Prepared remarks of Patt Takeuchi, Staff Advisory Board member

“Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning to share and support our UC Santa Cruz community during this challenging time.

My name is Patt Takeuchi and I am a staff member here at UC Santa Cruz and serve on the Staff Advisory Board.

I have worked for the UC system for 29-plus years and I have met a lot of chancellors and leaders within UC. I would like to share with you my experiences with Denise Denton.

Professionally, people have been talking and writing about Denice’s accomplishments, which are many. To be so gifted and bright.

The one thing that stands out most for me was how she stood up for diversity in very concrete ways. We all talk about diversity but few of us actually create teaching and supportive environments for learning about differences and tolerance. Diversity issues are supported in text, conversations and in marketing documents, but very few leaders actually step forward and take the risk of making it one of their measurements of their own success.

Just the idea of standing up against the Harvard president and publicly refuting his remarks about some possible innate differences between women and men, wouldn’t have been possible for most people, but Denice did it.

We often have much to say about inequalities. From my view, many staff live and breathe it every day of their lives, but to speak out about it was a teaching moment. Few accomplish this. I believe she spoke for people who neither had the means nor access to do such a bold thing.

I would like to share two personal little glimpses I observed in my limited interactions with Denice, which spoke volumes to me about what was important to her.

The Staff Advisory Board was one of the first groups to meet with the Chancellor when she came to our campus. When we walked into her office, the whole place was filled with flowers, flowers all over her desk, table, I think there were even flowers on the floor, there were so many.

We joked a little with her, trying to make small talk. We pointed to the most expensive-looking arrangement; we said the florist had inadvertently put in the wrong welcome card and that actually the most expensive arrangement came from the SAB. She seemed very appreciative of the flowers she received, but she seem more genuinely touched by the welcome she received with the flowers from the campus and the community.

Once we went around the room and introduced ourselves, we discussed some major staff issues with the Chancellor, which was well received. On some, she took immediate action. Others, she was working very hard behind the scenes to get more clarity, understanding and support.

Denice wanted to share with us two of her first experiences about UCSC that hinted to me that she was looking forward to working with everyone. Her first was about how the children from our campus child care center brought over valentines for her. There are approximately 100 children who are in our campus child care facilities. You could tell she was so touched by the children coming to see her. Later, some of her staff recalled that she basically ignored the parents and her own schedule while she visited with the children.

Her second story was how some of the dining services staff welcomed her by delivering some great tamales made in one of our dining halls on campus. If you haven’t experienced one of our dining halls, the staff in our dining halls chop, wash, cook and prepare over 2.4 million meals a year for our residential students. The staff were kind enough to welcome her to our community and I knew she appreciated the gesture because she referred to the tamales many times.

Finally, in trying to write my speech for you today, I didn’t have a closing comment to share but it was at the end of the day, so I shut down my computer and went to meet my vanpool.

As is often the case, our group is a little more talkative on the ride home than at 6:30 in the morning when we ride in from Watsonville. Occasionally someone will share a little triumph or frustration they have experienced that day.

Well, one staff member shared that being in Kerr Hall was difficult right now and we asked her why. She said there were so many flowers, flowers everywhere because of the Chancellor’s death. She said it really affected her. I asked her, ‘Oh, you mean it affected your allergies?’  ‘No,’ she said, ‘it affected my heart.’ ”

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