Calif. Lawmaker Calls For Hearings, UC Davis Chancellor's Resignation

A state Assemblyman is calling for legislative hearings to examine the practice of University of California executives serving on corporate boards.

The chair of the Assembly education finance subcommittee, Kevin McCarty, announced today he will hold the hearings. 

That comes after the chancellor of UC Davis joined—and then resigned—from the board of Devry University. The for-profit college is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

McCarty has called for Chancellor Linda Katehi to resign, but says the practice may be more widespread.

According to McCarty, "The bigger public policy issue going forward is what is the system that allows this? How do we allow our UC executives and chancellors to do this? And is there a benefit to us, the taxpayers?"

A Sacramento Bee investigation found Katehi also earned 400-hundred thousand dollars for serving on the board of a textbook company.

The UC Santa Barbara president received a million dollars while on the board of an auto parts manufacturer.

Late Friday, Katehi issued the following statement. 

“I take my responsibilities as Chancellor of UC Davis, and to the entire University of California, very seriously and sincerely regret having accepted service on boards that create appearances of conflict with my deep commitment to serve UC Davis and its students. I have resigned from the DeVry board and intend to donate all the stock proceeds I made from serving on the John Wiley and Sons board to a scholarship fund for UC Davis students. I look forward to continuing to serve the UC community.”