College Leader in Apparent Suicide Jump

Associated Press ^ | 24 June 06 | JORDAN ROBERTSON

[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.

[toddlintown]

"She had a PhD in Engineering from MIT"

But didn't understand the concept of gravity I'm guessing here. No rocket scientist here.

[greasepaint]

I hope no one on the ground was injured.

The crater could either be filled in,
or be used as a swimming pool.

[null and void]

I wonder why they didn't mention her being lesbian. The other article had it all over

The other thread with that info got pulled. Some of the comments, including mine, reflected poorly on this site.

[edpc]

Gov. McGreevy gave his criminal boyfriend a big job, and so did this woman.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

[KoRn]

"I'll surmise that the lady realized that she wasn't " gay"

It could have happened. I'm sure in san francisco, it's a disadvantage NOT to be gay. Rather than doing a difficult thing and coming out the closet, she chose to die.

[null and void]

My guess is that she got into MIT via the anything-but-brains-diversity pool, perhaps even supplanting a better student who happened to be a straight white male. Nah, that couldn't happen at MIT.

I've read some of her papers. She was no dummy.

[VOA]

Perhaps she was OUT of the teaching aspect that she did well and PeterPrincipled
up to total inadequacy.

Maybe she was depressed to find she wasn't weird enough to fit in
at UC Santa Cruz!

[edpc]

The crater could either be filled in, or be used as a swimming pool.

Possibly. It was on the roof of a parking deck.

[null and void]

I've never subscribed to the belief that intelligence is necessary in order to achieve wisdom.

Indeed. Sometimes it gets in the way.

[starfish923]

Maybe she was depressed to find she wasn't weird enough to fit in at UC Santa Cruz!

Harhar, that might have done it.

[null and void]

First suspects? Her "longtime partner" who wanted to get "a new model"

She was in Hawaii and unavailable for comment. I don't think her arms are quite that long.

[philo]

Kinda looks like Whoopi's gay pal from the Hollywood Squares

[Loud Mime]

The higher-ups in education are paid WAAAAAYYYY TOO MUCH!

[philo]

Yikes, you beat me to it big time.

[null and void]

Maybe she was depressed to find she wasn't weird enough to fit in at UC Santa Cruz! ~ VOA

Harhar, that might have done it. ~ starfish923

Is this a bad time to mention that my Darling Daughter starts at UCSC this fall?

[Lancey Howard]

I wonder why they didn't mention her being lesbian. The other article had it all over

Just reading the headline and the location, then seeing the photo, you just know something is way goofy. I guess the author of this piece was trying to be tactful by slipping this line in at the end:

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.

The line says so much - - Denton wasn't just a deviant, she was a greedy, selfish pig.

[maggief]

Gretchen Kalonji

[hedgetrimmer]

There is no inoculation against the rabid communism and social perversion that infects that campus, so if your daughter doesn't have a rock-solid self image she's in trouble.

The place has, if not the highest, it has one of the highest suicide rates in the university system in CA. In fact, jumping off buildings is the method of choice, except most of the suicides don't leave campus to do it.

One of the most beautiful campuses in California, it is the home to the most tortured, pierced, tattooed, sexually perverse and lost souls imaginable. And I'm trying to be nice because its Sunday.

[maggief]

The Paramount apartments at Third and Mission Streets.

[null and void]

Oddly enough, I don't have all that much of a problem with crony-ism, Provided the cronies are qualified for the job. I'd rather work with someone I know, and I know can do the job, and that I can get along with, than the 'very best' candidate who's a real pain...

On paper Ms. Kalonji looks well qualified.

(That salary looks kinda high though!)