Universidad Estatal de California otorga un puesto de $340,000 a expresidente que dimitió tras una demanda por discriminación
Cal State quietly hands a $344,000 consulting gig to the ex-president who just cost taxpayers $12 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit.
Tomás Morales resigned as president of Cal State San Bernardino after being sued for discrimination and harassment. Within weeks the system’s chancellor handed him a one-year consulting contract paying $343,920 to advise on international education programs.
The university system simultaneously settled the underlying lawsuit for $12 million. That sequence, pay the accusers millions, then pay the accused nearly $344,000, reveals how California’s public university bureaucracy protects its own even after a scandal forces someone out.
Morales’s new role is narrowly defined: counsel on international education initiatives. Yet the compensation matches what many tenured professors earn in an entire career. The settlement, meanwhile, will be funded by California taxpayers who had no say in either the alleged misconduct or the subsequent golden parachute.
Cal State’s decision to create this bespoke consultancy only after Morales’s resignation suggests the system prioritized insulating a former leader over transparent accountability. No public explanation has been offered for why a departing president under legal fire needs a high-paid advisory post at all.
The episode underscores a deeper pattern in California higher education: when lawsuits hit, institutions reach for their checkbooks and then recycle the very officials who triggered the claims. Students and faculty watching from San Bernardino now see exactly how much the system values continuity over consequences.
What remains is a $12 million bill and a $344,000 consulting check both drawn on the same public ledger. Whether anyone inside the chancellor’s office is counting the cost is unclear.
Original reporting: CalMatters.
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