The recent suicide of the University of California system’s first openly gay chancellor, Denice Dee Denton, deserves an investigation by the California Legislature.

Denton became chancellor of UC Santa Cruz in February 2005 after serving as dean of engineering at the University of Washington. According to news reports, she had overcome many obstacles in her own career and was known for her strength and resilience in tough times.

But the body of the 46-year-old chancellor was found early one morning several weeks ago on the roof of a parking structure below the 43-story apartment building in San Francisco where her partner of more than eight years, Gretchen Kalonji, lived. Kalonji is a senior administrator at the university’s Oakland headquarters.

While the causes behind someone’s suicide are often a mystery, it’s clear that some folks wanted to drive Denton out of office from the start. No big surprise. The same thing happened to Denton’s predecessor at UCSC, M.R.C. (Marcie) Greenwood, who also had a short tenure. According to UC sources, Greenwood is also a lesbian, which was well known at UCSC.

Now, given UCSC’s tradition of being a bastion of liberalism (perhaps radical), one would have thought the campus was a perfect setting for UC’s first openly gay chancellor.

Not so. Denton experienced several incidents of vandalism and protest on the campus last year, including one in which a metal sawhorse was thrown through a heavy plate-glass window at the back of her residence. Denton was alone in the home at the time.

Police didn’t find the perpetrator and apparently saw no reason to treat it as a hate crime. I guess a sawhorse has to say “dyke” on it.

Denton became the subject of criticism when some benefits were not disclosed at the time of her hiring – such as a $30,000 dog run that was part of a $600,000 package of approved renovations to her residence.

Yes, UC should have disclosed everything. But as to the substance, a chancellor’s residence is not a personal home; it belongs to the state. The chancellor uses the home to host dinners and receptions. It is a fund-raising venue. That house generates millions.

A $30,000 dog run? Yes, that was stupid. Denton should have done what every other chancellor does: add $30,000 for landscaping. And what’s all the fuss about a “dog run?” Oh, because it’s a lesbian’s home. By the way, UCSD will spend upwards of $10 million to demolish and rebuild the UCSD chancellor’s residence.

Students criticized Denton because she earned $275,000 a year as UC Santa Cruz’s ninth leader. Executive compensation in higher education has reached absurd levels, but $275,000 is a bargain. Compare it to the $500,000-plus for SDSU’s new football coach.

But what generated the most criticism was that the UC system did not initially reveal it had also hired Kalonji to a newly created position in the UC Office of the President that paid $192,000 annually, which drew calls of nepotism from employee unions. Kalonji, an engineering professor, was Denton’s romantic partner for nine years.

We all deplore bias based on marital or relationship status. And the Legislature made it clear last year by finding marital-status bias illegal.

Nevertheless, the so-called “spouse legacy” has been around in academia for decades. But no one complained about it until colleges gave women equal opportunities and hired and promoted female administrators and professors.

Schools needed to lure women from elsewhere. But where to stick her husband? Colleges have created jobs for spouses and filled open posts with unqualified spouses.

But this heterosexual privilege hasn’t been extended to gays and lesbians, and many gay and lesbian candidates for posts have had to turn down advances because schools wouldn’t accommodate their partners, or even offer domestic partner benefits.

To his credit, UC President Robert Dynes has been at the forefront of GLBT equality.

And Dynes and Denton paid dearly for it. I can’t recall a faculty union ever making a public issue over anything like a heterosexual legacy hire.

We should call upon the Legislative LGBT Caucus to ask the California Postsecondary Education Commission to study Denton’s tenure and to recommend ways the higher-education community can provide safety, security and equality for GLBT professors and administrators.