UC Davis Chancellor called to resign over pepper-spray incident

FILE - In this Nov. 18, 2011 file photo, University of California, Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters while blocking their exit from the school's quad in Davis, Calif. The Sacramento Bee reports that a spokesman for UC Davis says Pike's employment with the university ended Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Pike had been on paid leave since the incident last November. (AP Photo/The Enterprise, Wayne Tilcock, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

DAVIS, Calif.— The association that represents 240,000 University of California students statewide is calling for the head of the UC Davis to step down over the school’s public relations spending to clean up the university’s online image.

Editorial: When the #pepperspray won’t go away https://t.co/CH3SRRbvNf #UCDavis pic.twitter.com/cwR6KobN0D

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) April 14, 2016

The UC Student Association voted Friday to seek Chancellor Linda Katehi’s ouster, joining seven state lawmakers and student protesters who say she must go, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

The demands came after the newspaper reported that UC Davis paid image consultants at least $175,000 to repair the damage online to the university’s reputation after campus police pepper-sprayed student protesters in 2011. Video of the incident gained nationwide attention.

“The students … are free of course to express their opinions, and I appreciate it,” Katehi said Saturday at the campus’ annual Picnic Day festival. She said the Bee misrepresented the facts, but she didn’t elaborate.

UC Davis Provost Ralph Hexter said in a statement to the campus Friday that the university used no public or student funds when it hired consultants to “optimize search engine results in order to highlight the achievements of our students, faculty and staff.”

“Even if such a thing as eliminating stories and images from the Internet were possible, ‘pepper-spray’ will always be part of UC Davis’ history,” the statement said.

Pepper spray will always be part of UC Davis’ history..we are making sure we incorporate the hard lessons we learned https://t.co/eTdA5sUHRt

— UC Davis (@ucdavis) April 16, 2016