Students calling for UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi’s resignation launched a new protest Wednesday afternoon.
It initially looked like their months-long efforts were about to be successful. In the morning, reports were saying that University of California President Janet Napolitano had asked for Katehi’s resignation – and the beleaguered chancellor had accepted.
The protesters were preparing to celebrate, until it became known that Katehi was standing her ground.
An email from Katehi to the Academic Senate was made public, in which Katehi wrote, “This email is to let you know that I am 100 percent committed to serving as Chancellor of UC Davis. I sincerely appreciate the strong outpouring of support I continue to receive from the campus community and I very much look forward to continuing to lead the campus to greater levels of success and excellence in the future.”
The students at the latest protest, a clothesline hanging paper clothing printed with Katehi’s supposed “dirty laundry,” seemed to remain confident Katehi would eventually be forced to step down. In fact, many were looking forward to what would happen after the position is vacated.
“After the excitement dies down, I think the focus should be on seeing what we can do to democratize how chancellors are elected, because right now they’re just appointed and the student body and faculty don’t have a say,” student Sara Flores said.
“We want to see a revision of the hiring process for the chancellor, so that another chancellor won’t be hired that repeats the same mistakes Katehi has made,” recent graduate Ed Subah added.
Despite the vocal protesters, not all students seem convinced Katehi should resign.
“I really don’t know. I think she has a lot of questions to answer, and I think depending how she answers those questions and how open and honest she is, that she could keep her job. But if she is not transparent from this point forward, maybe she should leave,” Ph.D. student Devin Rippner said.