UC Davis Academic Senate issues letter claiming professional and social connection between Janet Napolitano and Melinda Haag.

Concerns are arising about the investigation into Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi’s tenure as head of UC Davis. Critics are speculating about a possible conflict of interest involving the head private investigator, Melinda Haag, and the University of California President, Janet Napolitano, questioning whether the probe of Katehi is truly unbiased.

Haag is a former United States attorney for the Northern District of California who served under the Obama administration from August 2010 to September 2015. Haag currently works at the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutfcliffe LLP where she is a partner in the white-collar and corporate investigations group.

According to the UC Office of the President (UCOP), Orrick conducts internal investigations throughout the world in areas such as employee misconduct, conflict of interest and many other regulatory and possible criminal issues.

While there are no arguments circulating about Haag’s credentials, there is some questions about her ties with Napolitano.

Before becoming the president of the UC, Napolitano served as the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from January 2009 to September 2013.

Because of the possible connection between Napolitano and Haag in their prior positions within the Obama administration, there have been questions about whether the investigation into Katehi’s possible transgressions is completely unbiased. Many Katehi supporters are even accusing Haag’s and Napolitano’s connection as a potential conflict of interest.

Andrè Knoesen, the chair of the Academic Senate at UC Davis and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, wrote in a letter to Academic Senate members of the Davis Division that this possible conflict of interest puts the entire legitimacy of Katehi’s investigation at stake.

“Questions have arisen about possible professional and social interactions between President Napolitano and Ms. Haag, who has been retained to investigate allegations involving Chancellor Katehi,” Knoesen said. “These questions have raised concerns about the objectivity of the investigator, and as a consequence, the investigation itself.”

Many others have echoed Knoesen’s sentiments about the investigation as well.

Nolan Matter, a third-year political science major and a member of Students for Linda,  questions whether or not the investigation even has an objective and believes that Katehi’s absence is unnecessary and is hurting the university.

“This kind of investigation is unprecedented, especially given the dramatic and public way President Napolitano went about setting it up and through her making the letter to Linda public,” Matter said. “However, we believe there is a more important question that needs to be asked: What are the parameters surrounding the investigation? We would like to know what exactly the investigators are looking. Are they investigating to see if Katehi broke UC policy? Chancellor Katehi has done so much in the pursuit of making UC Davis as the recognized institution it is today. Her absence is hurting the UC.”

Claire Doan, a media relations specialist for the UCOP, argues that there is no conflict of interest between Haag and Napolitano.

“The investigation into the allegations against Chancellor Katehi is independent,” Doan said. “There is no conflict of interest between President Napolitano and Melinda Haag.”

Larry Kamer, a personal spokesperson for Chancellor Katehi not employed by the university, said that Katehi’s attorney, Melinda Guzman, believes that there is ample evidence to suspect that this investigation may be unbiased and not independent like Doan claims.

“Ms. Guzman has expressed particular concern about conflicts of interest arising from Ms. Haag’s financial interest in a law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, that handles a large volume of UC business, Ms. Haag’s past representation of Ms. Napolitano and the fact that Ms. Napolitano is a witness to the incidents she is now investigating,” Kamer said. “Ms. Guzman has made clear that, given the existing intertwined relationship between Orrick, Haag and Napolitano, this investigation is neither independent nor neutral.”

Written by: Sangeetha Ramamurthy – campus@theaggie.org

2016 Democratic presidential candidate touches on issues ranging from social justice to economic quality

2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders continued his tour of California on Wednesday, June 1, when he spoke to a crowd of more than 9,000 students and community members at UC Davis. Pushing his campaign’s dialogue on social justice and economic equality, Sanders’ appearance comes just ahead of the June 7 primary on Tuesday.

The event, which began at 8 p.m. at UC Davis’ Hutchison Intramural Field, opened with a speech by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a veteran of the Iraq war, who spoke of her time in the military and her support for Sanders’ views on foreign policy.

“During my first deployment to Iraq, I worked in a medical unit where every single day I was confronted with that high and heavy cost of war,” Gabbard said. “I saw through those experiences just how critical it is that we elect a commander in chief that has good judgement, who has foresight and who knows when it may be necessary to use military power to defeat those who threaten the safety and security of the American people. I’m confident that Bernie Sanders has that intelligence.”

In a speech that lasted roughly an hour, Sanders covered several issues throughout the night, including his criticism of media, the need for environmental justice, and a call to reform California’s educational and prison systems.  

