It was one of the viral images of 2011: a group of college students sitting passively on the ground while a UC Davis police officer slowly and deliberately hit them point-blank in the face with pepper spray.
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UC Davis purportedly first contracted with Maryland-based Nevins & Associates – a “reputation management firm” – back in 2013.
In 2014, the university hired ID Media Partners to “design and execute a comprehensive search engine results management strategy”, according to The Bee.
The incident led the University of California, Davis, to replace its police chief and briefly thrust the campus near the state capital, Sacramento, to the forefront of national anti-Wall Street demonstrations. Understandably, UC Davis administrators and officials would want something like this downplayed, but given the fact that this is now a part of their history, there’s something wrong about trying to erase it completely.
One consultant noted “venomous rhetoric about UC Davis and the chancellor” persisted in search results following the public-relations disaster that made headlines around the world.
In an effort to shed itself of online notoriety, the University of California at Davis has been shelling out some serious dough to disassociate itself from a controversial incident from 2011.
Under Katehi, who became chancellor in 2009, the university has substantially increased its strategic communications budget from $2.93 million the year the embattled chancellor took over to $5.47 million in 2015. “We wanted to promote and advance the important teaching, research, and public service done by our students, faculty and staff, which is the core mission of our university”.
California Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, who chairs the Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, told the Bee that the PR expenditures were “troubling”, particularly as “tuition soared, course offerings were slashed and California resident students were being shut out”.
‘These findings just raise more questions about university priorities’. The Bee reports that a search for “UC Davis pepper spray” produced 100,000 results at publication time; since publication, those same search terms now produce 119,000 results.
The latest protest was prompted by revelations Katehi accepted a paid seat on the board of DeVry Education Group, a for-profit company that is now under federal investigation for allegedly exaggerating job placement claims.
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Students have reportedly staged a sit-in in the Chancellor’s office since 11 March calling for her to step down.
