The Brief

The words on the no-confidence resolution approved by Cal Poly Pomona faculty on Dec. 6 were a banner public declaration that something is wrong with the running of the 26,000-student campus.

The resolution said the faculty:

The provost, Jennifer Brown, was the university’s top academic officer. Faculty who talked to LAist said they liked what she had been doing to improve student success toward degrees and the hiring of deans who oversaw academic matters at the university’s various schools.

“The structure of decision-making, of policy at any university should be done with everybody in mind: faculty, staff, students, administrators,” said political science department chair Mario Guerrero, who wrote the first draft of the resolution.

Guerrero doesn’t deny that Coley had a right to make that call. But the bold move by Cal Poly Pomona’s Academic Senate to challenge the president’s decision underlines tensions at this and other campuses across the country between two of the most powerful decision-making constituencies at colleges and universities.

A tug of war over the direction of college campuses

There are three main constituent groups that run college and university campuses: the university president, a board of trustees, and faculty, who are organized into academic senates and, on many campuses, into labor unions.

Generally, trustees set policy directions and hire presidents, presidents hire top administrators, and faculty go about the work of instruction as guided by those administrators’ policies.

“The resolution is a real clear signal to administration that collaborative work has broken down,” Guerrero said. He added that he and other professors would have wanted Coley to have consulted with the faculty’s academic senate on the provost’s removal.

By one count conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 college faculty groups around the country had issued no-confidence statements against their administrators by September of this year.

“Throughout my presidency at Cal Poly Pomona, I have supported and engaged in shared governance and that commitment remains strong,” Coley said in a statement to LAist.

Guerrero’s expectation isn’t new or unique to his campus. Shared governance goes back over 100 years and was affirmed by faculty and university boards in a 1966 document underlining that the three groups should share in the running of various parts of the university.

Guerrero would have wanted the president to engage in a robust debate about the effects of removing the provost. The way Coley did so, faculty said, contributed to confusion and instability.

Unwelcome surprises

Faculty at nearby California State University, Fullerton had similar complaints this past February when they received an email from then-President Fram Virjee that a search was underway for an interim provost.

“My initial response was surprise. Why? I would like to know what's going on,” said Aitana Guia, a history professor at California State University, Fullerton and co-president of Researchers and Critical Educators.

The email didn’t name Provost Carolyn Thomas so it was unclear, Guia said, whether Thomas had been fired. Thomas had been a role model, Guia said, as a woman who was a renowned scholar in the field of American studies and who was carrying out changes to improve learning, such as better student advising, a proposal Guia said has been abandoned by the new provost.

In response to a request to comment on Thomas’ removal, Cal State Fullerton spokesperson Cerise Metzger said that the “provost position is a member of the management personnel plan (MPP). MPP employees serve at the pleasure of the president, and the non-retention of an MPP is not subject to shared governance.”

She added that Virjee addressed the Academic Senate on March 2 to talk about the appointment of an interim provost. Metzger said she did not have enough information about Thomas’ advising program to comment on it.

Unlike the Pomona campus, Fullerton’s Academic Senate did not issue a no-confidence vote against Virjee. He retired in July.

The details behind the two provosts’ removals are hidden from public view in personnel files, which are not disclosed.

The 'corporatization' of the university

Observers say these kinds of conflicts between faculty and administration over the direction of a college or university are becoming more common.

“Because of the corporatization of campuses, they've been moving to have much more top-down decision making,” said Adrianna Kezar, director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at USC.

For example, Kezar said, many universities have been hiring more part-time faculty as a cost-cutting move. That’s a policy direction many organized faculty groups have asked top administrators to stop.

Full-time faculty, she added, have more time to mentor and guide students than do part-time instructors.

“The money for faculty and for instruction has gone down dramatically over the last 30 or 40 years,” Kezar said. “The money for administration, the money for marketing, branding and all these kinds of corporate things has gone way up on campuses."

How do shared governance conflicts affect students?

Low graduation rates have pushed universities such as the CSU system to pressure students to reach graduation day and improve the supports for them to achieve that goal. Increased transfers from community colleges also mean that students on many campuses spend less than four years on campus, often not enough time to learn about and get involved in the workings of their university.

“It's hard with students … they're here with us for a couple years and it's a very transient population,” Guerrero said.

There’s one solution to that: Add students to the shared governance formula. It adds work to the running of the campus but experts say it’s good for students.

“For students, yes, the more voices that are at the table including their own, the better the policies are,” researcher Kezar said. “We've got a lot of evidence to that effect … shared governance is very beneficial for students.”

Raul Malo, the leader of the country band The Mavericks and one of the most recognizable voices in roots music, died Monday night, according to a representative of the band. The guitarist and singer had been battling cancer.

He was hospitalized last week, forcing him to miss tribute shows staged in his honor at the Ryman Auditorium over the weekend. He was 60 years old.

"No one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music and adventure the way our beloved Raul did," read a statement released by his family.

Malo's group, The Mavericks, mourned the loss of their leader in a social post.

"Anyone with the pleasure of being in Raul's orbit knew that he was a force of human nature, with an infectious energy," the statement read. "Over a career of more than three decades entertaining millions around the globe, his towering creative contributions and unrivaled, generational talent created the kind of multicultural American music reaching far beyond America itself."

Over a career that lasted four decades, The Mavericks lived up to the band's name, challenging expectations and following a roadmap crafted by Malo's expansive musical upbringing as the son of Cuban immigrants in Miami.

"I grew up in a very musical household. There was all kinds of music around always," he told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1995. "We listened to everything from Hank Williams to Celia Cruz to Sam Cooke to Bobby Darin. It didn't matter."

