Chancellor Katehi's remarks at graduate and professional student town hall

12.1.11

(Chancellor Katehi delivered the following address at a town hall meeting with graduate and professional students on Dec. 1.)

PDF download

Thank you – and thanks everyone for this opportunity to meet with you all.  Thank you for inviting me.

I wanted to come here this afternoon to listen to you and start a conversation, the first of many dialogues I hope to have with you about where we are today and where we go from here.

In listening to faculty, staff and students since the regrettable pepper spray incident, we are all hearing some comments that are simply not true, so it is important to talk with as many people as possible about what really is happening on our campus.

As all of you know, one of the things that makes UC Davis special is that it has long been a place with a strong tradition of upholding its own values.

The Principles of Community were born from the desire of our community to live peacefully, engage with each other respectfully and create a sense of purpose and pride.

Our values are not important simply because someone put them down on paper. Our values are important because they serve as our foundation day-in and day-out, particularly when our campus is challenged or facing tough times as we are right now.

And I know as graduate and professional students, you have your own concerns about our university and how we can make it even better in difficult economic times.  I am eager to hear your concerns and ideas.

On the pepper spray incident itself, we all have many questions that need to be answered, swiftly and openly. To accomplish that, there are multiple investigations underway regarding the highly regrettable events that took place on our Quad Friday November 18.

These independent investigations will tell us exactly what happened and why.

If safety and security policies need to be changed, they will be changed. Whoever needs to be held accountable, will be.

I believe this is also a time to show that as a community we have the ability to restore our broken promise for a safe campus and a great place of learning without fear of expressing our opinions freely and peacefully.

Because our core values include fair judgment, fair hearing and finally justice, we need to allow time for due process to work. We need to protect the integrity of the reviews I just mentioned.

That means I cannot say much more about these events right now, but I can tell you something all of you know already - that using pepper spray on peaceful protesters runs counter to our values.

It does not reflect well on this university and it absolutely is not who we are.

I can also tell you that as chancellor, I feel fully accountable for what happened.

And I pledge to you and the entire UC Davis community to work with all of you and do everything in my power to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

As you know, we placed the chief of police and two officers involved in the pepper spray incident on administrative leave pending the outcome of these investigations.

We have asked for charges against those who were arrested to be dropped. And we said that the university will pay medical expenses for students who were pepper sprayed.

In the coming days and beyond I will be meeting with many more campus groups to hear how we can learn from this experience and make UC Davis an even better, stronger and more empathetic university.

We have an obligation to keep our campus safe and peaceful for all of our students, faculty and staff.

We have an equal obligation to make sure students, faculty and staff can protest peacefully if they desire.

I think you will agree that what happened here also underscores the urgency of a much larger discussion we need in California about adequate funding for higher education.

You may have heard what some of our students said Monday during the comments at the Regents Meeting: Our students need a future, a future with as much hope and promise for a good life as we had when we were their age.

All our students need access to an affordable education that will help them become successful citizens, scholars and professionals. They need access to the education we provide here in Davis and throughout the UC system.

You need us to make available to you the foundation necessary to enrich your lives and make a difference in this world.

Out students need us to work with them and mentor them.  To see them as colleagues and collaborators in an intellectual pursuit.

But our students and many young people today feel as if we are leaving them behind

You all know it is not right to simply keep raising tuition and cutting programs to help the Legislature balance its budget.

After all, that is what the students were protesting about in the first place. They know they cannot afford to be left behind and be priced out of the education they need.   

I have argued those same points myself – over and over in Sacramento, Washington, in the media, to the general public, to our donors and to anyone who will listen.

And I will continue to fight for more support for UC Davis and higher education in California until we are successful.

This incident has also been a catalyst for discussion of the bigger issues we need to address, such as our economy and how a great public research university like ours can continue to strive for excellence in these challenging times.

I believe institutions like UC Davis are the best hope for that, and America’s best hope for a bright, prosperous and competitive future.

The protesters are right. We all need to raise our voices and do a better job making the case along with them over and over again.

Before I hear your comments, let me quickly share five ideas I have about how we can move forward.

1. Conversations like this one today must be ongoing. We need to maintain an open line of communication, not just during a crisis – but throughout the year. So on the basis of what I have heard around campus so far, I am proposing just that – a Year Round Conversation with the Faculty at the various schools and colleges to discuss and debate the Challenges of the UC System in the 21st Century. Those meetings are being set up right now and we plan to begin next week, so I am committed to getting this moving as quickly as possible. I will share with you my ideas and thoughts on these challenges and how I think we should meet them, but for this university to be successful, I will need to hear everyone’s honest and unvarnished ideas, too.  
2. I would also like to create a Conflict Resolution Council that will identify the tools we need to help UC Davis resolve conflicts in accordance with our Principles of Community and with who we are as a campus. I have some thoughts on how this would work, but I again need to hear from our students, faculty and staff to get their ideas. I want this to be a partnership, so I look forward to your input.
3. I want to begin a major initiative to reach out to parents called “UC Davis Tomorrow” to speak about UC Davis and reaffirm our values and our strong commitment to education. This will include local visits, on-line dialogues and social media.
4. I want to begin a major outreach program to donors and re-emphasize the need to support UC Davis so we can provide support to our students, faculty and programs.
5. I have asked Vice Chancellor John Meyer to begin a campus-wide initiative to review our policies and practices regarding law enforcement. This will include any recommendations and responses of the various reviews and investigations underway.

I also want to participate in a national and statewide effort to talk about issues regarding safety and freedom of speech, the right to dissent and how we balance these on a modern university campus of the 21st Century.

So meetings like this are just the beginning. You will be hearing more from me on these initiatives in the weeks and months ahead as we strive to learn and grow from our recent difficulties.

I am proud and honored to be your chancellor. I am very proud of how faculty, students and staff have responded in this crisis.

UC Davis is still the great university it was before this incident and I know we can seize this opportunity to make it even better and stronger in the future.

Thank you very much.