UC Davis spent thousands to scrub pepper spray references from Internet

[KamaAina]

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article71659992.html

UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper spraying of students and to improve the reputations of both the university and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, newly released documents show.

The payments were made as the university was trying to boost its image online and were among several contracts issued following the pepper spray incident.

Some payments were made in hopes of improving the results computer users obtained when searching for information about the university or Katehi, results that one consultant labeled “venomous rhetoric about UC Davis and the chancellor.”

Others sought to improve the school’s use of social media and to devise a new plan for the UC Davis strategic communications office, which has seen its budget rise substantially since Katehi took the chancellor’s post in 2009. Figures released by UC Davis show the strategic communications budget increased from $2.93 million in 2009 to $5.47 million in 2015.

Excuse me? What about its financial aid budget? And its adjunct professor salary budget?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The dirty bastards.

They could have avoided ALL of that by not letting the incident happen in the first place.

FUCK them.

[Kalidurga]

2. I bet they would like to erase it from memories too.

[Downwinder]

3. It obviously was not detrimental to Chancellor Katehi.

She has been put on two Boards of Directors since.

[KamaAina]

4. Whose?!

[Downwinder]

5. From your OP.

"The release of the documents comes as Katehi is once again under fire, this time for her acceptance of seats on private corporate boards, including a textbook publisher and a for-profit university that was under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission. First revealed in The Bee, her outside board positions have sparked calls for her resignation as well as student protests."

[KamaAina]

6. Both could be considered conflicts of interest!

[Downwinder]

7. I never thought of UC Davis as being a hot bed of dissent.

Perhaps she is bringing out the best in people.

[beltanefauve]

9. I live nearby

and I've seen bumper stickers that say,"Keep Davis boring "

[Downwinder]

10. That was always my impression.

Don't think it is going to happen with Katehi there.

[SoapBox]

8. Outrageous.

[2naSalit]

11. PRIORITIE$$$$!!!!

[mrdmk]

12. Its all about the facade at this moment

Having people in charge who are good at making things look good will get you one thing, a big house of cards.

With the house of cards a breeze from any direction will blow away the flimsy structure.

Now having a flimsy structure lying in ruins, an entity will have to throw more money into the mound.

What kind mound do have at this point?

Who needs a clue at this point?


.

[Throd]

13. For multiple reasons, Katehi has got to go.

[TeamPooka]

14. UC Davis sucks. #ScrubThis nt

[proverbialwisdom]

15. SACBEE EDITORIAL BOARD: Katehi's effort to alter search engine results backfires spectacularly

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article72082887.html

Katehi's effort to alter search engine results backfires spectacularly

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
April 15, 2016 1:21 PM

PHOTO: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/ythw7s/picture72082882/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/storify
A UC Davis police officer uses pepper spray as he walks down a line of Occupy demonstrators sitting on the ground at the University of California, Davis on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Brian Nguyen Special to The Sacramento Bee

Call it what you may: Sweeping it under the rug. Whitewashing. Covering up. Dumb.

Linda P.B. Katehi, chancellor of UC Davis, a major public university, blundered by using $175,000 in taxpayer money to hire consultants to cleanse the Internet of mention of the 2011 pepper spraying of student protesters.

Her failed attempt, detailed by The Sacramento Bee's Sam Stanton and Diana Lambert, was antithetical to what academia stands for, and an affront to the wide-open notion of the Internet.

We don't call it Nixonian. That's reserved for a special kind of creepiness. But Katehi's effort to alter search engine results has backfired spectacularly, as is evident by countless tweets, postings and articles: AVAILABLE AT LINK.