“In recent years here in California, but in all over this country, we have been busy building jails,” Sanders said. “We have built jails but not colleges. It’s time to reverse that trend. It is time to understand, that it cost less money to send a young person to the University of California than to send him to jail.”

Sanders, who serves as a state senator from Vermont, was an independent up until last year. As he seeks the Democratic nomination, Sanders has spoken recently of  his support to decriminalize marijuana, including last night when he encouraged voters in California to legalize the drug on the November ballot.

“We must rethink the so-called war on drugs,” Sanders said. “It turns out that over the last 30 years, millions of Americans have received police records, criminal records for the possession of marijuana. And if you are a 19-year-old kid applying for a job, and your prospective employer asks you if you’ve ever been arrested, that criminal record can cost you a job opportunity.”

With many college students in attendance, Sanders continued to make his case for free tuition at public universities, a platform that has strongly resonated with young voters, who continue to represent one of his largest groups of supporters this election.

“Young people are asking me a very important question,” Sanders said. “‘How does it happen that when young people do exactly the right thing and go out and try to get the best education that they can, why is it that they are ending up 30, 50, 70 thousand dollars in debt?’ We live in a competitive global economy. We need the best educated workforce in the world. We should be encouraging, rewarding people, to get an education, not punishing them.”

Leading up to the California primary, Sanders has managed to build a campaign that has competed heavily with his Democratic competitor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders, who has recently stepped up his criticism of Clinton and the Democratic establishment, continues to see his polling numbers rise ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

In a statement released before Wednesday’s event, Davis Students for Hillary urged Sanders to tone down his attacks on Secretary Clinton, arguing that she remains the likely nominee for the Democratic party in the presidential election.

“When this campaign began supporters of Secretary Clinton had great respect and admiration for Senator Sanders,” read the press release. “Senator Sanders’ focus on attacking Secretary Clinton’s character, and questioning the character of her supporters has strained that support among democrats. Progressive democrats like Governor [Jerry] Brown and Senator [Barbara] Boxer have done great work for the people of California, we should celebrate these efforts. Today we hope Senator Sanders focuses on policy. We hope he comes to Davis with an inclusive message.”

As Sanders continues to make his case for the Democratic nomination, he hopes that a win in California next Tuesday can boost his chances for November. As he spoke to the crowd in Davis, he urged voters to show up and lend their support.

“Let us have the largest voter turnout in democratic primary history in California,” said Sanders, to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters. “And let this great state, this progressive state, tell the world you are going to help lead us into the political revolution.”

Written by: Ivan Valenzuela – campus@theaggie.org

Senior Associate Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff to serve as interim lead during search for Dave Lawlor’s replacement

On May 26, the office of acting Chancellor Ralph Hexter sent a statement to the UC Davis deans and vice chancellors informing them that Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Dave Lawlor had resigned. Hexter named Senior Associate Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff as interim lead during the search for Lawlor’s replacement.

“UC Davis has taken important steps to strengthen its fiscal health during Mr. Lawlor’s tenure, and the university remains on a solid foundation of financial stability,” the statement read. “Acting Chancellor Hexter thanks Mr. Lawlor for his service. Effective immediately, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff will serve as interim lead for the Finance, Operations & Administration division.”

Lawlor, who served as UC Davis’ vice chancellor and chief financial officer for 18 months, received an annual salary of $422,300. His resignation comes after several controversies surrounding Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi’s finances, which included spending $175,000 to erase the pepper-spray incident from the Internet.

Hexter posted a longer statement on the UC Davis website on May 31 ensuring the UC Davis community of his commitment to finding a candidate for this position.

“During this period of transition for the university, it is important that everyone knows UC Davis is financially sound and remains devoted to sustainable excellence,” Hexter said in his statement. “We are committed to continuing to serve our region in a multitude of ways and have no intention of slowing down in providing access to a high-quality education for thousands of California students. I will be consulting with my leadership team and all appropriate stakeholders to determine our best approach to identifying permanent leadership of this vital division.”

Lawlor did not immediately respond for comment.

Written by: Alyssa Vandenberg–campus@theaggie.org

Project’s coordinators announced the results of the campus-wide interactive game.

On Tuesday, May 24, the results of the online interactive game “Envision UC Davis” were announced in a meeting hosted in Mrak Hall. The meeting consisted of a report of the game’s findings by project manager Rachel Hatch before transitioning to a question and answer session. Also announced at the meeting were the game’s “winners,” comprised of the undergraduate and graduate students who contributed most to the project.