In 1992, Malo told NPR that his widespread influences weren't always understood or appreciated in his South Florida hometown, but he said that his struggle to fit in taught him to trust his instincts. Malo had become the guitarist and lead singer for The Mavericks in 1989, alongside co-founders Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin, and his roaring, sentimental voice defined the band's sound and remained its constant as the group's catalog moved from slow, tender ballads to full-throttle rock songs. In 1995, the band released its biggest hit with "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down," a swinging country song featuring an assist from Tex-Mex accordion legend Flaco Jimenez.

As the band grew in members and devoted listeners, The Mavericks continued to push the boundaries of American music, weaving a richly layered tapestry of textures and stories. With more than a dozen studio albums, The Mavericks collected praise and recognition from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association and the Recording Academy. Although they took a hiatus for several years, Malo never stopped making music — and returned to his bandmates with renewed inspiration.

Following its 30th anniversary, the group released its first full-length Spanish album in 2020, aptly titled En Español. The record reimagined Latin standards and folklore-tinged popular tunes; it also made an implicit political statement about Latin music's contributions to American culture.

"In our own little way, if we could get somebody that perhaps is on the fence on issues and hears us singing in Spanish and perhaps reminds them of the beautiful cultures that make up what this country is trying to be and what it should be, so be it," Malo told NPR at the time. "Yeah, I'm OK with that."

The following year, the Americana Music Association recognized The Mavericks with the Trailblazer Award. In 2024, the band released its last studio album, Moon & Stars. The release coincided with news of Malo's cancer diagnosis, which he discussed openly with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe.

Before being hospitalized last week, Malo had been scheduled to perform with The Mavericks at a pair of tribute concerts held this past weekend at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Over 30 artists, including Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale and Steve Earle, still gathered to pay tribute to Malo, with some of the proceeds of the night going to the cancer prevention organization Stand Up To Cancer.

According to his spokesperson, though Malo was too ill to attend, the concert was streamed to his hospital room Friday night.

Copyright 2025 NPR

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job.

In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job.

Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022.

“My requests for investigation were rejected,” Huntsman’s letter reads. “Even after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff’s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.”

He added: “Sometimes members of the public wonder if frightening new surveillance techniques will be used for improper purposes under the guise of criminal investigation. Sadly, the answer is yes.”

Before becoming inspector general in 2013, Huntsman, 60, was a deputy district attorney who specialized in public corruption. He told LAist on Tuesday that the inspector general job wasn’t something he wanted initially.

“I didn’t want to go work for politicians,” he said. “But the need to provide some kind of independent reporting and analysis was significant.”

The Sheriff’s Department issued a statement saying it valued the Office of the Inspector General and all county oversight bodies and that it wished Huntsman and his family well in his retirement.

The department said it “continues to make great strides in advancing the department in a transparent manner.”

LAist also reached out to the county CEO and county counsel for comment, but they declined.

After George Floyd

In the letter, Huntsman says the state of California has come a long way in strengthening the power of local law enforcement oversight bodies, in part because of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

After widespread protests — and lobbying by Huntsman — the state provided authority to inspectors general to enforce subpoenas requiring law enforcement agencies to hand over documents and authorized external investigation of police misconduct, including deputy gang conduct.

The Sheriff’s Department — backed by county lawyers — has resisted.

“Los Angeles County may not follow those laws, but it will not be able to avoid them forever,” Huntsman wrote. “The county refuses to require the photographing of suspected gang tattoos in secretive groups that the undersheriff has identified as violating state law.”

“Just a few weeks ago, we requested some information regarding an investigation, and a pair of commanders refused to give it to us,” Huntsman said in an interview with LAist.

Origin of the office 

The Inspector General’s Office was created by the county Board of Supervisors in 2013 in response to a scandal that included former Sheriff Lee Baca covering up the abuses of jail inmates.

Baca went to federal prison.

Since then, the office has issued dozens of reports with recommendations for improving living conditions inside jails that some have described as “filthy,” stopping abuses of juveniles inside juvenile halls and providing shower privacy for inmates as part of the requirements under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“All of these abuses were reported by the Office of Inspector General and recommendations were ignored,” Huntsman wrote. Often, it took court orders to enact change.

“When we first blew the whistle on the torturous chaining of mentally ill prisoners to benches for 36 hours at a time, it was only a court order that ended the practice,” he wrote. “Time and time again, this pattern repeated itself.”

Huntsman wrote the county has permitted the Sheriff’s Department to block oversight and defunded the Office of Inspector General by removing a third of its staff.

“It's not surprising the county has driven out two successive chairs of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission,” he wrote.

“Government always claims to value transparency and accountability, but shooting the messenger is still the most common response to criticism,” Huntsman wrote.

Despite setbacks, Huntsman values work 

Huntsman told LAist on Tuesday that he was proud of his career as a public servant.

“I’ve really enjoyed the work and I’m sad to have it end,” he said.

It’s a sentiment he echoed in his letter, adding that despite the setbacks and roadblocks, he was proud of the people with whom he shared the office.

“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.

He noted the inspector general’s reports are fact-checked by the office and public.

“When government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,” Huntsman wrote. “What you do about it is up to you.,”

Huntsman’s last day is Friday.

Topline:

The backstory: Last month, the council's Transportation Committee voted to bring a proposal forward to implement a policy change that allows the city to impound and immediately destroy abandoned or inoperable RVs worth less than $4,000. The change is inspired by new state law AB 630, which was created to prevent previously impounded RVs from ending back up on the street.

The motion, authored by Councilmember Traci Park, reports that abandoned RVs pose as public and safety hazards.

What's next: Councilmember Nithya Raman requested that an implementation plan be presented to the council's public safety and housing and homelessness committees.

Go deeper: L.A. pushes policy to make it easier to remove RVs from city streets.