LOS ANGELES — California State University officials on Tuesday announced that they are launching an independent investigation into how Fresno State University administrators handled sexual harassment complaints against a former campus vice president.
Reports of harassment allegations at Fresno State have roiled the nation’s largest four-year public university system, leading to the recent resignation of Chancellor Joseph I. Castro and prompting state lawmakers and others to call for an independent probe.
Castro stepped down last month following reports that as president of Fresno State in 2020, he quietly authorized a $260,000 payout and retirement package for former Vice President of Student Affairs Frank Lamas, who was the subject of complaints of bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment that began in 2014 and continued through 2019.
