UC Davis chancellor who resigned after ethics probe to return as professor

Linda Katehi, the former UC Davis chancellor who resigned last year after an ethics probe into questionable moonlighting activities, will return to campus as a professor this fall for roughly the same rate of pay she received as an administrator, university officials said.

Katehi will be paid $318,200 on a nine-month contract, said UC Davis spokeswoman Dana Topousis. As chancellor, she received a 12-month salary of $424,360.

Katehi, who resigned as chancellor last August, received her full annual salary while on an administrative leave for a year. Part of Katehi’s agreement with the university when she resigned was that she would return to her faculty position.

Katehi’s faculty salary “was determined after reviewing other engineering faculty of her stature who are members of the National Academy of Engineering,” Topousis said in an email.

Katehi will teach one engineering course in the fall semester — a graduate seminar that meets for 50 minutes each Friday, according to the university registrar’s website.

She will teach an Introductory Electromagnetics course in the winter quarter and a class called Electronic Circuits and Systems in the spring, Topousis said.

Katehi will also be conducting research, Topousis said.

UC President Janet Napolitano ordered an investigation of Katehi last year in response to allegations that Katehi had violated conflict-of-interest rules in the hiring and promotion of her son and daughter-in-law at UC Davis.

Investigators also looked into her statements to her superiors regarding the university’s hiring of image consultants to attempt to hide Internet references to a pepper-spraying incident of student protesters by campus police in 2011. Independent investigators also examined charges that she had misused student fees and used poor judgment regarding outside board memberships.

UC agreed not to pursue charges of misconduct with the UC Davis Academic Senate, which could threaten her tenure. In return, Katehi agreed not to file legal actions against UC.

In February, University of California regents unanimously approved as Katehi’s replacement Gary May, who previously headed Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering.

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Twitter: @haileybranson

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