UPDATE: Faculty Rejects No-Confidence Motion Against UC Davis Chancellor
DAVIS (CBS13) — Faculty members overwhelming rejected a vote of no confidence against embattled UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi in the wake of the pepper-spraying of student protesters last November.
The chancellor faced the a faculty on her ability to lead the campus following the widely condemned pepper-spraying of student protesters.
Faculty defeated a motion that the "Davis Division of the Senate of the University of California lacks confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Katehi," with 697 faculty members voting against the motion and 312 voting in favor of it.
In two companion motions faculty: 1) approved condemning the dispatch of police in response to a non-violent protest but accepting the chancellor's good faith apology; 2) approved condemning the dispatch of police and the use of force against protestors Nov. 18, 2011.
Results followed a two-week voting period ends at 5 p.m. Friday.
The motion about confidence in Katehi was nonbinding but could influence UC leaders as they consider the future of the 57-year-old Katehi, who became chancellor of the 32,000-student campus in 2009.
The faculty vote comes three months after a campus police officer doused pepper-spray on sitting students who had set up an Occupy encampment on campus. Widely circulated videos of the Nov. 18 incident sparked national outrage and the debate over the use of police force in responding to Occupy protests.
After the incident, Katehi apologized to the campus community for the "appalling use of pepper spray." The Greek-born chancellor said she had ordered police to remove the tents but avoid arrests and violence.
The vote has sparked a contentious debate among faculty members.
English Professor Michael Ziser is a Katehi critic.There's just been such a pattern of mismanaging the situation, and speaking down to people who have genuine concerns, whether they're faculty members or members of the public," he said.
But entomology Professor Walter Leal is a supporter. He disputes a vote on the heels of the pepper spray attack is even needed.
"This is not enough reason to call for a vote of no confidence," he said.
Philosophy professor David Copp urged his colleagues to approve the no-confidence measure. "A wise leader would not have ordered the police to act against non-violent demonstrators," he wrote in a statement supporting the no-confidence measure.
But Tilahun Yilma, a professor of veterinary medicine, called the motion "unwise and destructive."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
