Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales, who is stepping down at the end of this school year, could soon land in a new position within the Cal State system — with the university continuing to pay his salary and benefits — even as he remains a central figure in a $12 million discrimination settlement.
The Cal State Board of Trustees is set to review Morales’ transition plan and vote on granting him president emeritus status at its meeting Wednesday. University spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said details of his proposed new role and compensation will be announced at that meeting. Morales earned $655,626 in total pay and benefits in 2024, according to TransparentCalifornia records.
The trustees’ decision comes just months after Cal State paid $12 million to resolve a lawsuit brought by two former high-ranking employees at the San Bernardino campus, who accused Morales and former Palm Desert campus dean Jake Zhu of gender-based harassment and discrimination. The university system has denied any wrongdoing. Zhu already holds emeritus faculty status, granted as a customary honor for years of service, and Morales remains listed as in good standing with the university — a status now under scrutiny.
Because he leaves in good standing, Morales qualifies for what’s known as an executive transition package, which includes faculty retreat rights allowing him to return to a teaching role within the system. On Wednesday, a board committee will hear a presentation on his transition plan, and the full board will later weigh Chancellor Mildred Garcia’s recommendation to name him president emeritus.
**A workplace described as toxic**
The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by former Deputy Provost Clare Weber and former Associate Dean Anissa Rogers, described the culture under Morales and Zhu as a “cesspool of gender harassment and discrimination.” Both women said they were pushed out of their jobs shortly after raising concerns about unequal treatment and pay disparities based on gender.
Weber, who served as vice provost of academic affairs starting in 2017, refused to resign when pressured and was ultimately fired. Rogers, who worked as associate dean at the Palm Desert satellite campus starting in 2019, said she resigned out of fear that being fired would damage her career.
“The lawsuit shows systemic, sexist bullying,” Weber said. “It was primarily from President Morales.”
Cal State officials say the matter was thoroughly investigated and resolved through the settlement. But Weber and Rogers have since submitted written comments urging trustees to take a harder look at Morales’ good standing before signing off on his transition benefits.
**Years of complaints predate the lawsuit**
Concerns about Morales’ leadership style stretch back nearly a decade. A 2016 survey found more than 60% of Cal State San Bernardino employees believed the campus climate had deteriorated during his tenure. The following year, the faculty senate passed a formal vote of no confidence, citing what it described as a culture of fear, favoritism and retaliation.
Even before arriving in San Bernardino, Morales faced similar criticism. While he was president of the College of Staten Island in 2012, more than half of that school’s academic senators approved their own no-confidence resolution against him.
“It was a ‘his way or the highway’ vibe, particularly for women,” Weber said. “I was berated and put down and yelled at. I had other colleagues that experienced the same thing.”
Weber said the stress of working under Morales took a toll on her, at times leaving her feeling isolated and anxious.
**Pay gap complaint preceded firing**
In 2022, a study by the California State University Employees Union found that white male employees across the system earned significantly more, on average, than women and employees of color. Prompted by those findings, Weber examined her own compensation and determined she was the lowest-paid female vice provost systemwide — and that, with one exception, every female vice provost earned less than her male counterparts.
Weber raised the issue with then-interim Provost Rafik Mohamed during a June 2022 meeting, where she also requested a 12% equity adjustment to her salary. She said she felt hopeful going into the meeting, having recently helped secure the university’s regional accreditation and received a top rating on her performance review.
Instead, according to the lawsuit, Mohamed told her a month later that she would need to resign, saying he could no longer work with her. Weber appealed directly to Morales, protesting what she called blatant retaliation for raising legitimate pay equity concerns. She was terminated the next day and moved into a faculty position, as her original contract allowed.
Mohamed did not respond to requests for comment. Morales’ office referred inquiries to the university’s communications office, which also did not respond.
**Allegations at the Palm Desert campus**
Rogers described a similarly hostile environment under Zhu at the Palm Desert campus. She said Zhu frequently yelled at staff — particularly women — and that his behavior was echoed by male subordinates in meetings. Women who tried to speak up, she said, were often interrupted, dismissed as overly emotional, or ignored altogether, while men were treated with deference.
The situation escalated in October 2021, when several male colleagues reportedly grilled a female interim associate dean for roughly 25 minutes during a meeting Rogers did not attend, while Zhu allegedly did nothing to intervene. When Rogers later confronted Zhu about the need to address sexism on campus, he suggested she could simply train the men to behave better — despite the fact that those employees reported directly to him, according to the lawsuit.
Around that time, then-interim Chancellor Jolene Koester was brought in to coach Zhu, and Rogers also reported his conduct to Koester directly. By November 2021, Mohamed told Rogers she should announce her resignation, citing a vague “leadership issue.” She stepped down effective January 2022.
“I call it fired,” Rogers said. “They told me, ‘Either leave or you will be fired.'”
**Verdict and testimony**
The two women’s combined lawsuit was eventually split into separate proceedings. A jury awarded Rogers $6 million in damages in October 2025, while Weber reached a separate $6 million settlement ahead of trial.
During testimony, Zhu defended his management approach, saying he treated all employees the same and that raising his voice was meant to make a point, not to discriminate. Mohamed, for his part, acknowledged under oath that he never formally reported complaints about Zhu’s conduct because he viewed them as “low-grade bias” rather than reportable harassment — despite being a mandated reporter under Cal State policy.
Mohamed announced his own retirement in an internal email on July 16. He did not respond to requests for comment on his role in either woman’s departure. Zhu also did not respond to requests for comment.
**Transition benefits face pushback**
Zhu retired in 2023 and now holds emeritus faculty status. Morales is expected to receive a similar executive transition package, allowing him to remain on the university payroll while moving into a new Cal State role. Under system policy, executives must remain in good standing throughout the transition period, and those found to have engaged in serious misconduct are ineligible for the benefit.
The San Bernardino chapter of the California Faculty Association has publicly opposed granting Morales those benefits. Thomas Corrigan, a communication professor and the chapter’s communications coordinator, said the lawsuit “raises serious questions about whether President Morales should be regarded in good standing for those benefits,” calling the case “a moral outrage with exceptional financial, reputational and human costs.”
Weber said it wasn’t until after she and Rogers filed suit in 2023 that Cal State launched a formal review of her original pay equity complaint. The resulting analysis, she said, was riddled with errors — including listing a male vice provost as earning zero salary and comparing her position to employees who ranked below her.
A subsequent 2023 state audit found that Cal State campuses inconsistently handled sexual harassment complaints, often closing cases without explanation and failing to discipline offenders. The audit issued 16 recommendations for reform, later codified into law under Assembly Bill 1790, which required compliance by July 2026. As of this month, one recommendation — a systemwide method for tracking harassment data — remains unfinished, with the Chancellor’s Office aiming to complete it by June 2027.
Weber continued teaching sociology at Cal State San Bernardino for four years under the terms of her settlement before stepping down.
“My faculty colleagues were wonderful,” she said. “But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid when I went to campus. I had numerous panic attacks. I chartered my route around campus so that I wouldn’t run into any of the administrators that harmed me.”
Rogers left her own faculty position roughly two years after her resignation.
“In the end, it killed any desire I had to ever move forward in my career,” she said. “I was hoping to be at least a dean in my career trajectory, (but) I won’t touch that. I’ve lost faith in systems.”
Original source: CalMatters
