Rupar writes: "Following an infamous November 2011incident where a University of California-Davis police officer was caught on video casually pepper spraying students who were peacefully protesting, university officials spent at least $175,000 on consultants in hopes of scrubbing the internet of negative posts about the school and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi."
Officer pepper sprays Occupy protesters on UC-Davis campus. (photo: Louise Macabitas)
15 April 16
ollowing an infamous November 2011 incident where a University of California-Davis police officer was caught on video casually pepper spraying students who were peacefully protesting, university officials spent at least $175,000 on consultants in hopes of scrubbing the internet of negative posts about the school and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The money reportedly came out of the university’s communications department budget, and was spent during a period of time where rising tuitions sparked protests on campus.
UC Davis’ decision to dole out scarce dollars for online reputation enhancement drew ire from Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, who chairs California’s Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance.
“It is troubling that the administration chose to spend scarce public dollars and to nearly double its PR budget when tuition soared, course offerings were slashed and California resident students were being shut out,” McCarty, who is running for Congress, wrote on Facebook. “These findings just raise more questions about university priorities.”
Katehi’s problems aren’t limited to Google search results. Students have occupied the reception office outside Katehi’s office since March 11 in a sit-in that they say will last until she resigns, the Bee reports. The latest protest was prompted by revelations Katehi accepted a paid seat on the board of DeVry Education Group, a for-profit company that is currently under federal investigation for allegedly exaggerating job placement claims. The Bee also recently reported that Katehi, who took the chancellor’s post in 2009, received $420,000 for serving on the board of textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons.
UC Davis officials defended the consultant expenditures on the grounds that doing so was necessary to promote the university.
“We have worked to ensure that the reputation of the university, which the chancellor leads, is fairly portrayed,” UC Davis spokeswoman Dana Topousis told the Bee. “We wanted to promote and advance the important teaching, research and public service done by our students, faculty and staff, which is the core mission of our university.”
But internet searches reveal that there’s no shortage of information still readily available about the 2011 incident, which two subsequent investigative reports commissioned by UC Davis itself found was mishandled by both campus police and administrators. The officer caught on tape pepper spraying students, Lt. John Pike, was fired in 2012.
