Vanguard at UC Davis Archives - Page 58 of 72

Dolores Huerta to Speak at Freeborn Hall

By uptownstudiosApril 8, 20130 comments

13th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference at UC Davis on April 13

UC Davis, CA – Close to 500 middle and high school students will converge on the UC Davis campus for the 13th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference and Celebration on Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Freeborn Hall and Wellman Hall.

The conference will include an Arts, Education, Health and Job Fair. For over a decade, this event has provided guidance to youth seeking to pursue higher education and grant information. Dolores Huerta will speak around 12:45pm in Freeborn Hall.

UCD Researcher Arrested in Explosion Case

By David GreenwaldJanuary 21, 20138 comments

David Snyder, 32, was booked into the Yolo County Jail on Sunday, following his arrest on possessing explosives and materials with the intent to make a destructive device, and possessing firearms on campus, UC Davis announced on Sunday. Bail is set at two million dollars.

Mr. Snyder, a UC Davis junior researcher in a campus chemistry lab, with a two-month appointment that expires on January 31, is being held in connection with a January 17 explosion in an apartment in the Russell Park housing complex on campus. He has been placed on leave, pending investigation.

UC President Mark Yudof to End His Tenure in August

By David GreenwaldJanuary 19, 201310 comments

President Yudof will be Remembered For Doubling Student Tuition – University of California President Mark Yudof, 68, announced on Friday that he would be stepping down from his position effective August 31, 2013. His tenure will be remembered largely for the doubling of student tuition, as the university system struggled to grapple with a lengthy economic crisis.

At the same time, he drew controversy for taking a salary nearly twice that of his predecessor.

Federal Judge Confirms Settlement in UC Davis Pepper Spray Lawsuit

By David GreenwaldJanuary 10, 20131 comments

On Wednesday, a federal judge gave final approval to the settlement that UC Davis students and recent alumni reached with the university in late September.

Ten months after the November 18, 2011, pepper-spray incident, on September 26, 2012, attorneys for 21 UC Davis students and recent alumni announced the details of their settlement with the university over a federal class-action lawsuit.

UC Davis Study Finds Good Old Boys Club Holds in Top Businesses

By uptownstudiosDecember 6, 201227 comments

by UC Davis News Service

The 400 largest companies headquartered in California, representing almost $3 trillion in shareholder value, still resemble a “boys’ club” with women filling fewer than 10 percent of top executive jobs, a University of California, Davis, study has found.

The Graduate School of Management’s eighth annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders — a yearly benchmark for the Golden State’s lack of progress in promoting women business leaders — paints a dismal picture for women in leadership during fiscal year 2011-2012. Some of the best known among these top companies, or the California 400, have no women leaders.

Who Are They Trying to Fool?

By David GreenwaldDecember 5, 20124 comments

Commentary: Scholarships Are Great, But We Need Systemic Reform, Not Gimmicks and PR Stunts – The headline in the local paper is “Students are priority No.1.”

It only gets better from there. On Monday, the UC Davis News service sent out an announcement that they have created a $1 million-plus matching fund to encourage gifts to help UC Davis students.

Governor Criticizes Salary Increase For Berkeley Chancellor

By David GreenwaldNovember 28, 20123 comments

Senator Yee Reintroduces Executive Pay Limitation Legislation – For much of his first two years as governor, Jerry Brown has largely been silent on matters of UC compensation for top executives, including chancellors.

However, perhaps feeling he owes students for pushing his tax measure over the top, the governor has taken an increasingly vigilant role on UC matters, first pressing the UC Board of Regents following the election not to raise student fees, and now criticizing a pay increase for the new UC Berkeley Chancellor.

Report Finds Prop 30 Subsidizes UC Losses from Risky Wall Street Investments

By David GreenwaldNovember 14, 20121 comments

Jerry Brown worked hard on Tuesday to postpone a vote on fee increases in the UC system.

