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posted by cmn32480 on Friday April 29 2016, @01:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the misappropriation-of-funds dept.

El Reg reports

Linda Katehi, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, has been suspended pending an investigation into the decision to spent hundreds of thousand of dollars improving Google search results for her name, amid a range of other questionable activities.

The decision to put Katehi on paid administrative leave was made by UC President Janet Napolitano, who wrote a two-page letter(PDF) to Katehi noting she would be suspended for 90 days pending the outcome of a "rigorous and transparent investigation."

The revelation that Katehi's office had spent $175,000 in an effort to "achieve a reasonable balance of positive natural search results on common terms concerning UC Davis and Chancellor Katehi" was dug out by the Sacramento Bee looking into why UC Davis' "strategic communications budget" had jumped from $2.93M in 2009 to $5.47M in 2015.

The events Katehi was seeking to whitewash--when security officers pepper-sprayed sitting students back in 2011--received nationwide press attention for the seemingly callous way in which the undergraduates were treated. The news that the university had secretly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to remove that reputational stain was similarly covered.

[...] Napolitano's letter also puts a spotlight on other concerns over Katehi's behavior, including the employment of her son, her husband, and her daughter-in-law by the university.

[...] The letter [also] refers to complaints that student fees have been used for "unapproved instructional purposes" which would be "a serious violation of University policy".

[...] UC Davis students have been holding rallies calling for Katehi's resignation for over a week.

Previous: University of California in Davis Spent $175k on SEO and "Reputation Management"


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Fnord666 on Friday April 29 2016, @03:08PM

    by Fnord666 (652) on Friday April 29 2016, @03:08PM (#338969) Homepage

    why does everyone who does really bad shit, get paid leave?

    Because the presumption of innocence until proven guilty extends beyond the court of criminal law and into civil society. The chancellor has been removed from the environment while an investigation proceeds. Once the investigation concludes, action will be taken based on the results. That may include criminal proceedings if warranted.

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  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday April 29 2016, @04:05PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday April 29 2016, @04:05PM (#339005) Journal

    No, it doesn't. We apply completely different standards in our schools and the dreaded private sector. Just an allegation of sexual anything around students, or an off-color joke around an uptight person at work can lead to a new personal definition of employee-at-will. I'd imagine the chancellor, in this case, will keep the paid vacation money regardless of the outcome.

    Of course, there's a larger issue of why government employees get such better "presumption of innocence" over the average worker, and why they still get pensions and lifetime accumulation of sick time. At some point this whole system is going to pop. Government workers should not get better retention, benefits, and retirement while the rest of us have little security, benefits, and if we're lucky a 401k match.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 29 2016, @06:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 29 2016, @06:03PM (#339075)

      > there's a larger issue of why government employees get such better "presumption of innocence" over the average worker,

      For rank-and-file gov employees it is because they have a union.
      For high-ranking employees, government or not, it is because they have contractual protections.

      But unions are evil especially when they give the hoi-polloi the same privileges of rank.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:52AM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:52AM (#339278) Journal

    Your assertion would be reasonable if there weren't a long train of people who have been suspended with pay long enough for the furor to die down, and then reinstated without other punisment, and without trial for their purported crimes.

    As such, one suspects that the suspensions are PR moves...and possibly that the "suspended" one was actually doing precisely what was desired by those higher in power, who just didn't happen to get caught. This won't always be true, but given the frequency of this procedure it is probably usually true.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.