Chancellor Linda Katehi issued the following letter to members of the UC Davis community on March 1:

Dear Campus Community Members:

On Saturday, Feb. 27, the UC Davis Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center was vandalized and defaced with derogatory and hateful words. This event follows closely the targeting of a Jewish student’s on-campus residence and is yet another example of the incidents of hate speech and conduct that have plagued our university over the past several weeks. It is also a strong reminder that we must be constant and vigilant in our efforts to confront and reject all manifestations of the historical and deep-rooted prejudices and biases that remain in our society.

The LGBTRC is a valuable resource to our campus community. We are grateful for the support the center provides to students, faculty and staff as we continue to confront homophobia and the hate speech and conduct designed to hurt and divide our community.

The campus leadership supports the LGBT community’s request to not immediately clean and remove the defacing and to use this opportunity for our campus to witness firsthand this reprehensible and senseless affront to our Principles of Community (principles.ucdavis.edu). At the end of today we will remove the defacement.

Our university and campus community must confront this type of behavior not only with words but with action as well.

I invite you to join our students, campus leaders and me at 5:30 p.m. today at a town hall discussion in the ARC Ballroom to both express our concern about these incidents and to develop a continuing campus dialogue and plan of action to make our campus safe, welcoming and supportive for all members of our campus community.

Such dialogue and action are also happening throughout the system in response to hateful incidents that have occurred, as well, on other UC campuses.

This morning, during a briefing for joint legislative meetings with student and UC leadership, I participated in a discussion with representatives from the UC Student Association, President Yudof, chancellors from several UC campuses and three UC regents, including Chair Gould.

It is clear that the regents and the president understand the severity of these incidents for the entire UC system, and they committed to addressing the pervasive underlying issues.

Together, we must work to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for each member of our university community.

Sincerely,

Linda P.B. Katehi

Chancellor