UC Davis Chancellor On Hot Seat Over Board Seats On DeVry, Textbook Company
UC DAVIS (CBS13) — The chancellor of UC Davis is being asked to step down by a Sacramento Assemblyman who says her service on two for-profit boards is a conflict of interest in her leadership role.
Chancellors are allowed to serve on for-profit boards, and it's encouraged and can be beneficial. But those board seats must be approved, and many call Chancellor Linda Katehi's choice of companies questionable.
"These positions help her financially, but I have no idea how it benefits the people of California and the students at UC Davis," said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty.
The Sacramento Democrat and former city councilman says Katehi made poor choices in accepting paid board seats with DeVry Education Group and John Wiley and Sons, a college textbook publisher.
"Serving on boards that have very questionable benefits to the taxpayer and sometimes negative benefits, DeVry is being sued by the federal government for being a diploma mill," he said.
Katehi, the chancellor since 2009, earns more than $420,000 a year.
"These boards pay about $100,000 roughly a year plus stock options," he said.
In this case, Katehi didn't make money off DeVry, but as a board member with the textbook publisher, she received $420,000 in stock and income.
Greater Sacramento president Barry Brome is going to bat for Katehi.
"Stanford's president served on Cisco's board there are 74 UC officials serving on outside boards and are compensated for it," he said. "This has been an outstanding chancellor, UC Davis does more sponsored research than Cal Berkeley, UC Davis is a Top 10 university, so she has been a driving force."
All board seats must be approved by a supervisor, in her case, the UC President, but her DeVry position never got official approval.
Katehi released a statement on Friday saying, "I have resigned from the DeVry board and intend to donate all the stock proceeds I made from serving on the John Wiley and Sons board to a scholarship fund for UC Davis students."
She would have received $70,000 a year, plus stock for the DeVry post if she hadn't resigned.