Gardner, Regents to Meet on Retirement : Education: Some officials speculate the UC president may forgo $737,757 in supplemental pay and pension funds to quiet negative publicity about the plan.

University of California President David P. Gardner has hastily scheduled a closed-door meeting of UC’s Board of Regents for Thursday to discuss his controversial retirement package.

Several high-ranking UC officials speculated that Gardner might voluntarily forgo $737,757 in supplemental pay and pension funds, which some legislators and students criticized as unseemly in a budget crisis.

Gardner, who is to resign as UC president Oct. 1, is said to be upset about negative publicity surrounding the regents’ approval last month of actions allowing him to collect the supplemental retirement benefits and deferred salary, in addition to his $130,000 annual pension. The regents voted to give him three months of administrative leave, which would allow him to become eligible for the extra funds.

Regent William T. Bagley, who has defended the retirement arrangement, said that Gardner may ask the regents to repeal last month’s actions qualifying him for the extra sum because he “cares more about the university than he does about himself” and fears the controversy could harm UC in the Legislature and in public bond issue proposals.

Other than to cite “personnel actions,” Gardner would not say why he called the emergency meeting, to be held at UC San Francisco, according to a spokesman. Gardner is scheduled to address a press conference after the session.

Regent Jeremiah F. Hallisey, who has sharply criticized the board’s actions benefiting Gardner, said he hoped that Gardner would ask the regents to reverse their previous action. “That’s what I’ve been urging,” he said.

In a related matter, Gardner announced that he will not ask UC to buy back his Orinda home, a private residence he purchased because the official presidential mansion was too small for his family. When Gardner became UC president in 1983, regents helped him buy the house with low-interest and interest-free loans and bought his previous home in Utah. Later, the regents agreed that, if Gardner requested it, UC would purchase at fair market value the Orinda home, now thought to be worth about $800,000. Gardner also received about $53,800 a year for housing and maintenance allowances on top of his $243,500 annual salary.

In a letter to regents this week, Gardner stated that UC’s agreement to buy the Orinda house “was entered into principally to protect my wife.” Libby Gardner died last year, prompting his retirement. “Thus, I do not intend to call upon the regents either to purchase my home, or following my separation from service, to incur further expense of any kind in connection with my personal residence.”

The UC Student Assn. has scheduled a rally for noon today at UCLA to protest Gardner’s severance package. Among the speakers will be Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who is chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee.