CSU trustees plan to eliminate faculty retreat rights for fired administrators
Ashley A. Smith
The advantage at the heart of a purchase by a Fresno state administrator in 2020 that led to the resignation of Joseph I. Castro as chancellor was not an isolated situation.
Since 2015, a handful of CSU system administrators have been offered the chance to retire from college or exercise that right, despite investigations, allegations of misconduct, or disciplinary action taken against them, according to an EdSource investigation.
Now, the California State University Board of Directors is creating a policy to tighten the circumstances that would allow professors who serve as administrators to take up full-time faculty positions. The new policy would exclude administrators from faculty jobs in the system if they have been fired or are under investigation for misconduct or policy violations.
The new policy would formalize how administrators receive what is commonly known as faculty retirement for the 23-campus system. Administrators will do it vote on Wednesday on the policy that would explicitly indicate who can receive teacher retirement and how it can be revoked. Teacher retreat has traditionally been used to provide a safety net for teachers who leave a permanent position to work in the top administration of a campus. However, the advantage has also been used to hire qualified candidates for positions even if they do not come from faculty and is usually part of presidential compensation packages.
The trustees decided earlier this year to do so create a system-wide policy following revelations in February that while he was president of Fresno state, former chancellor Castro reached a six-figure settlement agreement with a Fresno state administrator who threatened to exercise his rights to withdraw from college after the campus had received allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation about him. That administrator, Frank Lamas, received $ 260,000 and a brilliant letter of recommendation from Castro in exchange for his retirement. The event led Castro to resign as chancellor of the CSU in February.
How administrative retirement is used varies across campuses, according to EdSource. Some campuses have formal policieswhile others like CSU Northridge and Chico State do not have a written policy.
More:A dean of Cal State tattooed two colleagues. The ‘withdrawal rights’ made it irrefutable.
Such decisions, which offer the withdrawal of faculty to administrators, “were usually at the discretion of campus leadership,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for the CSU system. “The pending policy will not open the door for campuses to offer withdrawal rights as it is a practice that exists on all campuses, but it will formalize how this option is granted, the approval process and, most importantly, allow the campus revoke that option if it is found that an employee has violated university policy in the circumstances indicated in the policy.
The California Teachers Association, the union that represents CSU faculty members, said in March that the CSU should go beyond simply eliminating faculty withdrawals for administrators who have committed misconduct.
“Withdrawal rights as an executive advantage should be removed,” according to the CFA statement. “Managers with minimal classroom experience should not be able to parachute into the classroom and displace existing teachers with proven records.”
Which Poly Humboldt, like most CSU campuses, does not have an official written policy on the removal of administrative faculty, but an investigation into one of its former deans in 2015 forced the campus to change its written policy on appointments in 2016 .
In July 2016, a former campus dean, then known as Humboldt State, was fired from his position at the College of Professional Studies. However, like most administrators, when he was hired in 2010, John Y. Lee was granted a permanent and permanent teaching position as an option if he left his administrative position. Lee was fired after a series of investigations were launched following allegations that he beat and harassed two classmates, according to documents released by the university. Those investigations found that Lee violated those of the university Policy Title IX prohibiting sexual misconduct, harassment and discrimination. Lee vigorously appealed the findings of the investigations and denied any wrongdoing, but his appeal was denied by the CSU Chancellor’s Office in 2016. However, Lee was able to return to a teaching position in January 2017 and is currently a faculty member at the Faculty. of Education. .
A spokesman for Cal Poly Humboldt confirmed that the campus changed the language in the following hiring agreements in response to Lee’s decision to remain part of the faculty. Those agreements now state that administrators can lose their faculty withdrawal rights if they violated college policy. Lee could not be reached for comment.
At Cal State Fullerton, an administrator who faced a Title IX investigation was offered the chance to retire and did so, but only for about two months. One researcher found that in 2015, Patrick Pellicane, who was associate vice president of academic affairs, “became involved in physical contact that was unwanted, unnecessary, and unprofessional in the work environment.” However, according to the investigation, Pellicane did not violate the university’s Title IX policy.
Still, the campus fired Pellicane in August 2015, according to documents released by the university. Five days later, Pellicane notified campus that he would accept a teaching position in Fullerton’s math department. Pellicane dropped out of college that October. Pellicane could not be reached for comment.
The CSU has also faced criticism for offering a faculty retirement post to former Chancellor Castro. Castro, who is currently on salary while moving to a teaching position, may become a tenured professor of leadership and public policy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next year. The former chancellor withdrawal rights were approved in September 2020 shortly after becoming chancellor. But following the Lamas controversy, groups of professors from the CSU system protested their ability to join the San Luis Obispo campus. It is not yet clear whether Castro will accept the teaching position.
The teachers’ association also criticized Castro’s agreement to give him a tenured professor position in the business faculty for a “discipline in which he does not hold a final degree.” Castro does not have a degree in any discipline offered in business college. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California Berkeley and a doctorate in politics and higher education leadership from Stanford University.
EdSource asked the 23 CSU campuses if they have faculty withdrawal policies and case-specific documents. Nine campuses reported not having any administrators use the options to remove faculty after being fired from their posts or being investigated for misconduct. Several reported having such cases, including Cal State San Marco. who has reported two cases but has not yet released documents describing them.
According to CSU’s proposed policy, a candidate for administrative employment would need a recommendation from the tenured professor in the department to which he or she would retire. Administrators will not be able to access withdrawal rights if they have committed misconduct or a policy violation that led to their dismissal, if they are currently being investigated for misconduct or a policy violation, or if they have lost their retirement and pension benefits due to misconduct. conduct.
The policy, which was first discussed at the May board meeting, will become official if approved on Wednesday.
EdSource journalist Thomas Peele contributed to this report.
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