Janet Napolitano officially takes over the UC system Monday

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano officially takes over as the University of California’s president on Monday, but she already has survived her first leadership challenge.

A “no-confidence” vote sought this month by student activists who think her work in Washington makes her unsuitable to run the nation’s largest public higher education system failed.

Detractors argued that Napolitano was a poor choice, given her previous job, to oversee college campuses prone to protests and attended by students from families living in the U.S. illegally.

Her annual salary of $571,000 is three times more than she made working for the federal government, but, at her insistence and in recognition of the financial difficulties the university has experienced, $21,000 less than the immediate past president, Mark Yudof.