The University of California at Berkeley has accumulated a $1.1-billion “war chest” to fend off Ivy League poachers, the Bloomberg news service reported today.

Berkeley administrators hope the money, which will go toward endowed chairs for 100 professors, will dissuade faculty members from defecting to wealthier competitors like Harvard and Yale, where salary offers are significantly higher.

For the 2006 fiscal year, full professors at Berkeley earned an average of $134,672 and associate professors $88,576 — about 15 percent less than peers at private institutions. And, since 2003, the California university has lost at least 30 faculty members to its eight main competitors, chief among them Harvard.

“These institutions are competing for exactly the same faculty that we are trying to hire, and so an important question is whether the public universities are going to be able to compete,” said Berkeley’s chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau.

Mr. Birgeneau also announced plans to restructure Berkeley’s $2.9-billion endowment, to match Harvard’s 23-percent return on its $34.9-billion fund.

Berkeley, which faces a 10-percent cut in state support under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, plans to raise $107-million from donors and to add it to a $113-million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to help create the 100 endowed chairs. —Paula Wasley