The chancellor of the Cal State University system announced his resignation tonight amid criticism of his handling of harassment complaints against an administrator while he was president of Fresno State University.
Joseph I. Castro, who has been chancellor of the Long Beach-based CSU system since 2020, said in a statement the decision to step down was “the most difficult of my professional life.”
“While I disagree with many aspects of recent media reports and the ensuing commentary, it has become clear to me that resigning at this time is necessary so that the CSU can maintain its focus squarely on its educational mission and the impactful work yet to be done,” Castro said.
Prior to Castro’s resignation, the Board of Trustees of the CSU system held a closed-door meeting today to discuss policies related to sexual harassment following a Feb. 4 USA Today report questioning a 2020 settlement agreement Castro helped broker with then-Fresno State Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Frank Lamas.
According to the USA Today report, as many as a dozen harassment complaints were made against Lamas over a six-year period, including allegations that he stared at women’s breasts, touched women inappropriately, made sexist remarks and would berate and retaliate against employees.
Despite the allegations, no action was taken against him until a 2019 complaint that Lamas had allegedly offered to promote a female employee in return for sexual favors, the paper reported.
That complaint prompted a university investigation that found the allegation to be credible, and it led to the 2020 settlement agreement, in which Lamas received a $260,000 payment and left the university with a glowing letter of reference from Castro, according to the report.
Castro said in an earlier statement that while he followed CSU policy and “took the steps to ensure this individual could never work on a CSU campus, I recognize that certain aspects of the process should have been handled better—this is especially true of the hurt caused by my communications to the community during that time.”
The CSU said in a statement that it will immediately launch a succession plan to replace Castro, and that Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Steve Relyea will serve as acting chancellor until an interim has been named.
The board said it also plans to launch an initiative to “strengthen institutional culture across the public four-year system of higher education,” and will initiate an institutional assessment of its civil rights training, awareness, prevention, compliance, accountability and support systems.
City News Service contributed to this report.