The UC Davis incident was the second time in recent history of higher education, when administrators and faculty alike place their self interests ahead of their students'.
A few years back, when an rouge prosecutor falsely change the majority of the Lacrosse team of Duke University, the reaction from the faculty and the administration was overwhelmingly blinded support to the D.A. If only they had one eye half open, they could have found the D.A. had not even talked to the alleged victim, not even once through out the entire process. The charges were totally fabricated with the only purpose to win his re-election. Faculty and school administration grossly failed their students, but I haven't heard anyone to come out apologize in person.
Ms. Katehi is a liar. People can see that because in order to save her own job, she has been coming to the national TV multiple times a day to update her accounts of the incident, with different theories each time. While a few brave sole called for her resignation, the majority of the Davis faculty showed indifference. The UC system president Yudof confirmed Ms. Katehi had his confidence' after over 75,000 people signed a pledge to ask for her removal.
As Steven Thompson put it at the UCDFA's site:
We have forgotten the role of the educational administrator: to set the tone of admiration that comes with the privilege of the position for the future generations committed to learning under our model for leadership.
What we all learn in the university experience from Chancellor Katehi’s refusal to resign is that money changes everything, so get it. Pride trumps accountability, so have it. And no matter how much the world hates you for your obvious failure at leadership, wealth and intimate connections will help you retain your dictatorial stance no matter how ugly you look to the rest of the world for the rest of your life. Chalk up academe’s Casey Anthony.
It is a system wide failure in the entire US higher education system, echoing a switch of goals from educating/enlightening to professional/job training.
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