Thumbs down: UC Davis’ attempted whitewash

There are plenty of smart people at UC Davis, but they make some puzzling decisions. The latest is a costly effort to boost the school’s image by scrubbing the Internet of negative references to a 2011 incident in which video cameras captured campus police using pepper spray on nonviolent protesters and to Chancellor Linda Katehi, who caught flak this spring for moonlighting as a director for a textbook publisher and a for-profit university.

UC Davis spent at least $175,000 on outside consultants charged with altering Internet search results by placing flattering content online, according to documents obtained by the Sacramento Bee. “We have worked to ensure that the reputation of the university, which the chancellor leads, is fairly portrayed,” a UC Davis spokeswoman told the newspaper.

The only thing the university succeeded at was giving itself another black eye.