Posted on 06/25/2006 6:33:46 AM PDT by SkyPilot
SAN FRANCISCO - A University of California chancellor died Saturday in an apparent suicide jump from a 43-story apartment building, authorities said.
Denice Dee Denton, 46, the chancellor of the Santa Cruz campus, apparently jumped from an undisclosed section of the Paramount luxury apartment building around 8 a.m. and landed on a parking garage, police and university officials said.
The Medical Examiner's office and a university spokesman confirmed her death, though the cause was still under investigation.
"Those of us who worked closely with Denice valued her intelligence, humor, and commitment to the ideals of diversity and higher education," UC Santa Cruz Campus Provost David S. Kliger said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened by her death."
Denton recently was criticized for demanding expensive remodeling to her campus home and for helping her partner secure a top-paying university position.
In March, she defended $600,000 worth of renovations to her campus home she demanded during contract negotiations before being hired in 2004.
Campus employees criticized the expenditures as lavish while the university raised fees and cut budgets.
An employee union in 2005 criticized the university's creation of a $192,000-a-year job for Gretchen Kalonji, Denton's longtime partner and a former professor of materials science at the University of Washington in Seattle.
University officials defended the hiring, saying Kalonji's experience would be an asset in her role as director of international strategy development.
One less FemiNazi. I have read her evil, hateful material over the years. No loss.
Nuttier than squirrel shit.
Is that Bruce Vilanch?
Maybe she couldn't swim. ;~))
Maybe, but probably not. She seems to have been preparing for this:
Denice Dee Denton, chancellor of the University of California-Santa Cruz, apparently jumped to her death Saturday morning from the 44th floor of a San Francisco building where she shared an apartment with her partner.
Denton, 46, landed on the roof of the building's parking structure, said San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens. He was unsure if she had left behind a note. The medical examiner's office is investigating the death as a suicide.
The nationally recognized educator had been in the eye of controversy since she arrived at UC-Santa Cruz less than a year and a half ago.
Sources said Denton had retreated from the campus in the weeks before her death, canceling appointments and clearing her calendar. She began a short medical leave on June 15, a campus spokesman said.
You said: Maybe she couldn't swim.
Or perhaps she COULD!
I have some involvement in the admissions process at MIT. There is no "anything-but-brains-diversity pool" at the Institute. If this woman had not been qualified to be admitted at MIT (and the qualifications to be admitted at MIT are pretty damn high), her gender would have made no difference.
I was just spouting with the Det. Columbo speculations.
It sounds like the late chancellor was either tired of campus conflicts or
maybe was afraid of further financial scrutiny of her situation at
UC-Santa Cruz.
But, in my silly made-for-TV movie plot...I still like the idea of
the business/economic professor doing it to save the campus from
financial ruin.
Yeah, I know that's taking license...the California taxpayers know
no limits when paying for goofy stuff at their schools, so that couldn't
be a reason to dispatch a cash-crazy chancellor.
Poor lady.
And this was a "highly qualified" person for chancellorship of a large university??? Whatever. Sounds like not.
Thanks for the info. This is the first I have heard about a criminal investigation that was coming her way. It would certainly help explain the suicide (other than she had a lot of other problems and confusion in her life).
What else do you know?
I can believe that. MIT does not play the diversity game as Harvard does.
I have a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and I thought the major was damn tough. The fact that she had three PhDs in Engineering was impressive.
Sadly, she seemed to be lacking in other vital aspects of her life. Namely, a recognition of the Almighty.
Liberalism is a contagious mental disease; practice good mental hygiene.
Or obsessive?
In all seriousness, in a field like engineering, wouldn't one PhD be more than enough for anyone?
Well, I reckon that ole building needed jumping from.
Thanks.
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