For the past three weeks, students at UC Davis have been camped outside the chancellor’s office calling for the resignation or firing of their current chancellor, Linda Katehi. The occupations began on March 11th and have persisted daily throughout finals week and spring break. Protesters have continued their efforts with marches across campus, expanding their sit-ins and organizing press conferences.
These efforts to oust her sparked when students recently discovered her ties to textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons and for an unapproved position at the for-profit DeVry University. Though she is currently paid an enormous sum of $424,360 per year as chancellor, her position at Wiley added an additional $420,000 bonus beginning from 2012. The position at the publishing company, which mainly publishes math and science textbooks, is suspect because such companies are responsible for raising already-high textbook costs for students. Following the bleak findings, students quickly moved into action by organizing a Fire Katehi page and website, which has gained support from over 100 groups and individuals across different universities.
Katehi has since donated some of the money she received from the textbook publisher and resigned from the DeVry Education Group board. On March 17th, Katehi wrote a letter addressed to the campus saying: “I apologize for my mistake and the distraction this has caused for our university community … I will establish a $200,000 scholarship fund for California undergraduate students at UC Davis from my Wiley stock proceeds.”
Her apology, though, was too little, too late. Until she is removed from her position as Chancellor, protesters and, frankly, anyone with standards for higher public education will not be appeased. Her engagement with for-profit corporations demonstrates an inexcusable conflict of interest with her role as a public servant.
Her greedy actions are not the only reasons she needs to go. Other grievances toward Katehi include her on-going lack of addressing anti-blackness within the Davis community. Katehi has been largely unresponsive to calls for action, though she did respond with a written reply to a list of demands composed by the Black Student Union at UC Davis, following a recent hate crime reported by a black female student. Katehi and the administration have taken few steps to address larger structural issues around anti-blackness, however.
These calls for her resignation, in fact, have been brewing since 2011, when she authorized campus police to blast pepper spray at peaceably assembled students. Katehi has presided over both an increase in police presence and militarization of the force.
It is true that Katehi is an accomplished woman in the male-dominated field of electrical engineering, and her advocacy for gender equality, at least in STEM, deserve to be acknowledged. However she has also occupied a position of power within an economically beneficial field while overlooking systems of oppression.
Despite threats of suspension or expulsion, occupiers promise not to leave her office or stop their increasingly visible protest actions until she is removed from her position. According to Kyla Burke, one of the protest organizers, students are “preparing for the long haul.”
In the past year, student-led protests have led to the resignation of the chancellor at University of Missouri, as well as at the University of Illinois. Through collective organizing, students have been able to hold accountable those who commit actions which harm the livelihood of a university. Katehi is only one individual who is part a larger problem of the intrusion of corporate influence within the University system. She has compromised the trust of her students with her unprincipled actions and students at UC Davis are dedicated to kicking her out. We at UCLA, being under the same Board of Regents insidiously allowing her to keep her position, should support the assertive efforts in Davis to making positive reforms in the University.