Denice Denton

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Denice Dee Denton (August 27, 1959 – June 24, 2006) was the seventh Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). She held the position from February 14, 2005 until her suicide 16 months later on June 24, 2006. Denton also held a UCSC appointment as Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education and career before UC 3 University of California career 4 Awards and honors 5 National and regional leadership roles 6 Death 7 Aftermath 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Denton was born in El Campo, Texas in Wharton County. She was the oldest child of Bob Glenn Denton and Carolyn Irene Drab.^[1] By 1966 the family had moved to Tarrant County. Her parents later divorced and on July 14, 1972, her mother remarried in Harris County^[2] to Courtland Glanville Mabee. The couple had a daughter in 1973 (Denton's half-sister).^[3] Courtland and Carolyn divorced on April 24, 1995 in Harris County.^[4]

[edit] Education and career before UC

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 '80s working for Fairchild Semiconductor. Her projects included 64K static RAM design.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

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."^[6][8]

[edit] University of California career

Denton succeeded Acting Chancellor Martin Chemers, who oversaw the campus following the resignation of Chancellor M. R. C. Greenwood, who left to take the position of provost for the University of California system. Greenwood resigned her position as system-wide provost for controversial hiring decisions the day of Denton's investiture ceremony as chancellor.^[9][10] (The fallout resulting from these controversies also lead to UC President Dynes resignation in 2007; he had requested and approved Greenwood's bid for promotion and approved Denton's contract.^[11][12])

When she was appointed Chancellor, it was noted that she was the first open lesbian to hold such a high position in the University of California (UC) system and, at 45, the youngest of the ten Chancellors.^[6]

The recruitment package for Denton eventually included a $275,000 salary, a moving allowance of $68,750, a tenured professorial appointment with a salary of $192,000 for her partner, Gretchen Kalonji (a 42% increase from Kalonji's actual UW salary, although only 7% more on an "annualized" basis),^[13] a housing assistance allowance of up to $50,000 for Kalonji, and improvements to Denton's on-campus residence, paid from privately raised funds, that included a dog pen budgeted at $7,000 that ended up costing $30,000. Much of the 7,000 square foot residence was used for campus functions, but the approximately $600,000 renovation cost, and the recruitment package, was controversial, particularly against the background of sharply increasing student fees (up 79% in four years) and conflict with campus clerical and service workers over stagnant wages.^[14][15]

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.^[16] Protesters advocating higher wages for custodians blocked Denton in her car outside her office for about five minutes on June 6th, 2006 while performing a skit about racism.^[17][18]

On April 5, 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.^[19]

[edit] Awards and honors

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); 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).

[edit] National and regional leadership roles

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.

[edit] Death

On June 24, 2006, Denton leapt to her death from the roof of the 42-story The Paramount apartment tower in San Francisco, California, where she shared an apartment with her partner, Gretchen Kalonji, a former professor of materials science at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her mother, Carolyn Mabee, was in the building when Denton died, and reportedly said her daughter was "very depressed" about her professional and personal life.^[20]

Immediately after her suicide, David Kliger, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, assumed the duties of Chancellor. On July 14, 2006, it was announced that George Blumenthal, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university, had been appointed Acting Chancellor.

Denton had been discharged the day before her death from UC San Francisco's Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute where she had been treated for depression. Denton was survived by her partner, her mother, two sisters, and a brother.

[edit] Aftermath

In August 2007 Gretchen Kalonji, Denton's partner for more than 10 years, 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 verbal agreement.^[21]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• More than 1,000 mourners remember UCSC chancellor at campus memorial
• Office website at University of California, Santa Cruz
• Lesbian Named UCSC Chancellor
• UCSC Students and Workers Rally to Demand Affirmative Diversity
• Comments upon being named Chancellor
• New UCSC Chancellor No Stranger to Challenges
• Tent University Coverage
• Pentagon Spying Coverage
• Pentagon removes UCSC protest from threat database
• SF Chronicle 2006-06-24 Jumps to Death
• UCSC Administrative Message on Chancellor's Death 24 June 2006
• Tribute to Denice Denton, University of Washington College of Engineering
• Wisconsin State Journal, 26 June 2006
• A Complex Tragedy: Denice Denton and UC Santa Cruz
• "Too Much, Too Fast" from the Chronicle of Higher Education

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