It’s one thing for a university chancellor to sit on a for-profit board. It’s another for a chancellor to sit on the board of a company that makes money off of students with expensive textbooks, and then move on to another that’s under investigation by the federal government.
Yet that’s exactly what Linda Katehi, chancellor of University of California-Davis, was in the process of doing before the Sacramento Bee reported last month that she received more than $420,000 in compensation as a board member for textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons, and had subsequently accepted a position on the board of DeVry Education Group, a for-profit higher ed organization that’s currently under federal investigation for allegedly exaggerating job placement claims.
Katehi quickly distanced herself from DeVry and pledged to create a $200,000 scholarship fund with stock proceeds she made from serving on the textbook company’s board from 2012 to 2014. But the appearance of a conflict of interest prompted the chair of California’s Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance to ask for her resignation, and resulted in a group of about 100 students, staff, and faculty beginning a round-the-clock sit-in in Katehi’s office on March 11.
UC Davis Spent $175,000 To Bury This Story Of Police Brutality. We’re Writing About It So They Fail…Education by CREDIT: Video screengrab Following an infamous November 2011 incident where a University of California…thinkprogress.orgBefore the sit-in even began, University of California President Janet Napolitano signaled her continued support for Katehi, saying in a statement that she “deeply value[s] Linda’s strong record in helping to make UC Davis a world-class center of scholarship and research.” And indeed, last Friday protesters left Katehi’s office without securing her resignation or dismissal.
Protesters don’t believe their efforts were for naught, however. In a statement released after they ended the sit-in, “Fire Katehi” activists wrote, “Through our continual presence in Mrak Hall, we have effectively brought local, national, and international attention to the unethical behaviors of the Katehi administration and become a pivotal voice in the national conversation about privatization and administrative accountability.”
The statement calls for the broadening of the movement from UC Davis to other campuses across the country “that are placing pride and profit over students and workers.”
Kimberly Reyes, a fourth-year sociology and gender studies major at UC Davis, said that Katehi’s involvement on the boards may not have been illegal, but it was unethical, especially in light of the fact that her university salary is about $424,000.
“It shows how disconnected she is with a a student body made up of students who are thousands of dollars in debt, while our chancellor is making so much money off of it,” Reyes told ThinkProgress last Friday.
Protesters ended the sit-in just days after the Bee revealed that UC Davis officials spent at least $175,000 on consultants in hopes of scrubbing the internet of negative posts stemming from an infamous November 2011 incident where a campus police officer was caught on camera casually pepper spraying peaceful protesters.
Update:
Katehi has been placed on indefinite leave by UC President Janet Napolitano.
In an April 27 statement, Napolitano said she is “deeply disappointed to take this action,” but added that the move is necessary because of “serious and troubling” questions surrounding Katehi’s controversial service on the boards of for-profit corporations, and the spending to improve UC Davis’ online reputation, among other concerns.
In a statement released through her lawyer, Katehi characterizes Napolitano’s move as “scapegoating.”
“The Chancellor welcomes an independent, objective investigation and a full release of all relevant documents and public records,” the statement said. “Make no mistake: we intend to vigorously defend Linda’s professional reputation and her standing as Chancellor of the university she loves.”