Denice Denton

Denice Denton
Ninth Chancellor University of California, Santa Cruz
Term	2005 – 2006
Born	27 August 1959(1959-08-27) El Campo, Texas, USA
Died	24 June 2006(2006-06-24) (aged 46) San Francisco, California, USA
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Institutions	University of Massachusetts University of Wisconsin–Madison ETH Zürich University of Washington
Profession	Electrical engineer, professor, administrator
Salary	$275,000 per year, $192,000 per year for her spouse, a housing assistance allowance of up to $50,000, $68,750 in one-time moving expenses, $600,000 in home improvements
Spouse	Gretchen Kalonji

Denice Dee Denton (27 August 1959 – 24 June 2006) was an American professor of electrical engineering and academic administrator. She was the ninth chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz until her suicide in June 2006.

Biography

Early years

Denton was born in El Campo, Texas in Wharton County. She was the oldest child of Bob Glenn Denton and Carolyn Irene Drab.^[1] Denton earned her bachelor's and master's degrees (1982), EE (1983) and PhD (1987) in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Denton spent two summers and an academic year in the late 1970s and early 1980s at Fairchild Semiconductor, where her projects included 64K static RAM design.^[2] After graduation, she accepted a professorship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering, which was interested in her work in plasma deposition and polymerization. She was the first woman to win tenure in engineering, and she was quickly promoted to full professor.^[3]

Career

Denton held academic appointments at the University of Massachusetts and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. In 1996, Denton was hired as the Dean of the College of Engineering and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. She was the first woman in the United States to lead an engineering college of a major research university.^[4]

Denton received attention for her response to Harvard President Larry Summers' suggestion, in January 2005, that women had achieved less in science because of innate gender differences. "Of course he has the right to say anything and of course there are biological differences," Denton said. "What some of us were concerned about is that his hypotheses were not grounded in the best and latest scholarly work, and could be refuted by anyone in the field."^[3][5]

University of California

Denton was the first openly gay, and at 45, the youngest person to be appointed to be chancellor in the University of California system by UC President Robert Dynes.^[3] She succeeded Martin Chemers, who served as acting chancellor following the resignation of M. R. C. Greenwood who became the University of California Provost.^[6][7]

Denton's recruitment package would eventually include a $275,000 salary, $68,750 as a moving allowance, improvements to the chancellor's on-campus residence which included a $30,000 dog pen initially budgeted at $7,000. Included in the deal was a tenured professorial appointment with a $192,000 salary, and a housing assistance allowance of up to $50,000 for her partner, Gretchen Kalonji.^[8]

Although much of the 7,000 square feet (650 m²) residence was used for campus functions, the approximately $600,000 renovation cost, and overall cost of Denton's recruitment brought criticism.^[9][10] This contrasts sharply against increasing student fees, up 79 percent in four years, and low pay raises for clerical and service staff.^{[citation needed]}

After an April 2005 campus protest over these issues resulted in the arrest of 19 students, 200 faculty signed a petition condemning her "unwarranted" use of force. She also was allegedly victim of personal harassment, in the form of verbal insults. A barricade was tossed through her guest-bedroom window on June 10, 2005.^[11] Protesters advocating higher wages for custodians blocked Denton in her car outside her office for about five minutes on June 6, 2006 while performing a skit about racism.^[12][13]

On 5 April 2005 anti-war protesters forced military recruiters, at a campus career fair, off campus. Denton received dozens of threatening phone calls and e-mails. When it was discovered that protest was listed as a "credible threat" on the TALON database managed by the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Agency, Denton helped persuade California Senators Boxer and Feinstein to request an investigation. Ultimately, campus protests were removed from the database.^[14]

Astronomy and astrophysics professor George Blumenthal was named interim on 14 July 2006, and official became the university's tenth Chancellor on 19 September 2007.

Boards and memberships

Denton was a member of the UC President's Committee to select recipients of the Medal of Science, and the committee to select recipients of the Alan T. Waterman Award sponsored by the NSF. She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Women in Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She was a member of the NSF Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee and a member of the Visiting Committee for the California Institute of Technology Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Denton served as chair of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) Board on Engineering Education. Among many other appointments, she was a member of the NRC Committee on Advanced Materials and Fabrication Methods for Microelectromechanical Systems and of MIT's Advisory Board for Initiatives to Diversify the Professoriate. Chancellor Denton was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Board of Directors of Joint Venture Silicon Valley.

