SAN FRANCISCO — Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano officially takes over as the University of California’s president on Monday, but she already has survived her first leadership challenge — a no-confidence” vote sought this month by student activists who think her work in Washington makes her unsuitable to run the nation’s largest public higher education system.
Detractors argued that Napolitano was a poor choice, given her previous job, to oversee college campuses prone to protests and attended by students from families living in the U.S. illegally. But leaders of a statewide student association ended up voting 9-6 not to hold a referendum on Napolitano’s appointment so soon, but vowed to seek reassurances from her in the next few weeks.
“There are a lot of students with some very large concerns centered around her past history in Homeland Security,” University of California Student Association President Kareem Aref said. “Students are concerned that her presidency may be accompanied by a militarization of the UC.”
If a government resume that also includes a six-year stint as Arizona’s governor secured Napolitano the UC president’s job, it also is frustrating her efforts to assume her new role with a minimum of fanfare. Few of her predecessors — mostly longtime academics — have aroused the mix of excitement, curiosity and suspicion surrounding her unexpected selection.
Then again, none came with an international profile much larger than the sometimes parochial, often political and generally not well-understood president’s role.
As the system’s chief executive, Napolitano is trading her cabinet seat for an office in downtown Oakland and will have responsibility for 190,000 employees, about 50,000 fewer than she had at Homeland Security, where the $59 billion budget is more than twice as large as the university’s.
