Assemblyman Jim Cooper echoed the latter concern, stating, “It saddens me to think that while our students are strapped with student debt to pay for the astronomical prices of college textbooks, Chancellor Katehi in a clear conflict of interest received $420,000 from the same textbook publishers that are exploiting our students.” He initially called for her to resign but changed his mind after her apology. I don’t know that John Wiley & Sons exploits students, but it seems like an obvious conflict of interest for a university administrator to sit on its board of directors.

In an email to students, Katehi acknowledged that her position on DeVry’s board violated rules governing outside gigs while arguing that, overall, she pushed the corporations that paid her to be better actors and added to the diversity of their boards. She also pledged to use $200,000 of her compensation to start a scholarship fund.

Here are her words:

My acceptance of the position on the DeVry Education Group board of directors did not comply with UC policy. I made an error in accepting it. I take full responsibility for that error, and I have resigned from the board. I accepted the position because I believed I could help DeVry better evaluate its procedures for delivering a sound curriculum and for measuring students’ performance and progress post-graduation. Nevertheless, I apologize for my mistake and the distraction this has caused for our university community.



My service on the board of John Wiley and Sons from 2011-2014 complied with UC policy. My goal in accepting that position was to help Wiley improve the quality of its educational materials, while making them more accessible and affordable for students. While I recognize and appreciate the concerns raised by many in our community about my service on the Wiley board, my work on the board had no impact on UC textbook purchases. I served on an unpaid advisory panel of King Abdulaziz University from 2012-2013, which included the former president of Ohio State University; however, I did not participate in any meetings. My appointment complied with University of California policies. My goal was to increase student diversity. To further our work together on behalf of California students, here is my commitment to our UC Davis community: I will establish a $200,000 scholarship fund for California undergraduate students at UC Davis from my Wiley stock proceeds.



Service on private and public boards is widely recognized as a responsibility of academic leaders. As a woman and a STEM scholar, my service has helped to correct the chronic lack of diversity on a number of boards. My pledge to the UC Davis community is to more carefully vet such invitations and to meticulously follow UC approval procedures in the future.

Calls for her resignation persist in part because of her record at Davis. Katehi began to lose the confidence of students in 2011, when a group of peaceful undergraduates, assembled lawfully on a campus quad, was brutally pepper-sprayed at point-blank range by a UC police officer. “I take full responsibility for the events,” she said back then, amid other calls for her resignation. “I really feel horrible for what happened,” she told a large crowd that gathered days later at a campus rally, adding “I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university that we had on Friday.”