UC Santa Cruz chancellor dies in fatal S.F. jump

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Denice Denton died today after jumping from a San Francisco building, police sources said.

Denton died at 8:17 a.m. A guest at a nearby hotel reported the jump, police said. Denton's mother was on the scene today and has been notified by authorities, police said.

Denton may have been living in the building, police said. She had been provided a 2,680-square-foot home on the UC Santa Cruz campus, the subject of a story in a Chronicle series this spring examining perks and pay in the UC system.

Denton had assumed office on Feb. 14, 2005. In addition to holding the top post at the university with 15,000 students, Denton is also a professor of electrical engineering, according to the school's Web site.

Denton previously was the dean of the College of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. She was the first woman to hold such a position at a top research university, the site said.

You haven't heard the last of this story.Denice Denton's financial situation was becoming news.