Taking Full Responsibility at UC Davis - Chancellor Katehi Must Go!

Following up the police brutality against peaceful protesting students at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) (see video below), Chancellor Linda Katehi did some PR dance, took full responsibility and tried to apologize.  The police chief at UC Davis had been put on paid administrative leave.  But demand for the resignation of Chancellor Katehi continued.


Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis

People are devided at how much blame Katehi should shoulder.  However, if she fails to resign or if the Regents fail to fire her, it is not convince to say that she has taken full responsibility.  Hiding behind her subordinates would not do.

Remember, Chancellor Katehi was hired in 2009 with great controversy.  Her $400,000 annual salary, approved by the UC Board of Regents, equated to a 27 percent hike from her predecessor and a 12.4 percent increase from her previous position at the University of Illinois.  That happened during the time when the funding to the University from the state had been cut year after year, after staff and faculty were forced to take unpaid furloughs, and endless tuition hikes threatened the quality of the university system.  It was an obscene amount of money thrown at a civil servant, a public university administrator.

I sincerely don't believe that she had ordered the spraying or green-lighted it. But, that fact hardly matters.  If she had the aduacity to demand such exorbitant amount of salary, she must be held responsible for every action on campus during her watch.  Otherwise, she should not have taken in such salary from the public university.  It cannot be that achivements were hers but blames were others.

In a way, Katehi is the embodiment of what is wrong with our country and what people are protesting against.  For too long, it has been profits for the rich and the finacial misery for the poor.  That must change.

People have been frustrated by the lack of clear and tangible goals and demands from the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Now, in UC Davis, there is a clear and tangible goal.  It is holding Chancellor Linda Katehi responsible and have her replaced.

Chancellor Katehi must go!