SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ In what may signal a decision on the future of University of California, Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, the UC Board of Regents has scheduled a special meeting Thursday to discuss a "personnel matter, Davis Campus."
The meeting, to be held on the UC San Diego campus, is closed and will be attended by regents only, according to an agenda item posted late Monday.
UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein would not say whether the special meeting was about Katehi. The session is billed as a "special meeting," although the Health Services and Governance and Compensation meeting were already going to meet that day.
Katehi's personal spokesman, Larry Kamer, said he did not know anything about the meeting.
The session follows months of investigation by the office of UC President Janet Napolitano, who suspended Katehi on April 27, citing allegations that the chancellor engaged in nepotism and misused student funds. Napolitano also said she was concerned that Katehi had made "material misstatements" to the UC president and the media over her role in hiring firms to clean up the online image of UC Davis and herself.
A probe headed by former U.S. Attorneys Melinda Haag and McGregor Scott was to be completed by Aug. 1 and delivered to Napolitano to determine Katehi's future as chancellor at UC Davis, where she has served since 2009.
Katehi's suspension came after a series of revelations in The Sacramento Bee regarding her acceptance of a board seat with DeVry Education Group, the spending of $175,000 to hire two firms to scrub the Internet of negative postings about Katehi and the campus and her role as a board member of the textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons.
Students upset over the revelations occupied the lobby outside Katehi's office in a five-week sit-in that spurred several calls by lawmakers and others for Katehi to resign.
Napolitano remained a steadfast backer of the chancellor until late April, when she summoned Katehi to her Oakland offices and demanded she resign. Katehi refused to quit. She hired an attorney and spokesman who have since waged a public relations battle with Napolitano's office.
Newly released documents show how UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi's aides scrambled to respond to the public relations crisis that engulfed her administration earlier this year. Katehi was suspended in April pending the outcome of a UC investigation.
Last week the Bee revealed Katehi had charged $174,000 in travel expenses to the University of California between December 2010 and February 2016. She flew first class, hired tour guides, took limousines and made numerous expensive travel changes during trips to Chile, Dubai, France, Austria, Switzerland, China, Mexico, Brazil, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Greece and U.S. cities to attend conferences and woo donors, according to university records.
Katehi earns $424,360 a year as chancellor of UC Davis. Since she was suspended 103 days ago, Katehi has earned $119,751, and continued to enjoy the use of a 7,779-square-foot residence near the university.
