Allegations that California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro mishandled multiple complaints of sexual harassment against an administrator he hired while president of Fresno State are so serious that they deserve a comprehensive and independent investigation. And if the details of a recent USA Today report turn out to be correct, the Cal State Board of Trustees needs to do more than consider policy changes. It must decide whether Castro, who has been chancellor since January 2021, is trustworthy enough to lead the largest four-year public university system in the United States.
According to the newspaper’s account, Castro and his administration received at least a dozen informal complaints about the behavior of his handpicked vice president of student affairs, Frank Lamas, beginning within weeks of his hiring in 2014. Those complaints included staring at women’s breasts, making frequent inappropriate sexual comments, berating and humiliating staff in public and engaging in a pattern of retaliation. Many of the complaints were later corroborated by a 2016 review by an outside consultant commissioned by the university to examine the department’s operations.
Yet it would be three more years before Fresno State investigated Lamas himself, again hiring an outside consultant, and that came only after a female member of Lamas’ staff filed a formal complaint against him alleging ongoing sexual comments and unwanted touching. She also claimed Lamas implied that she would get a sought-after job in exchange for sexual favors. That investigation supported her harassment claims and found a pattern of deeply troubling behavior.
