Napolitano on Protesting Students: We Don't Have to Listen to This Crap

Former US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who now presides over one of the country’s largest and most prestigious state university systems, told a fellow regent they “didn’t have to listen to this crap,” referring to students protesting another round of proposed tuition hikes.

During a meeting in San Francisco Wednesday, around two dozen students dressed only in their underwear loudly expressed their discontent with a potential 5% increase in fees at the University of California campuses every year over the next five years, when Napolitano leaned over to UC regent Chairman Bruce Varner and said, “Let’s just break. Let’s go, let’s go. We don’t have to listen to this crap.”

University of California president Janet Napolitano talks with Gov. Jerry Brown during a UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco. Napolitani publicly apologized Thursday, March 19, 2015, for calling chants by students protesting tuition hikes “crap,” a remark overheard on an open microphone at the regents meeting Wednesday

© AP Photo / Jeff Chiu

A hot mic picked up the comment.

Many of the protesting students had the phrase “Student Debt” written across their nearly naked bodies, to signify that high tuition is taking away everything that they have. 

“It’s an insult to have her as the president of UC,” student protester Kristian Kim told CBS. 

University of California Berkeley student Kristian Kim throws fake money while starting a protest during a UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco

© AP Photo / Jeff Chiu

“I don’t know where she’s coming from, but I’m assuming she’s never had to deal with these issues personally. So I can understand why there would be a disconnect there,” Kim said in regard to Napolitano's unsavory comment about the protest. 

University of California students and supporters yell during a UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 18, 2015. Gov. Jerry Brown has opposed University of California President Janet Napolitano plan to increase tuition by up to 5 percent in each of the next five years.

© AP Photo / Jeff Chiu

Napolitano has bore the brunt of student criticism since assuming the system’s presidency in 2013 for reportedly earning more in salary than the US president while proposing hikes in tuition and fees rates to compensate for decreasing state funds for the University.

She has since apologized for her comment, claiming “it’s not a word I normally use.”