UC Board Confirms Napolitano As New President
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano was approved Thursday as next University of California president.
The UC Board of Regents met in San Francisco to confirm Napolitano's nomination to become the 10-campus college system's 20th president, an appointment that caught many university and Washington insiders by surprise when it was announced last Friday.
She is expected to take over as UC's next leader — and the first female president in the university's 145-year history — in September.
The approval was reportedly swift and non-contentious, at least among the regents. Napolitano, who attended the private Santa Clara University in California as an undergraduate, was the unanimous choice of a 10-member search committee and has already announced her resignation from President Barack Obama's cabinet.
In the week since she surfaced as the search committee's choice, some faculty members have complained that Napolitano is more schooled in politics than in higher education. Immigrant rights activists, meanwhile, have expressed concerns based on her deportation record.
And several newspapers have taken issue with the secrecy surrounding Napolitano's selection and the short time frame between the announcement and Thursday's vote.
Napolitano, 55, would be succeeding Mark Yudof, 68, who in 2008 became the first president from outside California to lead the UC system in two decades but had spent 11 years leading the public universities in Minnesota and Texas.
As UC president, Yudof was one of the nation's most highly paid college administrators, earning an annual salary of $591,084 — almost triple what Napolitano makes as Homeland Security secretary — plus car and housing allowances, retirement contributions and other benefits that brought his annual compensation at more than $925,000.
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