CSU academic senate expresses loss of confidence in trustees over Castro settlement
The Academic Senate of the California State University system on Friday approved a loss of confidence resolution in the system’s board of trustees and the administration’s handling of its hiring and separation procedures, citing the settlement with former chancellor and Fresno State president Joseph I. Castro.
Castro, who resigned as chancellor in February amid a firestorm over his handling of sexual harassment allegations while at the university, entered the CSU’s executive transition program and was reassigned as an advisor to the board. He will receive an annual salary of $401,364, and the CSU will also pay a housing allowance through August.
The salary is paid by the chancellor’s office on behalf of the CSU board of trustees, and ends Feb. 17, 2023.
The language in the resolution will not be finalized until Monday, but in it the ASCSU is asserting that such golden handshakes provide an incentive to those in power in the CSU and are a signal that they will be rewarded for engaging in or covering up inappropriate behavior on university campuses.
It found the separation agreement with Castro that was negotiated by the CSU board to be inappropriate, and encouraged it to immediately rescind the assignment as an advisor to the board.
The CSU has an ongoing independent investigation into the handling of sexual harassment allegations when Castro was president at Fresno State, as well as an assessment of the Title IX practices, training, services and support systems across the largest four-year public university system in the nation.
The ASCSU also renewed a call for an independent legislative investigation into Title IX violations and for a second independent legislative investigation into the CSU’s executive transition plan.
It praised the board for suspending the executive transition plan for new administrative hires and in March convening a task force to review the practice. But it also called on the board to suspend the right to exercise the ETP for existing administrators if found to have committed a serious violation of university policy or state or federal statutes through an internal or independent investigation, and to terminate the ETP for any future hires.
