State to audit University of California finances

State legislators concerned about what they call misplaced priorities and poor decision-making have approved a fiscal audit of the University of California.

The prestigious public university system is raising fees and shutting out California students while it offers big bonuses to its executives said Leland Yee, the State Senator who proposed the audit.

"U.C. would like to easily blame the state legislature for not giving them enough money but the problem is that it’s hard to know exactly if that is the cause, they never opened up the books to anyone, whatsoever. We have tried to do that and they have said, we are separate, we are independent."

The audit’s expected to cost more than $100,000 and take about eight months.

The University of California welcomes the audit, said its vice president of business operations. U.C.’s finances are audited regularly, and he said transparency is the best way to make a case against the state’s disinvestment in public education.