Fresno State and its former president mishandled a spate of sexual harassment complaints in direction of a senior administrator, in conserving with an outdoors legal guidelines agency’s examination of the matter that was launched Thursday by California State college officers.
The agency’s report found then-Fresno State president Joseph Castro did not take extra rigorous movement to deal with repeated experiences of misconduct by vp of pupil Affairs Frank Lamas over a six-yr interval. Castro’s “blind spot” for Lamas, the report found, negatively impacted his response to the conduct and the morale of college students and staff on the faculty.
“The President’s failure to extra aggressively reply to experiences of Lamas’ alleged misconduct additionally allowed such conduct to proceed as a end result of there have been no critical repercussions for it,” the report said. “In abstract, extra ought to have been accomplished.”
Castro left Fresno State in late 2020 to become the chancellor of the CSU system, a coalition of 23 state universities that options Fresno State. however he resigned simply one yr into his new job after a USA at the second investigation detailed his mishandling of pretty a pair of complaints about Lamas. The Thursday report, by lawyer Mary Lee Wegner, confirmed a lot of USA at the second’s reporting.
USA at the second’s investigation found that Castro personally obtained at the least seven complaints about Lamas, collectively with that he stared at women’s breasts, touched women inappropriately, made sexist remarks, and berated, belittled, and retaliated in direction of staff. however Castro by no means formally disciplined Lamas, as a substitute praising him in annual efficiency evaluations and endorsing him for a prestigious lifetime achievement award, which Lamas obtained.
although a 2020 inner investigation found Lamas accountable for sexually harassing a subordinate and fascinating in abusive office conduct, the settlement Castro permitted enabled Lamas to go away the college with $260,000 and a clear report in commerce for his retirement. It banned Lamas from engaged on the CSU as quickly as extra however promised him a letter of advice from Castro to assist him discover work elsewhere.
Castro resigned two weeks after USA at the second’s investigation, amid an outcry amongst college students, faculty, workers, lawmakers and labor unions. The CSU Board of Trustees voted to hire Wegner to evaluation Castro’s dealing with of the allegations.
The board individually employed legal guidelines agency Cozen O’Connor to conduct a “full systemwide evaluation” of Title IX practices throughout the CSU system, and state lawmakers permitted a legislative audit of Title IX and human sources practices at a quantity of CSU campuses, collectively with Fresno. these assessments are ongoing.
Title IX, which turns 50 this yr, is the federal legal guidelines prohibiting intercourse discrimination in training.
“we now should first thank the Fresno State group members who acquired here forward to share their experiences courageously and transparently,” interim CSU chancellor Jolene Koester said in an announcement Thursday. “The report concluded that whereas the campus took movement to discover and deal with every of the experiences made, some responses considerably complied with relevant coverage whereas others did not.”
In an emailed assertion to USA at the second Thursday, Castro said he disagreed “with a quantity of facets of the investigators’ findings as they do not align with the documentation I supplied to” Wegner. He did not specify the findings with which he disagreed.
“i’ve realized many classes from my dealing with of the Title IX matter involving Dr. Frank Lamas at Fresno State,” Castro said in his assertion. “These classes will be sure that i am an rather extra sensible chief inside the prime, collectively with inside the world of victims rights. i will share these classes publicly to assist greater training leaders and governing board members throughout the nation who face associated personnel issues.”
Lamas did not immediately reply to an emailed request for remark. He beforehand denied the allegations in direction of him.
Wegner interviewed 30 current and former Fresno State staff for the evaluation, collectively with a quantity of interviews with Castro and his lawyer over 14 hours. Castro justified his selections about Lamas, the report said, by saying he’d adopted advice he obtained from completely different people and that nobody complained about his responses. Wegner famous Castro’s explanations “weren’t on a daily basis credible.”
Castro “obtained or was contemporaneously aware of all experiences” in direction of Lamas, besides presumably one, the report said, nonetheless the faculty performed no formal investigation till 2020. although he said he endorsed Lamas each time, he by no means documented any steps he took to mitigate Lamas’ conduct, the report found, and continued writing Lamas constructive efficiency evaluations. Any steps he took, the report found, “weren’t efficient.”
regardless of figuring out of pretty a pair of documented complaints of Lamas’ sexually harassing conduct, Castro helpful him for presidencies at completely different universities at the least eight instances from 2016 by means of 2019, the report found, collectively with two CSU campuses. USA at the second’s earlier reporting found Castro helpful Lamas in 2018 for the presidency at CSU San Marcos.
These recommendations started “immediately” after Lamas underwent a sensitivity teaching as a outcomes of the complaints about his conduct, the report found – a teaching Castro sat in on as a current of assist for Lamas. inside the case of San Marcos and the selection CSU campuses, the report said, Castro “did not inform the chancellor or completely different involved with the search about Lamas’ historic previous.”
furthermore, after a 2020 investigation found Lamas accountable for sexual harassment and “abusive office conduct,” Castro requested Fresno State’s provost and vp of instructional affairs to imagine about letting Lamas practice a clause in his contract usually recognized as “retreat rights” which might have enabled him to take a faculty place inside the faculty of training. Castro did not share any particulars with reference to the investigations into Lamas or any specifics of the findings in direction of him, the report said.
Understaffing and poor report conserving by staff in key roles, resembling the Title IX office, contributed to the faculty’s ineffective response, the report found. A USA at the second investigation in March found Castro severely understaffed the Title IX office for years regardless of repeated complaints from college students and workers, leaving it unable to effectively reply to college students who needed assist.
Fresno State will hire a second survivor advocate and an interim deputy Title IX coordinator, President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said in an announcement Thursday. the faculty might be inside the tactic of hiring a full-time discrimination, harassment and retaliation coordinator.
“Our Fresno State group has expert an important deal of ache, and we now have deeply felt the affect of these occasions,” Jiménez-Sandoval’s assertion said. “I even should acknowledge and thank our Bulldog members of the household who shared their experiences and ideas truthfully all by means of this investigation. i do know this course of was not simple, and that i acknowledge that we nonetheless have a lot therapeutic to do.”
In response to questions from USA at the second in February, Castro said he regretted writing Lamas a constructive letter of advice, praising Lamas publicly, not taking formal disciplinary movement in direction of Lamas and by no means mentioning any of his factors in Lamas’ efficiency evaluations. The settlement, he said, was thought of one of the solely methods to hold away from a probably costly lawsuit from Lamas and cease him from retreating to the faculty even when Castro fired him.
Wegner’s report agreed the settlement was mandatory, however it absolutely criticized Castro for not using extra impartial language inside the letter of advice.
Like Lamas, the board additionally gave Castro a profitable separation settlement in March on his means out as chancellor. The board made him an “advisor to the board” for one yr as a part of its “authorities transition program” – a place that pulls a $401,000 wage.
adjust to Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby
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