University chancellor dies in apparent suicide jump
Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:48 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A University of California chancellor died Saturday in an apparent suicide jump from a 43-story apartment building, authorities said.
Denice Dee Denton, 46, the chancellor of the Santa Cruz campus, apparently jumped from the Paramount luxury apartment building early Saturday morning and landed on a parking garage, police and university officials said.
The Medical Examiner's office and a university spokesman confirmed her death, though the cause was still under investigation.
Denton had been on medical leave from the school for undisclosed reasons since June 15 and was expected back at work on Monday, university spokesman Jim Burns said.
"Those of us who worked closely with Denice valued her intelligence, humor, and commitment to the ideals of diversity and higher education," UC Santa Cruz Campus Provost David S. Kliger said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened by her death."
Denton's mother, Carolyn Mabee, was in the building at the time of the death, and told investigators her daughter was "very depressed" about personal and professional problems, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Denton came under fire the past two years over a pricey remodel to her home on the university campus and a high-paying university position created for her longtime partner, Gretchen Kalonji.
In March, she defended $600,000 worth of renovations she demanded during contract negotiations before being hired in 2004.
Campus employees criticized the expenditures as lavish while the university raised fees and cut budgets.
In 2005, an employee union criticized the university's creation of a $192,000-a-year job for Kalonji, a former professor of materials science at the University of Washington in Seattle.
University officials defended the hiring, saying Kalonji's experience would be an asset in her role as director of international strategy development.
"Denice was an accomplished and passionate scholar whose life and work demonstrated a deep commitment to public service and to improving opportunity for the disadvantaged and underrepresented," UC President Robert Dynes said in a statement.
Denton was appointed chancellor in 2004 after serving as the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington.
When she went to Washington in 1996, she became the first woman to lead an engineering college at a major U.S. research university.
Denton earned four electrical engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a Ph.D.
Kalonji was returning to the San Francisco Bay area Saturday after being away on a business trip, said UC spokesman Michael Reese. Records show she has an apartment in the high-rise.
Denice Dee Denton, 46, the chancellor of the Santa Cruz campus, apparently jumped from the Paramount luxury apartment building early Saturday morning and landed on a parking garage, police and university officials said.
The Medical Examiner's office and a university spokesman confirmed her death, though the cause was still under investigation.
Denton had been on medical leave from the school for undisclosed reasons since June 15 and was expected back at work on Monday, university spokesman Jim Burns said.
"Those of us who worked closely with Denice valued her intelligence, humor, and commitment to the ideals of diversity and higher education," UC Santa Cruz Campus Provost David S. Kliger said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened by her death."
Denton's mother, Carolyn Mabee, was in the building at the time of the death, and told investigators her daughter was "very depressed" about personal and professional problems, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Denton came under fire the past two years over a pricey remodel to her home on the university campus and a high-paying university position created for her longtime partner, Gretchen Kalonji.
In March, she defended $600,000 worth of renovations she demanded during contract negotiations before being hired in 2004.
Campus employees criticized the expenditures as lavish while the university raised fees and cut budgets.
In 2005, an employee union criticized the university's creation of a $192,000-a-year job for Kalonji, a former professor of materials science at the University of Washington in Seattle.
University officials defended the hiring, saying Kalonji's experience would be an asset in her role as director of international strategy development.
"Denice was an accomplished and passionate scholar whose life and work demonstrated a deep commitment to public service and to improving opportunity for the disadvantaged and underrepresented," UC President Robert Dynes said in a statement.
Denton was appointed chancellor in 2004 after serving as the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington.
When she went to Washington in 1996, she became the first woman to lead an engineering college at a major U.S. research university.
Denton earned four electrical engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a Ph.D.
Kalonji was returning to the San Francisco Bay area Saturday after being away on a business trip, said UC spokesman Michael Reese. Records show she has an apartment in the high-rise.