Personal life

Denton, who was openly gay, resided part-time in downtown San Francisco with her partner of more than ten years, Gretchen Kalonji, a professor of materials science. On 24 June 2006, one day following Denton's discharge from the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute where she had been treated for depression, she leapt 33 stories to her death from The Paramount, a high-rise in which she shared an apartment with Kalonji.^[15]

In August 2007 Denton's partner Gretchen Kalonji filed a lawsuit against Denton's estate seeking $2.25 million dollars. Kalonji claims Denton's failure to revise her will or name Kalonji as a beneficiary to her UC life insurance policy was inadvertent and a violation of their oral agreement.^[16]

Honours and awards

Among other numerous awards she won the Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award (2006), a national recognition of exceptional work that advances opportunities in the sciences for women and girls; the IEEE/HP Harriet B. Rigas Award (1995); the ASEE George Westinghouse Award (1995);^[17] the W. M. Keck Foundation Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (1994); the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Teaching Award (University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1994); the Eta Kappa Nu C. Holmes MacDonald Distinguished Young Electrical Engineer National Teaching Award (1993); the American Society of Engineering Education AT&T Foundation Teaching Award (1991); the Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award (University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1990); and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young Investigator Award (1987).

References

1. ^ Texas Birth Index 1903-1997 showing "Denice Dee Denton, born August 27, 1959. Wharton County. Father Bob Glenn Denton, Mother Carolyn Irene Drab."
2. ^ Jondi Gumz (2005-03-27). "New UCSC chancellor Confronts Stereotypes". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=24689. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Bartindale, Beck (2005-02-14). "New UCSC Chancellor No Stranger to Challenges". The San Jose Mercury News. http://lazowska.cs.washington.edu/denice.sjmercury/. Retrieved 2008-03-28y. 
4. ^ Gumz, Jondi (2004-12-15). "Regents pick new UCSC chancellor". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/December/15/local/stories/05local.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-05. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ Denton, Denice (2005-02-07). "President Summers' remarks offer global 'teachable moment'". Currents (University of California, Santa Cruz) 9 (26). http://currents.ucsc.edu/04-05/02-07/opinion-denton.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
6. ^ Gumz, Jondi (2005-11-05). "UC shocker: Greenwood resigns as system provost as improper-hiring probe under way". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=31244&storySection=Local&fromSearch=true&searchTerms=ucsc. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 
7. ^ Schevitz, Tanya; Wallack, Todd (2005-12-22). "Conflict of interest found for UC provost / Despite violations, she got paid leave and offer of new job". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/22/MNG60GBT611.DTL. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
8. ^ "University of California announces appointment of Gretchen Kalonji as systemwide director of international strategy development" (Press release). University of California Office of the President. 2005-01-26. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2005/jan26.html. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
9. ^ Schevitz, Tanya (2005-01-20). "UC hires partner of chancellor, Creates 192,000 post for Santa Cruz chief's lesbian lover". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/20/BAG27AT2CQ1.DTL. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
10. ^ Schevitz, Tanya; Wallack, Todd (2006-03-30). "Chancellor's residence wish list made public, UC paid 600,000 to make upgrades to University House". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/30/BAGD9I0FK61.DTL. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
11. ^ Kapp, Diana (March, 2007). "The scandal, the scapegoats, and the suicide". San Francisco Magazine (San Francisco (magazine)). http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/scandal-scapegoats-and-suicide. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
12. ^ "UCSC protesters confront chancellor". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. 2006-06-07. http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=39171. Retrieved 2008-04-04. 
13. ^ Glatter, Jonathan D. (2006-06-30). "Stunned Campus Mourns Its Chief, an Apparent Suicide". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/education/30memorial.html. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 
14. ^ "UC Santa Cruz protest no longer on Pentagon's 'credible threat' list" (Press release). UC Santa Cruz. 2006-02-10. http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=814. Retrieved 2007-03-05. 
15. ^ Sideman, Rodger (2006-11-04). "Autopsy report details Denton's last days". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=43140. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
16. ^ Squires, Jennifer (2007-08-19). "Denton's partner sues late UC Santa Cruz chancellor's estate for 2.25M". The Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=33242. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
17. ^ "Past National Award Winners (page 1), section George Westinghouse Award". American Society for Engineering Education. http://www.asee.org/member-resources/awards/full-list-of-awards/awards-archive/past-national-award-winners-1#George_Westinghouse_Award. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 

External links

• More than 1,000 mourners remember UCSC chancellor at campus memorial
• UCSC Students and Workers Rally to Demand Affirmative Diversity
• Pentagon Spying Coverage
• UCSC Administrative Message on Chancellor's Death 24 June 2006
• A Complex Tragedy: Denice Denton and UC Santa Cruz

Persondata
Name	Denton, Denice
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1959-08-27
Place of birth	El Campo, Texas, USA
Date of death	2006-06-24
Place of death	San Francisco, California, USA