CSU launches new investigation into how Fresno State handled sexual harassment complaints
More fallout from revelations over the mishandling of sexual harassment claims against a former Fresno State administrator surfaced Tuesday as the California State University trustees announced an independent, external investigation into how the university responded to six years of complaints.
The state university system has hired Cozen O’Connor, an international law firm with offices across the U.S., to handle a review of policies and practices at all 23 of the CSU campuses, starting this month at Fresno State.
The Fresno campus became the focus of concerns after a USA Today article last month revealed that the university’s former vice president of student affairs, Frank Lamas, was the subject of at least 12 complaints of sexual harassment in a six-year period from 2014 to 2019.
“It is important that we understand how campus leaders at Fresno State responded to the workplace concerns about Dr. Frank Lamas,” Lillian Kimbell, chairperson of the CSU Board of Trustees, said in a statement issued Tuesday by the university system.
“We will investigate the past to reveal potential new facts, learn and take appropriate action.”
The tumultuous USA Today report spurred subsequent student protests at the Fresno State campus, calls by several members of the California Legislature for an investigation into the actions of then-Fresno State president Joseph I. Castro. In the wake of the report, on Feb. 17 Castro resigned as chancellor of the entire CSU system.
The accusations detailed by USA Today included accounts of Lamas staring at women’s breasts, touching women inappropriately, making sexist remarks, and berating, belittling and retaliating against employees.
The report indicated that complaints were made to Fresno State’s Title IX compliance office, the university’s human resources department, and directly to Castro’s office.
Castro, Fresno State’s president from 2013 until he was appointed CSU chancellor in 2020, reportedly failed to take disciplinary action against Lamas until the last complaint against the administrator was lodged in 2019. Instead, Castro praised Lamas in annual performance reviews and endorsed him for a prestigious lifetime achievement award.
Lamas left the university under the terms of a settlement approved by Castro and university attorneys that provided Lamas with a full year of salary, about $260,000, to retire at the end of 2020.
Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez, two attorneys who head Cozen O’Connor’s Institutional Response Group from the firm’s Philadelphia office, will lead the system-wide investigation.
Acting CSU Chancellor Steve Relyea, tapped to serve after Castro’s resignation, said the investigation is examining Title IX policies and practices at the system’s 23 campuses – the largest public, four-year higher education system in the U.S. – “to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our students, faculty and staff.”
Title IX is part of federal education law that forbids discrimination based on gender at institutions that receive federal financial assistance. The law also applies to incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
‘Retreat rights’ for administrators
Already, CSU leaders are in the midst of crafting a systemwide policy relating to what are called “retreat rights” for administrators to return to a tenured faculty position after they have given up tenure to accept an administrative position. The right is frequently offered for administrators after their administrative role ends, but has been handled individually by each CSU campus.
“Retreat rights are very important and valuable to our (educational) community,” Relyea said. “That opportunity to retreat should be extended to individuals in good standing with the CSU, not to individuals who have engaged in significant misconduct.”
“The policy needs systemwide clarity, consistency and modernization, thus we are reforming it,” he added.
Lamas’ settlement with Fresno State included a provision that he would never again seek employment within the CSU system, so the retreat rights would not appear to come into play for him.
When Castro resigned as CSU chancellor, he retained such retreat rights with tenure as a full professor specifically within the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a professor of leadership and public policy. In the days following his resignation, however, Castro had not informed the university whether he intended to exercise those retreat rights.
The new systemwide retreat policy, according to information provided by the CSU system, would bar an administrator from returning to a faculty position under certain circumstances, including when the administrator is found to have engaged in sexual harassment or other significant misconduct.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 6:04 PM with the headline "CSU launches new investigation into how Fresno State handled sexual harassment complaints."
