> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • The Evolution of Race in Admissions
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Leadership
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

Ex-Cal State Chancellor Who Resigned Under Fire Will Receive $450,000 Settlement

By  Katherine Mangan
March 4, 2022
Among a crowd standing in a room, a man wearing business attire, facing the camera, extends to shake the hand of a man with his back to the camera. He is smiling. To their left, another man in a business suit looks on, smiling, holding an empty plate.
Cary Edmondson, California State U. at Fresno
Joseph Castro

Joseph I. Castro, once a rising star in higher education who resigned under pressure last month as California State University’s chancellor, will receive nearly $450,000 as part of a settlement announced on Friday. Castro left the post after evidence surfaced that he had rewarded, rather than punished, a top official found responsible for sexual harassment and bullying.

Castro will earn a $401,364 salary through February 2023 during a yearlong “executive transition program,” according to the agreement, shared with

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Joseph I. Castro, once a rising star in higher education who resigned under pressure last month as California State University’s chancellor, will receive nearly $450,000 as part of a settlement announced on Friday. Castro left the post after evidence surfaced that he had rewarded, rather than punished, a top official found responsible for sexual harassment and bullying.

Castro will earn a $401,364 salary through February 2023 during a yearlong “executive transition program,” according to the agreement, shared with The Chronicle. During that time, he’ll be an adviser to the university system’s Board of Trustees. The salary was calculated as the midpoint between his final salary as chancellor and the highest pay for a tenured professor.

After February 2023 he will have the option, negotiated when he was named chancellor, in September 2020, to join the faculty at a system campus, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, as a tenured professor of leadership and public policy. He will also receive a $7,917 monthly housing allowance for the next six months, totaling $47,502.

Large payouts to college leaders who resign under a cloud aren’t uncommon. In 2016, Baylor University handed a $4.5-million severance package to Kenneth W. Starr. In 2019 the University of Central Florida negotiated a $600,000 severance package with its former president, Dale Whittaker.

ADVERTISEMENT

In both cases the universities had to buy the former leaders out of tenured contracts. Castro has not yet indicated whether he plans to exercise his so-called faculty-retreat rights at Cal State. If he does, he’s likely to encounter some resistance. In an editorial last month, The Fresno Bee wrote that allowing Castro to return to a tenured-faculty position would be “an outrage.”

“If the California State University is to regain any credibility,” it wrote, “Joseph Castro cannot teach at Cal Poly.”

The California Faculty Association called the settlement “outrageous and irresponsible.”

“It sends a message that the CSU Board of Trustees endorses rewarding bad behavior when it comes to our administrators,” the group said in a prepared statement. “Trustees are more interested in business as usual and damage control than they are in addressing severe and systemic harassment and abuse across the CSU.”

The text of the agreement between Castro and Cal State

As part of the settlement, Castro agreed not to sue the university and to cooperate with any investigations related to his role as chancellor of the 23-campus CSU system or as president of its Fresno campus. The Board of Trustees has commissioned an independent investigation into how the Cal State system, as well as Castro specifically, handled complaints of sexual harassment. It was during Castro’s presidency in Fresno that the controversy erupted that would lead to his resignation. It involved his response to years of complaints against Frank Lamas, a vice president for student affairs whom Castro had personally recruited in 2014. A Title IX complaint filed in 2019 resulted in a finding that Lamas had sexually harassed an employee.

ADVERTISEMENT

Instead of firing him, Castro signed an agreement with Lamas that included a $260,000 payout, retirement benefits, a clean record, and a promise of a glowing recommendation. Castro said that settlement, under which Lamas agreed to never again work for CSU, was the only way he could ensure that Lamas would leave because he, too, had faculty-retreat rights. Castro further contended there was nothing he could do until a formal complaint had been filed — a contention that Title IX experts disputed.

Lamas has maintained that he did nothing wrong and that university investigators had failed to consider years of positive performance reviews and testimony from his supporters.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Leadership & Governance
Katherine Mangan
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, student success, and job training, as well as free speech and other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin