The College Fix

Looks like both the right – and now the left – aren’t keen on “Big Sis” coming to California.

The College Fix on Monday reported on a leading conservative scholar’s concern over the nomination of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to lead the University of California system, calling her too partisan.

Some students have also joined the “No on Napolitano” bandwagon.

Dream Activists, the “undocumented students action and resource network,” has launched a petition against Napolitano’s nomination, urging its members to write to UC regents and protest the pick:

Secretary Napolitano is the architect of the deportation machine that has resulted in over 1.5 million deportations during President Obama’s tenure. She has no expertise in higher education, only in family separation, and no place in our public university system.

By the UC Regents choosing Former Secretary Napolitano they have seriously offended and re-opened wounds amongst students and community members who are in the struggle for civil rights for immigrant students and their families.

UC students deserve a President who values and educates all students, not one who deports them. I ask that you do not proceed with appointing Secretary Napolitano as President of the University of California at your July 18th Regents meeting.

Not to be outdone, some professors aren’t too keen on the selection, either. Reports the Kansas City Star:

Christopher Newfield, a UC Santa Barbara professor who studies higher education issues, wrote a blog post criticizing UC for its interest in what he called the nation’s “top cop.”

“Meritocracies define ‘being qualified’ for the biggest job in a field as requiring prior experience in other jobs in the field. One is co-pilot before being pilot, a medical intern before being a licensed physician, Provost at Columbia before being Chancellor of UC Berkeley, and so on,” Newfield wrote.

“Ms. Napolitano has no experience with university life or management and no known body of organized thought on the subject. It is not easy to make up for this. Being a political heavyweight is not a qualification for being a university president. Earning President Obama’s trust is not a qualification.”