What recession?

UCSD — More UCSD spending: recently appointed UCSD health sciences counsel Anthony Perez is being paid an annual base salary of $210,000 and will be eligible for a mortgage loan not to exceed $1.33 million made by the university. University regents approved the package at their late-March meeting. Because Perez’s compensation status exceeds the usual maximum for such loans, the regents granted an exemption for him “based upon essential recruitment and retention needs and goals of the institution.”

Regents also approved an 18.8 percent “stipend” to augment the annual base salary of UCSD’s acting vice chancellor for external relations, Steven W. Relyea, who is also vice chancellor for business affairs. He will now make a total of $285,000. Relyea’s salary deal lasts through the end of the year or whenever a permanent vice chancellor takes over, whichever comes first.

In yet another sharp salary hike voted by the regents, Julianne J. Larsen, acting associate vice chancellor for development at UCSD, was given a 15 percent “stipend” to lift her annual pay to $200,330. And Ronaldo G. Espiritu, the associate dean for business and fiscal affairs, health sciences, got a 20.2 percent raise, to $221,600.