The game was conducted from February 24 to 25 by the non-profit research forecasting firm, Institute for the Future, in cooperation with the university. Utilizing Foresight Engine, an online platform developed by Institute for the Future, the game invited players to collaboratively predict and discuss desired developments for the university that could be undertaken in the near future.

For the game, players submitted themed cards, each limited to 140 characters, that presented the basis of an idea to the community. The game encouraged users to build upon the ideas of other players by attaching their own cards to ones already played. Popular submissions could accumulate long chains of users’ cards, each incrementally developing the idea initially presented. The game, which updated in real time, tracked the progression of each idea and awarded points to players whose ideas attracted attention from other users.

“This was an opportunity to take the pulse of the community by engaging many more people that ever could have fit around a conference table,” Hatch said. “[We tried] to change people’s relationships with the school and give them an opportunity to think about the long term.”

In total 2,492 unique players comprised of UC Davis students, faculty, staff and alumni interacted to generate 28,226 ideas in response to the game’s prompt of imagining UC Davis’ future.

“To analyze the future is more about trying to leverage the collective imaginations of the community,” Hatch said. “There is no ‘data’ about the future so you need to be playful with the confines.”

Another goal of the game, as described by fellow project manager Gary Sandy, was to promote collaboration among the student body.

“By doing it on such a broad platform, students, regardless of their individual majors or their area of interest on campus, would be able to engage across the diversity of campus with other students they didn’t know,” Sandy said. “They could look at the ideas others had, share the ideas they had and comment on the ideas put forth.”

Last week’s presentation served as the Institute’s public release of its analysis of the data accumulated over the game’s two-day span. Among the ideas generated by players, the Institute identified five “Opportunity Spaces,” which they presented as specific areas of focus for UC Davis to consider in the future. These were calls for the to university to eradicate degenerative disease, to teach real-world skills, to explore micro-credentialing systems with alumni, to address uneasiness over the evolving labor market and to develop technologies to feed the world.

In addition to potential ideas for the future, the presentation also included five suggestions proposed by players that the university could begin developing immediately. These were desires for the university to enhance and extend Shields Library, to become a leader in bike network architecture, to increase internship opportunities, to conserve natural resources and to continue operating the game for future discussions.

In preparation for the project, the Institute, through its own research, identified what it classified as rising concerns within communities of higher education. Among these included trends of changing demographics, rising costs and student debt. Sandy described how the UC Davis and Institute planned to best accommodate the needs of the student body with the game.

“It was a cooperative process in which we shared UC Davis’ primary strengths, areas of agriculture, energy, water, natural resources, and start to determine how these emerging themes coupled with our strengths as a university,” Sandy said. “We wanted to address the challenge of how to create a university that better serves the needs of students in a way that still enables students to achieve a world-class education consistent with their needs for the future.”

Besides giving players the chance to chart UC Davis’ future, others were drawn to the opportunity to directly voice their opinions in such an open forum.

“One of the big issues sometimes in college, not just at UC Davis but in college in general, is that students have ideas and feedback for how they can improve what they see around them, but there is no real way for them to send that message on,” said Sam Westreich, a third-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in genomics who accumulated the most points in the game’s duration. “With this game it was possible to crowdsource these ideas now and we can see that not only are our ideas valid and shared by other students, but hopefully they can also be put in place and that we can actually see them come to pass in the near future.”

Following the presentation, the Institute released the raw data accumulated in the game for anyone’s use. Kevin Cervantes, a fourth-year biological sciences major and the point leader among undergraduate participants, believes the data could serve as a valuable resource for organizations on campus.

“The data is actually going to be out and I could see ASUCD using those ideas,” Cervantes said. “This is a huge pool of ideas of what the students of the university want so I would love to see in the future ASUCD using those ideas to shape their agenda.”

Despite the program’s conclusion, Sandy hopes that its promotion of dialogue can have a permanent impact on the campus going forward.

“It will be up to students who could form their own groups and begin to advocate for some of these changes,” Sandy said. “The administration will read this report and start to undertake some of the initiatives. There are five-year and 10-year missions that can begin now and start to give us an immediate focus and an initiative to embark on pursuing some of these ideas laid out.”

Written by: Jack Raineri – campus@theaggie.org