See the latest updates on this story at http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=648227

Update at 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 27:

The following statement was issued at 10:35 p.m. by Sacramento attorney Melinda Guzman:

“Statement from attorney Melinda Guzman on behalf of her client, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi:

“Tonight’s action is disappointing, unprecedented and, based on the facts, entirely unjustified.

“Since the day she was hired, the chancellor has given her unwavering devotion to fulfilling the fundamental public mission of UC Davis and doing everything the UC President and Board of Regents have asked her to.

“By any measure — and according to numerous voices throughout the Davis and Sacramento communities — her leadership has helped put the university on a path to globally recognized excellence and historic diversity. More Californians than ever before — including more women and more students of color — are receiving a world-class education at UC Davis under her stewardship.

“This smacks of scapegoating and a rush to judgment driven purely by political optics, not the best interests of the university or the UC system as a whole.

“The Chancellor welcomes an independent, objective investigation and a full release of all relevant documents and public records.

“Make no mistake: we intend to vigorously defend Linda’s professional reputation and her standing as Chancellor of the university she loves.”

Update at 10:13 p.m. Wednesday:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The chancellor of the University of California’s Davis campus was put on indefinite leave Wednesday amid an uproar over her service on corporate boards and the school’s hiring of consultants to improve its image online, following the widely criticized pepper spraying of protesters by campus police, the university’s president announced. UC President Janet Napolitano plans to appoint an independent investigator to examine the “serious and troubling” questions raised by the actions of Chancellor Linda Katehi and to determine if they violated any university policies, Napolitano’s office announced in a statement. In the meantime, Napolitano has removed Katehi from the post she has held for nearly seven years until the inquiry is completed. The campus provost, Ralph Hexter, will fill the chancellor’s shoes on an acting basis. “I am deeply disappointed to take this action,” Napolitano said in the statement. “But Davis is a strong campus, nationally and internationally renowned in many academic disciplines. I’m confident of the campus’s continued ability to thrive and serve California students and the Davis community.” Napolitano’s announcement ended two days of tense speculation at the Davis campus over Katehi’s status. A petition to Napolitano circulated among faculty members and signed by more than 300 professors earlier Wednesday stated they believed Napolitano had asked Katehi to resign and voiced objection to “this peremptory action carried out without any consultation.” Katehi added to the intrigue with a midday email to her deans and vice chancellors in which she said she was “100 percent committed” to staying on as chancellor. “I very much look forward to continuing to lead the campus to greater levels of success and excellence in the future,” she wrote. Katehi, 62, an electrical engineer who has advocated for women in the sciences, came under fire early in her tenure at Davis when campus police officers used pepper spray on seated demonstrators during a November 2011 Occupy movement protest. The action received global attention because of widely circulated videos and photos of the cringing demonstrators getting sprayed. The Davis Faculty Association called for Katehi’s resignation for ordering police to dismantle the protesters’ tent city. An independent investigation later criticized her for demonstrating ineffective leadership leading up to and during the incident, which sparked a series of campus reforms. Although Katehi weathered the crisis, calls for her resignation resurfaced after The Sacramento Bee reported in March that she had accepted a seat on the board of a for-profit college company the federal government is suing and previously earned hundreds of thousands of dollars as a director for a textbook publisher. Student protesters upset by what they perceived as a conflict of interest spent five weeks camped outside her office, staying there even after Katehi said she would donate some of the proceeds from her service on the board of textbook company John Wiley & Sons to a scholarship fund. Pressure for her to quit continued to mount when The Bee reported the campus had spent at least $175,000 on Internet search optimization consultants who promised to diminish online references to the pepper-spray incident so the public would get a more favorable image of Davis. In a statement last week, Katehi apologized for “a series of highly publicized missteps” that she acknowledged had overshadowed the university’s accomplishments and “been a setback to our reputation and hard-earned prestige.” She disputed, however, the idea that her administration had tried to bury the pepper-spray incident by working with the search optimization firms and investing more than $2.6 million on advertising and campus outreach. “Because of the importance of philanthropy to UC Davis and the need to make sure those searching for information about the university get a complete picture, we needed to do a better job telling the world about the university’s extraordinary achievements,” she said. “So we did what any organization in a similar situation would do ? we sought to strengthen our communications capabilities.” UC Davis enrolls about 27,000 undergraduates and 4,600 graduate students at a campus 18 miles from Sacramento. UPDATE at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday: Katehi placed on investigatory administrative leave

Statement from the University of California Office of the President:

“Information has recently come to light that raises serious questions about whether Chancellor Katehi may have violated several University of California policies, including questions about the campus’s employment and compensation of some of the chancellor’s immediate family members, the veracity of the chancellor’s accounts of her involvement in contracts related to managing both the campus’s and her personal reputation on social media, and the potential improper use of student fees.

