‘She has often looked rather silly in her pronouncements’
Two leaders in the California Association of Scholars, which just last year warned that the University of California system was facing a “major crisis of public confidence” because of its plummeting ability to improve the reading, writing and reasoning skills of students, are blasting the institution for nominating Janet Napolitano to be its president.
The decision by officials with the University of California school system to nominate Napolitano to leave her post as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for Barack Obama to be the system’s chief administrator already has prompted protests.
Chris Newman, legal director for the California-based National Day Laborer Organization Network told the Washington Times, “UC should take the opportunity to thoroughly examine her record in Arizona and at DHS to see if it reflects the university’s values before they confirm her to this important post.”
Nor was the other side pleased.
“University of California students can look forward to the same authoritarian management style Secretary Napolitano brought to the Department of Homeland Security, hardly a bastion of free speech and open government,” warned Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif.
“While I am pleased to see her leave Homeland Security, Napolitano’s views are entirely incompatible with the UC system’s history of civil liberties and the decision to appoint her is perplexing.”
It was John M. Ellis, president the the California Association of Scholars, a division of the National Association of Scholars, who expressed alarm on behalf of educators.