Historians for the Resignation of the Chancellor

Dear Chancellor Katehi,

We the undersigned historians write to ask you to resign your post as
chancellor. We do so because we have found your deployment of force against
our students in the wake of the violence that took place at Berkeley to be
a sign of poor judgment and a reckless disregard for the physical safety of
our students. We believe this to be the case regardless of the specific
instructions you gave to the police when you deployed them. We have found
your subsequent response to have exacerbated, rather than defused, an
already tense situation. We feel that your delayed response in accepting
full responsibility, your late apology, and your shifting of the blame onto
the police, are signs of poor leadership. We have taken note that you did
not begin to reach out to the students until after the calls for your
resignation became widespread. Our image as a campus whose mission is to
serve its students and the wider public has been tainted nationally and
internationally. We ask you to resign to help show to prospective students
and the public that there is accountability at UC-Davis, and that the
physical safety of our students, as well as their right to peacefully
assemble, ranks at the top of our priorities.

Ali Anooshahr, Associate Professor
Omnia El Shakry, Associate Professor
Clarence Walker, Professor
Baki Tezcan, Associate Professor