Hank Reichman has been reporting on the many issues surrounding Linda Katehi and the other chancellors in the University of California system. What follows is a short item by Mariel Hemingway, writing for the University Herald; the piece is largely a synthesis of the reports from other news sources:
“Linda Katehi has been embroiled in several controversies in her tenure as the chancellor for University of California, Davis. One of the most notable events was the pepper spray incident that involved peaceful student protestors on campus. This is on top of numerous allegations including mismanagement of university funds.
“UC Davis’s provost Ralph Hexter has been called on to become the interim chancellor of the university, USA Today College noted. Before Katehi was ousted as chancellor, she was placed on forced but paid leave as she is investigated over violations of UC Davis’ policies. The suspension led to two weeks of student sit-ins and rallies. The protests even went on social media with student rallyists posting their pleas online and hashtagged it with #FireKatehi.
“UC Davis President Janet Napolitano who caught wind of Katehi’s controversies from the university’s community members put the latter on leave, Los Angeles Times reported. Katehi is being independently investigated on allegations including alleged misuse of student funds, nepotism and hiring social media experts to erase negative posts on the internet about the infamous pepper-spraying incident in UC Davis.
“Furthermore, Katehi is also to answer why she accepted to be a board member of the DeVry Education Group and textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons despite being a UC Davis chancellor. Katehi resigned from her position at DeVry in March this and issued a letter of apology to students, Huffington Post shared. She was no longer part of John Wiley & Sons since 2014.
“According to the new interim chancellor Hexter, working with Katehi was inspiring but he was disappointed over the events. UC Davis officials and even politicians have called for the ex-chancellors resignation, CBS Local noted. Students who were calling for Katehi to resign also hoped for her not to be restored to her position.”
The University Herald is available at: http://www.universityherald.com/.
Linda Katehi
Ralph Hexter
Reblogged this on Ohio Higher Ed.
University of California President Janet Napolitano…
This report is not accurate. Katehi has not been “ousted” — at least not yet — but placed on leave while the university investigates whether she violated conflict of interest rules involving employment of her daughter and son-in-law as well as her actions in hiring an outside firm to improve her image on the Internet after the pepper spray incident. As for her service on outside boards, she resigned the DeVry position, which President Napolitano publicly deemed adequate. Her service on other boards, including Wiley, while damning evidence of the corporatization of the university and the greedy tone-deafness of top administrators, was not, alas, in violation of UC policies. I will be blogging more on this later today or tomorrow.
Oops, I meant son and daughter-in-law, not the other way around. For my blog post go to https://academeblog.org/2016/05/03/the-suspension-of-linda-katehi/