuses in the University of California system. Instead, it seems the problems have flourished on his watch.”

Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, even went so far as to demand the regents fire Dynes.

But some are wary of drastic knee-jerk responses to a relatively young scandal.

“It would be irresponsible and shortsighted to allow the initial furor over the audit reports to result in the dismantling of the leadership that has helped guide the University of California to its prominence and is integral to its continued success,” said an op-ed piece written jointly by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, venture capitalist Arthur Rock and former Regents Chairman William Coblentz, in Monday’s edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.

And Dynes has support within the UC as well.

“I think he has as good a chance or better than most people to be able to solve the compensation problems,” said UCLA Academic Senate Chairwoman Adrienne Lavine. “But it’s not an easy task because it requires some cultural change and it requires trying to remain competitive while trying to – as we should – adhere to high standards of transparency and accountability.”

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week, Dynes said many of the problems now surfacing stem from the culture of the UC that was firmly in place when he took over as president in October 2003. He also said he plans to explain to his fellow regents – in closed session – exactly “what I was thinking, why I did what I did.”

As the regents plan to discuss possible disciplinary action against Dynes, this meeting is especially significant for a leader with an unknown future.

Much of today’s agenda focuses on compensation. The regents will discuss salaries for a number of university employees, including Carnesale, who will return to teaching after stepping down on June 30.

But most of the discussion will come in closed session, in which reporters are not allowed. A lawyer for the state legislature issued an opinion several weeks ago suggesting such a closed session would violate California’s open-meeting laws. On this basis, the San Francisco Chronicle last week filed a suit in superior court to bar the regents from holding this meeting behind closed doors.

“UC is a public trust, and its actions have to be taken openly,” said Karl Olson, the newspaper’s lawyer, in a Chronicle article that ran May 12.

An Alameda County judge rejected the suit without comment.

Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky said in a statement that the regents have a long-standing policy to discuss such matters privately and then vote publicly.

“UC has an obligation to be open and accessible to the public, and the regents are committed to ensuring (that) that obligation is met. At the same time, we are equally obligated to ensure that employees’ rights to privacy under the law are honored,” Parsky said.

Adhering to their traditional methods, he said, “appropriately balances these two obligations.”

One item which will come in open session is the modest send-off for Carnesale.

Though he did not know exactly what would be done to mark Carnesale’s departure, UC spokesman Trey Davis said the regents “always acknowledge people who are departing.”

Don’t expect balloons and streamers, though. Davis said the farewell at the meeting may be little more than an acknowledgement. The real send-off for Carnesale will come in the form of a closed-door, invitation-only dinner at a later date, he said.

But some question has arisen this past week over whether this will actually be Carnesale’s last meeting as chancellor, since there is no clear candidate to fill the position.

UC officials have remained guarded about the chancellor search process but avow that it is continuing. They have said Carnesale has not been approached about staying on past June 30.