California university chancellor to students: I’m sorry you were pepper-sprayed during peaceful protest
Amid calls for her resignation, UC Davis chief Linda Katehi says she feels 'horrible' about campus police response
Tuesday, November 22 2011
Paul Sakuma/AP
Embattled UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi tearfully apologized to hundreds of protesters on Monday for an incident on Friday when peaceful protesters were pepper-sprayed by campus police.
“I’m here to apologize,” she said, according to the university website. “I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday. If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had on Friday, I’m just telling you, I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”
Katehi’s apology came after the university’s faculty association and hundreds of students have called for her resignation after a weekend of turmoil. She has refused to step down, instead putting two officers involved in the incident and the university police chief on administrative leave.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Katehi was alternatively booed amid cries of “Let her speak!”
“Our university has to be better than it is, and it needs all of the community to come together to do that. We need to work together,” she added.
During her brief appearance, Katehi pointed to a sign in the crowd referring to a student uprising in Greece at Athens Polytechnic in 1973.
According to the university website, her voice cracked as the Greek-born engineer said: “I was there. And I don’t want to forget that.”
Julie Sze" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Julie+Sze" >Julie Sze, an associate professor of American Studies, told the Los Angeles Times that she and her colleagues had mixed feelings about what Katehi should do.
“People feel like she has to show us something,” Sze told the newspaper. “I don't know if there’s anything she can say to address the level of concern and high drama.”
In addition to Katehi's dramatic apology, students who had been pepper-sprayed spoke about their experience at the rally.
“They started pulling my friends from the circle, and throwing them on the ground and putting them in handcuffs and dragging them away,” said senior mechanical engineering major David Buscho" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/David+Buscho" >David Buscho, according to the school newspaper. “At that point, there was no more encampment, there was no more stuff there. We were just kids, sitting down in a circle singing.”
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