The Sacramento Bee reports this morning that the UC Regents, at the request of the governor, have “yanked an item from today’s agenda that called for raising fees at several UC professional schools, including schools of nursing, business, law and medicine.”

Despite Passage of Prop 30 Tuition May Go Up Next Year

By David GreenwaldNovember 9, 20125 comments

The polls were not looking good for Prop 30, as support was dwindling below the supposed magical 50% line, according to polls released just a couple of weeks before the election. But when the Field Poll was released, it seemed that the support for the tax measure was holding.

Despite this, many clung to their belief that Prop 30 was doomed. However, one of the big impacts of this election cycle was an online voting provision that led to a new record amount of voters. In the coming weeks and months, analysts, pundits and political scientists will be pouring over mounds of new data.

What is UC Davis Trying to Hide?

By David GreenwaldOctober 1, 20123 comments

The lawsuit is settled, the DA has made his decision, Kroll and Reynoso have long since completed their investigations, and yet with the university leaking like a sieve – documents and reports leaked left and right to the Sacramento Bee – the university steadfastly refuses to do what is in their power to do, and that is waive attorney-client privilege.

Back in November, one of the critical questions was whether Kroll would be granted subpoena power. Andy Fell of the UC Davis News Service told the Vanguard on November 30, 2011: “Both campus and UC will cooperate fully with them and make available to them any documents they need, subject only to legal restrictions such as those governing student records, personnel files etc. As a private contractor, Kroll doesn’t actually have subpoena power. But they are going to get whatever they want.”

My View: Unsatisfying Outcome

By David GreenwaldSeptember 29, 201230 comments

On Wednesday, we finally learned the terms of the pepper-spray settlement. I was covering the federal civil rights trial of Luis Gutierréz so I missed the press conference. However, I was quickly able to speak with two attorneys and a protester, and the articles appeared on Thursday and Friday.

I will not mince words about my initial reaction – I actually felt physically ill. They did not get much and we the community did not get much. $1 million spread out turned out to be about $30,000 per student. They got an apology that was rendered useless by the fact that the officers did not admit wrongdoing. Finally, the ACLU gets to help shape policy – which is probably the only real redeeming aspect of this settlement.

Pepper-Sprayed Student Speaks About Settlement and Incident

By David GreenwaldSeptember 28, 201218 comments

In the press conference at the Quad on Wednesday, Ian Lee spoke. He was a first-year student, two months into college, when he got involved in the protest that would ultimately alter his life.

“By now, the pepper-spray incident is almost a bit cliché: students protested, the University sent in riot police, and then the police brutalized us with pepper spray,” he said in his speech Wednesday. “But I urge people interested in this case to think about the pepper-spray incident more complexly. The reason we were protesting was that the University had proposed unfair and unreasonable tuition hikes.”

Attorneys Defend UC Davis Pepper Spray Suit Settlement

By David GreenwaldSeptember 27, 201214 comments

On Wednesday, the terms of the settlement of the lawsuit filed by students pepper sprayed on the UC Davis Quad, November 18, 2011, was announced. Among other things, the students would receive around one million dollars, amounting to 30 thousand dollars each.

In addition, Chancellor Katehi would be required to write a written apology to each student and the ACLU would play a role in the development of new practices.

UCD Students Reach Million Dollar Settlement with University Over Pepper Spray Incident

By David GreenwaldSeptember 26, 201245 comments

UC Davis Agrees to Formally Apologize to Students and Implement Reforms

Ten months after the November 18, 2011, pepper spray incident, attorneys for 21 UC Davis students and recent alumni announced the details of their settlement with the university over a federal class-action lawsuit. The announcement comes two weeks after UC Regents approved the agreement and after the agreement was certified in US Federal Court.

The lawsuit charged that the police violated state and federal constitutional protections, including the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, when they arrested and used excessive force against these non-violent demonstrators. The UC Regents approved the settlement in a September 13 meeting, and the settlement documents were filed with the court today, according to a release from American Civil Liberties Union this morning.

