The universitywide Academic Senate's leadership canceled an emergency meeting that had been called for Wednesday of this week to consider Cliff Brunk's ouster as senate chair. But a special meeting is still on for Monday to consider the same action, Vice Chair John Oakley said.

Oakley, a UC Davis law professor, declined to discuss the reasons behind the move to oust Brunk — with Oakley saying that to comment would be "unseemly" in light of the fact that he would take over as chair should Brunk be removed from office.

But another UC Davis law professor, Dan Simmons, chair of the senate's Davis Division, said: "A lot of it involves personnel issues and problems in the Office of the President."

As senate chair, Brunk maintains an office at UC's Oakland headquarters and serves as the faculty's lead representative to the Board of Regents.

"There have been conflicts between the (Academic) Council and the chair over the reporting of council positions to the regents and others," Simmons said.

Brunk, a professor of cell and molecular biology at UCLA, did not respond to a phone message, left Monday, asking for comment.

He has led the 15,000-member Academic Senate since Sept. 1. He was elected vice chair last year; under senate procedure, the vice chair moves up to chair automatically the following year.

Simmons said he served on a special committee that investigated Brunk's leadership. The committee report went to the senate's 19-member Academic Council on Feb. 22. The committee voted to express no confidence in Brunk's leadership and asked him to resign by March 1 or call an emergency meeting of the senate's 59-member assembly to give the larger body an opportunity to consider Brunk's removal, according to Simmons, who serves on the council and assembly.

When Brunk did not resign, assembly members petitioned for a special meeting, as allowed under senate rules. The petition went to Oakley, who scheduled the meeting for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 13 in Oakland.

Brunk himself called an emergency meeting for March 8, also in Oakland, to consider his removal from office. Oakley said a senate committee subsequently called off the meeting, ruling that it did not conform to senate bylaws.