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Following the unexpected death of UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Denice Denton on June 24, UCSC and University of California officials said they are determined to move forward and find a new leader to carry on Denton’s vision of a diverse campus.

Denton, 46, died in an apparent suicide jump off of a building in San Francisco. She was the first openly gay UC chancellor and advocated for women in the fields of engineering and science.

Bill Ladusaw, professor of linguistics and vice provost of undergraduate education at UCSC, said the impact of Denton’s death on the UCSC campus was immense.

During the week following her death, the university was both mourning her loss and looking to future of the university in the search for a new chancellor, he said.

On June 29, a memorial service held for Denton was attended by over 1,000 family, faculty, staff and students. UCSC created a Web site for Denton with remembrance messages from people, including the UCSC campus provost and UC president Robert Dynes.

The most concrete step the campus will need to take is finding a chancellor to replace Denton.

The creation of a search committee for a permanent chancellor is underway and an acting chancellor is set to be appointed soon, said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz.

The search for a chancellor is an extensive process that usually takes three to six months – the committee considers national as well as international prospects, often resulting in several hundred candidates, said Schwartz. However, UCLA’s search for a replacement for former Chancellor Albert Carnesale has been ongoing for more than 10 months with no candidate publicly announced.

But the campus will also look forward by strengthening its commitment to Denton’s foremost principles – supporting women and minorities in the fields of engineering and science, said UCSC spokeswoman Elizabeth Irwin.

She said she sees this as a time when people can renew their commitment to advancing these principles.

“We owe it to her to move ahead with her advocacy,” Irwin said.

But in order for those goals to be achieved, there must be a connection and understanding between both administrators and students, Ladusaw said.

“I believe it is important for the administration to hear student perspectives and build effective coalitions,” Ladusaw said.

Though many of Denton’s friends, family and colleagues, along with students, are focusing on her work with advancing women’s roles in traditionally male-dominated fields, her accomplishments in her field were overshadowed by the compensation scandal in her only year as a chancellor.

The months before her death, Denton came under criticism from students and the public for seeking expensive compensation packages and making a university position for her partner. At one point students protested on the lawn of her home to express their dissatisfaction with her leadership.

Stephanie Tam, a third-year sociology student at UCSC, noted the criticism Denton received from students. The criticism centered on complaints about the late chancellor’s lack of funding to a range of student organizations and her providing more funding for the sciences than for other areas of the school.

“Nobody feels responsible for (her death), but students feel as though we did not improve the situation treating her the way some did,” Tam said.

But Ladusaw said it was not these perceived failings that he remembered about Denton, but rather the actions she took to advance women’s rights.

“I don’t understand why students did not like her even though I would have thought they shared a lot of values,” he said.