Vanguard Commentary: University, Newspaper, Playing Games With Our Right To Know

By David GreenwaldSeptember 18, 201220 comments

For the second time in a month, the Sacramento Bee beat everyone to the punch, publishing what seemed to be internal emails. This time highlights, among other things, documents the university has attempted to keep under wraps, even from Kroll, about the legal authority under which the university acted.

This is not a small matter, for there are questions about the legal authority under which the university acted. Questions that now only grow stronger.

UC Board of Regents Approves Settlement Agreement

By David GreenwaldSeptember 14, 20127 comments

Agreement Expected to Be Publicly Released in Two Weeks –

The Vanguard has confirmed that the UC Board of Regents in closed session approved the financial details of a settlement agreement with the protesters who were arrested or pepper sprayed on the UC Davis Quad on November 18, 2012.

Steve Montiel, the Media Relations Director for the UC Office of the President, told the Vanguard that a federal court is expected to certify the agreement in roughly two weeks. At that time, the details will be released to the public.

Commentary: The Tragic Death of Linnea Lomax

By David GreenwaldSeptember 12, 201215 comments

Tragedy – A Reminder That We Need More Proactive Attention to Mental Illness –

Unfortunately, the sad episode of Linnea Lomax, a 19-year-old UC Davis student, has come to an end, probably in the worst and most excruciating way one could possibly imagine, with her mother finding her body hanging from a tree next to the American River on Friday.

The story hits painfully home for all parents, for I’m sure it’s one of many worst nightmares. That this one might have been prevented only makes it all the worse.

Commentary: Leaps to Conclusion About Pepper Spray Suit Unwise

By David GreenwaldSeptember 6, 201212 comments

After the Vanguard broke the story about the pepper-spray suit’s settlement on Tuesday, we were taken aback by some of comments, and not just on the Vanguard, that assumed that this suit was just about money.

The comment that surprised me the most was made by Supervisor Matt Rexroad, who said that the protesters “do not deserve a dime” even though he admitted that he had not spoken with or met any of the protesters, nor was it likely that he read the complaint itself.

Settlement Agreement in Place For Pepper Spray Suit

By David GreenwaldSeptember 4, 201215 comments

The Vanguard has learned that a settlement agreement is in place for the pepper spray lawsuit that was filed in late February following the November 18, 2011 incident on the Quad at UC Davis. However, the deal will not be finalized until the UC Regents meet next week and until the federal court certifies the agreement.

Steve Montiel, the Media Relations Director for the UC Office of the President, told the Vanguard on Tuesday morning, “Lawyers for the University of California and the 21 plaintiffs in a case related to the pepper spray incident at UC Davis in November 2011 are involved in a confidential mediation and settlement process, which includes obtaining approval from the individual plaintiffs, the Board of Regents and the federal court. “

Commentary: Self-Serving Letter, While Right in One Respect, Fails to Get the Big Picture

By David GreenwaldAugust 23, 201228 comments

Vanguard Finds UCD Internal Investigation Decisions Coming Back to Bite Them

While the open letter from the Executive Board of UC Davis Police Officers Association (UCDPOA) is mainly self-serving and indefensible, they do have one reasonable point that we have raised a number of times – the fact that, while the administration was hammered in the Kroll and Reynoso reports almost as hard as the police officers, it is only Chief Annette Spicuzza, Lt. John Pike and Officer Alexander Lee who have lost their jobs over the actions that occurred on November 18 at the UC Davis Quad.

Writes the UCDPOA, “We, the Board, agree with the Reynoso report; the KROLL Report and the Edley Robinson Report, as it relates to findings concerning Chancellor Katehi and her leadership team’s decisions surrounding the events of November 18th, 2011. There were indeed, “substantive mistakes at the administrative level.” The decisions made by Katehi’s leadership team during the days leading up to and on November 18th have caused long-term damage to the University of California and the UC Davis Police Department.”

13th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference at UC Davis on April 13

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