by Marina Kalugin
Times have been very tough, indeed, but Chancellor Katehi is NOT the problem.. She has done a remarkable job given the many challenges of her tenure.
Starting as an undergrad, who arrived at UCD, in 1970, I have participated in ALL areas of UCD and never left. I can say unequivocally that ALL of the accolades that occurred under her tenure were possible because of her leadership and her correct priorities.
The peppervspray issue was unfortunate, however for those who are old enough, the term “going postal” could describe what happened and although, as Chancellor, Katehi shared the blame, she truly did NOT do the deed, nor condone it.
Just like no one calls for the head of the post office when an employee there “goes postal”, one should not point at the Chancellor either. As far as the money spent on the UCD website, that was TRULY money well spent. The UCD website was abysmal until this influx of funds.
I am well known for speaking out, and one of my pet peeves was the horrific website. It was hard to find ANYTHING of use, the searches were NOT optimized and it was SUCH an embarassment for a world-class university.
I was not the only manager on campus who griped about that on a regular basis.. When something is in such sad and useless shape, it will take a huge influx of funds to right something THAT large and so unwieldy. It needed to be redone from scratch.
I was thrilled to see it when it was rolled out. Who knew such a non-issue would grow into such a controversy?
Those who have already failed at being students, or as faculty, or as legislators should step out of the way and let Chancellor Katehi finish her job. If she DIDN’T care, she would have already left after what SHE has been put through. Thank you and enjoy this lovely new day.
Marina Kalugin (Rumiansev)
While the author is certainly entitled to her opinion, I do not believe she has mastery over the facts. She overlooks the obvious conflicts of interest by serving on the boards of DeVry, Wiley and Sons, and King Abdulluh Aziz university. She also seems to think that the 175,000 dollars were spent on the UCD website, when in fact it was spent trying to bury the pepper spray story. While Katehi has done some good things for women in STEM, if you go ask some of those women in STEM, you will find that many find her actions to be highly unethical, her candor disingenuous, her pay already too high, and its time for her to step down.
Nothing you list are “obvious” anything except through a filter of a hyper-sensitive liberal arts brain.
You folks can get riled up about anything… seem to make up things that you can file grievances about.
I fully agree Frankly.
There are no real conflicts of interest with her being on the boards of other institutions. I would actually argue that her being on the DeVry board (after the alleged problems that the feds are investigating occurred) actually helps bring sound governance to for-profit universities. Her working with KAUST cannot even be considered the slightest conflict – in fact it helps our international connections with an emerging global university! Wiley, well, we can talk about the problems with being on the Wiley board, but they do not rise to impeachable offenses.
Regarding the money spent on improving our public face after the pepper spray incident – that was 4% of the annual recruiting budget. This is money well spent if you are trying to recruit to UC Davis. It is impossible to actually scrub this information from history – but PR firms do this all the time to assist companies in their public image. Why wouldn’t UC Davis students like to help maintain the prestige of their university by ensuring that the pepper spray incident is not the first thing that everyone learns about UC Davis?
Her “pay too high” compared to WHOM? You just say that without knowing that her salary is consistent with GOING RATE for the highest ranking employee at a research university.
Y’all wanna be mad because the US University system is getting expensive and increasingly competitive – both for students and for money. Blame the state legislators for cutting money to support the UC, don’t blame good administrators for trying to make the best of the hand they have been dealt.
Dear Mr. Raycraft. Were you a friend of my son’s? If so, I would like to say hello… If I have you confused with someone else, then mea culpa.
Katehi, as UCD Chancellor, has earned WAY less on outside contracts than most any other UC Chancellors. She was CERTAINLY not in it for the pittance that she was to get from DeVry. I actually KNOW her and have over the years. She truly thought that she could HELP DeVry and help them get on their feet.
That sum for the website is not out of line for what was needed and the final result. If it was ONLY to scrub the 2011 pepperspray, that would be absurd as THAT was more than FIVE years ago…and we had a very inadequate website for all of those years….
All costs are relative. For a struggling student, the sum of $175K may seem like a lifetime’s work.
Those who actually work managing budgets of multi-millions would understand THAT is NOT a huge sum for what was done and the result.
The fact that the website was FINALLY updated after myriads of faculty, managers, staff and students continued to complain over many yearst that it was impossible to ever find anything of use on the site would know that it was NOT simply to scrub the pepperspray incident….
In fact, many were not even following the news nearly half a decade ago and others had even forgotten THAT until those with TOO much time on their hands for whatever reason were intent on digging up more dirt on the Chancellor.
I was trying to take a few days off and instead here I am compelled to respond to YOUR lack of understanding.
As someone who did my own share of protesting back in the 60s and 70s, I find it funny to see some who truly doesn’t know the facts attempt to patronize me, who does…
Enjoy the rest of your day… I will.
