Calif. college official jumps to her death
Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network
Monday, June 26, 2006 / 12:13 PM
SUMMARY: Denice Denton, chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz, jumps from her partner's high-rise amid a flap over college compensation.
Denice Denton, the chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz, died Saturday morning in an apparent suicide by jumping from the roof of her partner's San Francisco apartment building. Colleagues said she was upset over public criticism about possible nepotism and financial extravagance related to her 16-month tenure at the university.
Denton, 46, an accomplished electrical engineer, landed on the roof of a parking structure below the 44-story building.
Denton's mother, Carolyn Mabee, was in the building at the time. She described her daughter as "very depressed" about her professional and personal life, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The Chronicle had named Denton in a series of articles criticizing UC management compensation. She was criticized for adding a $30,000 dog run as part of the $600,000 university-funded renovation of the chancellor's residence, the San Jose Mercury News reported, and for obtaining a $192,000 job for her partner, Gretchen Kalonji, now the director of international strategy development for the University of California system.
Stephen Thorsett, dean of physical and biological sciences at the Santa Cruz campus, told the Chronicle that Denton had been frustrated by the articles and felt threatened when someone threw a piece of concrete through one of her windows.
Her Santa Cruz predecessor and a longtime associate, former chancellor Karl Pister, told the Mercury News that Denton's lack of experience as a university's No. 1 figure may have made her life difficult.
"When you are a chancellor . . . you are the show in town. Everything that happens makes the news. You lose your private life," Pister said.
Denton had been on a medical leave that started June 15 and was due to end Monday.
She made national news before taking the Santa Cruz position in 2005 by confronting Harvard President Lawrence Summers for suggesting that women may be less science-oriented for genetic reasons.
Her death occurred as many Pride celebrations were taking place in San Francisco.
Ed Lazowska, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Washington, where Denton previously was a dean, told the Chronicle, "The particularly tragic thing for me is that she faced adversity everywhere she's been, and each time she triumphed and emerged a winner. Somehow the situation down there got the better of her, and that's a shame. I can't imagine what was monumental enough to cause this to happen."