“The serious and troubling nature of these questions, as well as the initial evidence, requires a rigorous and transparent investigation. As such, President Napolitano will appoint an independent, outside investigator to conduct the investigation and submit a report, before the start of the 2016-17 academic year.

“The president, with the support of the leadership of the Board of Regents, has determined it is in the best interest of UC Davis that Chancellor Katehi be placed on investigatory administrative leave from her position as chancellor pending the outcome of this investigation.

“Pursuant to an existing delegation of authority, UC Davis Provost Ralph Hexter will fill the chancellor role on an acting basis.”

“I am deeply disappointed to take this action,” Napolitano said. “But Davis is a strong campus, nationally and internationally renowned in many academic disciplines. I’m confident of the campus’s continued ability to thrive and serve California students and the Davis community.”

UPDATE at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday: Chancellor Linda Katehi released the following statement this morning to her Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors:

“Colleagues: 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.

“Best, Linda”

Rumors are swirling among senior faculty at UC Davis that University of California President Janet Napolitano has asked for Chancellor Linda Katehi’s resignation. The deadline for that action was to have been Tuesday morning.

But Tuesday came and went. Asked late last night if Katehi is still employed by the university, UCD spokeswoman Dana Topousis replied, “As far as I know, she is. I have not heard otherwise.” Napolitano’s office had no comment Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the Associated Students of UCD started the process of asking for Katehi’s resignation. Student Harley Litzelman explained on the Fire Katehi Facebook page that ASUCD’s External Affairs Commission passed a resolution Tuesday calling for Katehi to resign.

The Fire Katehi Facebook page is where much of the news is shared by the protesters who staged a five-week sit-in in the reception area of Mrak Hall outside Katehi’s office.

“When ASUCD considers legislation, it is first referred to commissions to review, somewhat like committees in Congress,” Litzelman wrote. “The resolution calling for Katehi’s resignation was heard at External Affairs Commission today, and it will be heard at Internal Affairs Commission next Monday. Then it will be discussed and voted on at Senate, and then sent to the president to sign.

“Basically, the resolution easily passed the first step on the way to representing the collective voice of all UC Davis undergrads.”

Speculation

The speculation of the impending resignation was sparked when faculty members wrote in a letter Monday to state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, “A report has reached us that President Napolitano has requested the resignation of UCD Chancellor Katehi.”

English faculty members Margaret Ferguson and David Simpson wrote, “We have real concerns about events at UC Davis, but we absolutely do not feel that this high-handed ‘managerial’ action on the part of the president is anything but a poor and indeed opportunistic decision.”

Another letter from faculty, this time to Napolitano, points out that Katehi’s “activities that are being criticized clearly fall within the standards of UC-wide practice,” and that female senior administrators and chancellors are subject to more negative criticism and harsher treatment than men.

Linda Bisson, UCD professor and geneticist in the department of viticulture and enology, and Rachael Goodhue, professor of agricultural and resource economics, urged Napolitano on Sunday to reconsider.

“The absence of factual information on UC policies and practices with respect to external compensation for all senior administrators has led to speculative and negative public debate regarding a single senior woman, when the practice of external involvement is widespread,” they wrote.

Continued Bisson and Goodhue, “We would like to request clear articulation from UCOP of both the formal policies and the informal practices as they pertain to executive compensation (e.g., have senior managers been encouraged to participate in activities outside UC).”

Timing

Although neither Napolitano nor her office has issued a response, the timing of this reported request for Katehi’s resignation is questionable.

Earlier this month, Ferguson and Simpson were among faculty who had signed a letter calling for Katehi’s resignation, followed by another “asking for transparency and accountability.”

But they are pleased that Katehi has begun to respond to faculty constituents by meeting with them, as well as meeting with The Enterprise and other media outlets to apologize for recent missteps.

Those missteps concern paid positions on corporate boards and the revelation that the university spent $175,000 to improve its internet reputation by “eradicating” references to the 2011 pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters on the campus Quad.

Katehi also has begun to schedule public forums as a way of addressing issues and “starting a conversation,” as she said in a short video aimed at students and released on Saturday.

“I’m looking forward to getting together with you, and to talk about our university today and our university tomorrow,” Katehi said, inviting interested students to a forum at noon Thursday on the West Quad.

She continued, “I’m looking forward … for us to be in a conversation about our issues today and our opportunities tomorrow.” At the end of the video, viewers were asked to submit questions to http://tinyurl.com/Katehi-AMA.

However, the student newspaper, The California Aggie, tweeted late Tuesday night: “Breaking News: Chancellor’s Public Forum has been postponed until further notice.”

Another tweet on Tuesday, by Beth Ruyak of Capital Public Radio, announced the cancellation of Katehi’s appearance today on Ruyak’s radio program, “Insight.”

“Disappointed to find out that UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi had to cancel tomorrow’s conversation on Insight. Hoping for a new date soon,” the tweet said.

— Reach Tanya Perez at [email protected] or 530-747-8082. Follow her on Twitter at @EnterpriseTanya