In a statement posted on her website on Saturday afternoon, Chancellor Linda Katehi wrote she would be forming a task force of faculty, students and staff to review the incident.
“The events of this intervention have been videotaped and widely distributed. As indicated in various videos, the police used pepper spray against the students who were blocking the way. The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this,” she wrote.
Katehi also called the video "sad and really very inappropriate" in a press conference on Saturday, but hit back at widespread calls for her resignation.
"I do not think that I have violated the policies of the institution," Katehi said, according to The Associated Press. "I have worked personally very hard to make this campus a safe campus for all."
The demonstrators were participating in the "Occupy UC Davis" movement on Friday when the altercation occured. The video -- first released by NBC's KCRA-TV - was shot by a witness and shows numerous observers watching in horror as a campus police officer douses the students in yellow mist.
"Police came and brutalized them and tore their tents down and all that stuff. It was really scary. It felt like there was anarchy everywhere," student Hisham Alihbob told KCRA.
Police told the TV station that students were given until 3 p.m. on Friday to dismantle their tents from the university's quad.
A spokesman for the protesters told the News that they had also received written warnings to remove their tents.
As with many Occupy protests around the country, the demonstrators refused to cede to the cops' demands and defied officials' orders.
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