As a UCLA alumni and an alumni of the University of California system, I personally think that this is fantastic news. I always considered Yudof a symbolic figure of everything that was wrong with the UC system. In essence, he was a more visible Dan Guerrero yet in a higher position of power and was just about as competent as Gene Block and Dan Guerrero are, which is a roundabout way of saying highly incompetent. Yudof, once dubbed the most hated public official in California began his tenure in 2008 and during his tenure, we have seen budget cuts, tuition costs rise and scandals ranging from wrongly delivered acceptance letters at two UC campuses to protests across all UC campuses against tuition hikes and acts of racism.

According to the Huffington Post, here are some numbers on budget cuts.

(During Yudof's tenure), the university system has been a chief victim of California's financial crisis, enduring massive budget cuts, tuition hikes, layoffs and program eliminations. In 2009 alone, the system saw a mandated budget cut of $813 million, or 20 percent of its total budget. This year, the university has been charged to slash spending by $500 million, a 16.4 percent decrease.

Not that this affected Yudof's quality of life at all. According to the Examiner,

How ever Yudof has also been draining money from the UC system just to support his life style. For some one who dose nothing, he is being paid $540,000 plus a housing allowance of $10,000 a month while using UC Police to protect himself.

Basically this free-loading leech is get paid more then the President Obama or any UC professor with a Nobel Prize. In a New York Times interview were he was asked about cutting administrative salaries, Yudof rebutted the idea and bragged about how he has cut $6,000 from his originally $828,000 salary.

$828,000? Hey that's almost as much as Dan makes for doing close to nothing!

More from the Huffington Post; Yudof was known for his self-deprecating humor and was highly unpopular with UC students.

I still think [the critics] lacked a sense of humor," he said. "I'll just tell you my honest view: I've never apologized for it. You tell a self-deprecating joke and someone says, 'You're treating us like cadavers.' Give me a break. Yudof's dry sense of humor seems to be lost on students and faculty, with whom he remains unpopular. In September 2009, 14 students chanting "Lay off Yudof" were arrested in front of the president at a Board of Regents meeting. Facebook groups with names like "Vote 'No Confidence' In Mark Yudof" and "Mark Yudof needs to be fired" have hundreds of members, and a group titled "Can this broken picnic table get more fans than UC President Mark G. Yudof" does, in fact, have more fans than the president.

Perhaps with Yudof gone we can turn up the heat on the UC regents to hire good leadership who can trim the fat and show our tonedeaf Chancellor and Athletic Director the door.

Today is a happy day for all UC students, alumni and faculty (well maybe not Gene, Dan and the other lazy, tonedeaf bureaucrats). GO BRUINS.