Marina
Hi Marina, yes I do think I know your son. It has been a long time since I have seen him last. It would be nice to catch up. Sometimes, words written on the internet are carelessly used. That is the case with my previous comment. It was not intended to denigrate you or your opinion, rather to point out the problems I saw with your op ed. If it came across otherwise, I apologize.
I have a lot of respect for those who participate in direct action. It is the single best way to affect change in communities. With all that said, I do think there are some factual inaccuracies with your statement, and I still stand by my statements, regarding DeVry University, Wiley and Sons, and King Abdullah Aziz University.
1- The 175,000 you are referencing was in fact used to try and scrub the internet (optimizing search results) for the Chancellor and the University, removing the pepper spray incident from google searches. That is well documented by the Sacramento Bee and FOIA requests.
2- For profit universities like DeVry are inherently unethical in my opinion. Their number one goal is NOT education, it is to create profit for their shareholders. Those universities prey on vulnerable students, and veterans, promising them a quick education, and when they get done, they find their degrees are worthless, and they are saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. The fact that the Chancellor served on this board for six figures is ethically questionable at best, when considering conflicts of interest. Many of these same concerns are mirrored with the textbook company. Being on a board of a textbook company that is notorious for extorting students with ridiculously high book prices is also questionable at best, considering she is the Chancellor of the University, and ought to be looking out for the financial well being of students, not the profit margins of textbook publishers.
3- I think you are partly right about her serving on various boards is not unique for University Administrators. The problem is a systemic ethical failure. With that said, the “everyone else is doing it” excuse is not an excuse for unethical behavior. At the very least, it creates a perceived conflict of interest and a ton of bad press for the University. Bad press is bad for the branding of the University, which is part of her job if Im not mistaken.
I want to re iterate Im not trying to attack you, rather Im pointing out that Katehi’s actions are unethical. My position is not an unreasonable one. I think she should go. If she wants to go work for DeVry or Wiley or the King of Saudi Arabia once she has resigned, more power to her.
Dear Sean, Then, I knew you and your parents and sister VERY well also back in the day.
I am now way past retirement age and still work for UCD…..
I am sure you know how easy it is to take things out of context? Well, although there was a statement that IS documented, that is a tiny fraction of the TRUTH…
The TRUTH is that I couldn’t even locate current info on the website and couldn’t locate persons who work on campus, and THAT is why for years I kept griping to the Chancellor and others about the poor website, poor search engine, lack of proper search optimization and so forth..
Also, the timing doesn’t make logical sense….. Why WAIT five years to scrub away the pepperspray?
If you may be in the tech world, $175K hardly pays the salary and benefits of one programmer in Silicon Valley…
I never thought you were attacking me…
But, the chancellor of UCSF last year earned over $1mil on such an outside contract.
MOST high level PRIVATE and PUBLIC university presidents/chancellor’s and others DO.
It is NOT illegal.. NOR< is it against UC policies…
And, what is the difference between Harvard and other “private” institutions….
Just because Harvard has tax breaks and other benefits, which a small institution like DeVry does not…
What makes DeVry unethical and Harvard ethical? Even the UCs now are more like “private” universities as they have become so expensive and the state of CA only funds a tiny percentage of the total cost…..
Back when I came here in 70, almost the entire cost,save a tiny “fee” was no cost to students. Nearly FULL cost was paid by the state…
Now the governor and state legislators interfere in the UC system, while not finding even 15%.
Janet Napolitano, ex Chief of Homeland Security, is now running amuk at President of UC>…
The Chancellor has performed miracles under such circumstances.
Hope you are doing well.
Marina Kalugin
KCRA running story about unconfirmed report that Katehi is out.
We are monitoring it, but right now there is a lot of speculation and not a lot of facts coming out.
Well let’s crank up the rumor mill while we wait for the shoe to drop. Perhaps she is praying with Al Haig.
Napolitano cannot be trusted….
that is why Faculty, Managers, Staff and students are speaking out about this. Napolitano does NOT have authority and it is NOT allowed by the UC bylaws…thus, it is important for THAT to be known and understood.
Marina Kalugin
I agree, if Katehi must go then Napolitano should have to lose her job too.
This was last night’s story and video:
http://myinforms.com/en-us/a/31698451-fate-of-ucd-chancellor-linda-katehi-is-unclear/
Administration is keeping MUM….
What Napolitano is doing is AGAINST UC BYLAWS…..
But, that would not be the first time.
Napolitano has also made deals with the governor ( 2 years ago) which crashed the benefits of the UC retirement plan for incoming new hires, and is now monitoring ALL computers on the UC networks, ala NSA and Eric Snowden…
There is enough evidence that Napolitano was doing something illegal.
That much appears CLEAR….
Marina Kalugin
Here is the KCRA story
http://www.kcra.com/news/fate-of-ucd-chancellor-linda-katehi-is-unclear/39231504