Following the unexpected death of UC Santa Cruz Chancellor
Denice Denton on June 24, UCSC and University of California
officials said they are determined to move forward and find a new
leader to carry on Denton’s vision of a diverse campus.
Denton, 46, died in an apparent suicide jump off of a building
in San Francisco. She was the first openly gay UC chancellor and
advocated for women in the fields of engineering and science.
Bill Ladusaw, professor of linguistics and vice provost of
undergraduate education at UCSC, said the impact of Denton’s
death on the UCSC campus was immense.
During the week following her death, the university was both
mourning her loss and looking to future of the university in the
search for a new chancellor, he said.
On June 29, a memorial service held for Denton was attended by
over 1,000 family, faculty, staff and students. UCSC created a Web
site for Denton with remembrance messages from people, including
the UCSC campus provost and UC president Robert Dynes.
The most concrete step the campus will need to take is finding a
chancellor to replace Denton.
The creation of a search committee for a permanent chancellor is
underway and an acting chancellor is set to be appointed soon, said
UC spokesman Paul Schwartz.
The search for a chancellor is an extensive process that usually
takes three to six months ““ the committee considers national
as well as international prospects, often resulting in several
hundred candidates, said Schwartz. However, UCLA’s search for
a replacement for former Chancellor Albert Carnesale has been
ongoing for more than 10 months with no candidate publicly
announced.
But the campus will also look forward by strengthening its
commitment to Denton’s foremost principles ““ supporting
women and minorities in the fields of engineering and science, said
UCSC spokeswoman Elizabeth Irwin.
She said she sees this as a time when people can renew their
commitment to advancing these principles.
“We owe it to her to move ahead with her advocacy,”
Irwin said.
But in order for those goals to be achieved, there must be a
connection and understanding between both administrators and
students, Ladusaw said.
“I believe it is important for the administration to hear
student perspectives and build effective coalitions,” Ladusaw
said.
Though many of Denton’s friends, family and colleagues,
along with students, are focusing on her work with advancing
women’s roles in traditionally male-dominated fields, her
accomplishments in her field were overshadowed by the compensation
scandal in her only year as a chancellor.
The months before her death, Denton came under criticism from
students and the public for seeking expensive compensation packages
and making a university position for her partner. At one point
students protested on the lawn of her home to express their
dissatisfaction with her leadership.
Stephanie Tam, a third-year sociology student at UCSC, noted the
criticism Denton received from students. The criticism centered on
complaints about the late chancellor’s lack of funding to a
range of student organizations and her providing more funding for
the sciences than for other areas of the school.
“Nobody feels responsible for (her death), but students
feel as though we did not improve the situation treating her the
way some did,” Tam said.
But Ladusaw said it was not these perceived failings that he
remembered about Denton, but rather the actions she took to advance
women’s rights.
“I don’t understand why students did not like her
even though I would have thought they shared a lot of
values,” he said.