UCD Faculty, Staff Given Chance To Speak Out On Pepper Spraying

DAVIS (CBS13) -- In the latest development in the fallout from UC Davis police pepper spraying student protesters, a town hall meeting Tuesday night gave faculty and staff the chance to be heard.

Students were out on campus as well, occupying the quad and Dutton Hall as the chancellor met with faculty and staff to hear their thoughts on what's landed this university in the national spotlight.

"The major issue is the integrity of the university, the integrity of this campus," one man at the meeting said to Chancellor Linda Katehi. "You've had a massive fail on that. You need to cop to that."

"I do think that the statements you made on the first two days of the event were wildly off," said another.

But not everyone criticized the chancellor.

"I really don't understand the calls for her resignation," a woman at the meeting said.

For her part, Katehi reiterated that she thought the pepper spraying on Nov. 18 was a horrific act.

"Using pepper spray on peaceful protesters runs counter to our values, runs counter to my values, and it does not reflect well on us as a university," she told the meeting crowd.

Katehi wants the charges against the protesters to be dropped, and she also offered that the university pay for any medical bills for those who were pepper sprayed.

But at Tuesday's Occupy UC Davis meeting, students said it's a start, but they still want her to resign.

"The students that were out there did not deserve to have that happen to them, and I do think the school should be responsible for that," one protester said.

"It's ultimately not addressing the real problems as to why the students were out here in the first place, and what gave the police officers the power to spray them in the face with pepper spray," another protester said.

There are five separate investigations into the pepper spraying, and no indication as to when the results of any of those findings will be complete.