denice denton

while at UW, denice denton was the first female dean of engineering at a major american university. at thirty-seven, she was the youngest dean ever at UW. she left UW to become chancellor of university of california, santa cruz. through clippings from my mom, who lives in santa cruz, i've kept up with denton and was troubled to hear about the many controversies she had gotten herself into at UCSC. yesterday, in an apparent suicide, she died. (more here and here.) i met denice denton once, in 2001, when i interviewed for a one year position in the department of technical communication, which was, and is, in the school of engineering. during our meeting, denice denton was kind and supportive. sad, sad news.

update: yesterday, june 29th, over a thousand people gathered at UCSC for a ceremony for chancellor denton. also, i found the_sinistral's entry, a few words on denice d. denton, to be quite moving. i wish all freshman engineering students had the experience of taking a freshmen interest group class with professor denton.