Talk about insensitivity. At exactly the moment that the University of California is raising fees and turning away qualified freshmen, it is also substantially raising the salaries of some top officials.

Incoming UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Ann Fox will earn $350,000, some $70,000 more than her predecessor. In February, new UC Provost Marci Greenwood received a raise of $111,000 more than her previous salary as chancellor of UC Santa Cruz. In June, UC Senior Vice President Joseph Mullinix received a $78, 000 raise after he received another job.

These raises will make it more difficult for supporters to lobby on UC's behalf in Sacramento. They will further depress staff and faculty morale. They will encourage lower-level senior officials to ask for higher salaries.

We understand that UC must compete with other institutions for top administrators, and its salaries may not always be competitive with comparable institutions. But, at this time of crisis, the argument that the university has to pay higher salaries just because some other institutions do is not persuasive.

The budget crisis presents UC with an opportunity to take a stand against spiraling pay for university administrators. It must avoid mimicking practices that have contributed to stratospheric salaries of corporate executives. The university must be run as a center for higher learning, not like a profit- making corporation.

At the least, Fox and other top officials should decline their pumped-up salaries, with the understanding that their compensation will be reviewed if and when the university returns to financial health.