CSU Chancellor Pushed For Cal Poly’s Semester Conversion, Then Resigned. What’s Next?
Amelia Wu wrote this article for Cal Poly SLO’s Mustang News. It is available for republication or reference. If you think their work is important, you can support it here.
Despite CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro pushing Cal Poly to switch to the semester system, and then stepping down from his position, Cal Poly will continue its plans to convert to the semesters in the academic year 2025-26.
“The campus has already made tremendous strides on this,” Provost and Academic Affairs Executive Vice President Cynthia Jackson-Elmoore said at a Feb. 22 Academic Senate Zoom meeting. “There is energy and potential to be realized, and it is important that we not lose the momentum that has already been gained, as we have done all along since the announcement this past fall.”
The Academic Senate, a faculty governing body that helps create and evaluate university policy, is now calling for a one-year extension on the semester conversion, however. The extension, which is not a “done deal,” would give faculty more time to change curricula and operational work, according to Elmoore.
The faculty board also introduced a resolution to support an investigation into Castro’s mishandling of sexual harassment allegations from a staff member.
The resolution urges the CSU Board of Trustees to initiate an external, independent investigation into Castro’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against Frank Lamas, one of Castro’s top administrators while he was president at Fresno State.
“This is timely — I think we have a moral and ethical obligation to reaffirm the process and we need this from this investigation because we need to know what exactly went wrong,” ethnic studies associate professor José Navarro, one of the senators, said in the meeting. “What were the missteps? What were the steps to avoid moving forward? And I think any delay on our part just raises ethical questions.”
Correction, March 1: This article was updated to hyphenate Cynthia Jackson-Elmoore’s name and correct the title of José Navarro.