Removal
of finance chairman sparks intense controversy
Lowell
Runyon
Luis Calingo
By
Jeff Overley
On-line Forty-Niner
Removal:
The dean’s decision and job performance
attract both criticism and support. Sources
report low morale in the College of Business.
Professor
Lowell Runyon was fired from his position
as finance department chairman Monday, prompting
him to level an angry denunciation at College
of Business Administration Dean Luis Calingo,
whom he accused of engaging in personal
retaliation by removing him from his post.
Over
the past four months, Runyon had voiced
concerns directly to Calingo and to Provost
Gary Reichard about the dean’s job
performance, claiming the dean was often
absent from the campus in general and important
events in particular.
Last
week, Calingo called in sick for a ceremony
honoring recipients of president’s
scholar awards. The week prior Calingo did
not attend the induction of students into
Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for business
students. These are only the most recent
highlights of a record as dean speckled
with truancy, Runyon said.
“I
find it surprising that he can’t be
here for student events,” Runyon said.
“That’s what we’re all
about. He apparently doesn’t think
the students are important enough for him
to be here.”
Runyon
-- who was chairman for the past 13 years
of his 36-year career at CSULB -- now claims
that the alarm he repeatedly sounded to
Reichard led to his termination. Both he
and Calingo agree that at Monday’s
meeting Calingo said that he had “lost
confidence” in Runyon’s ability
to continue as chairman of the department.
Calingo declined to elaborate further on
the reasons for Runyon’s dismissal,
citing the confidentiality of personnel
decisions.
He
gave a measured response to Runyon’s
charges of frequent absenteeism by describing
the cause of his less than usual attendance
on campus.
“I
was undergoing chemotherapy during the last
twelve months,” Calingo said. “Because
of the adverse effects, I had to have a
shortened workweek, which meant that I would
be on campus only four days a week.”
Calingo
said that his chemotherapy ended last month
and that it would be one or two months before
he recovered completely.
Associate
college Dean Mo Khan commented on the effect
the sick leave had on Calingo’s job
performance. “People need to remember
that although he may not be physically here,
he is in constant contact with the school
and he is conducting official business,”
Khan said. “One should not get the
impression that because he is not always
here that he is not working.”
Calingo
affirmed that he is now off sick leave and
is on campus five days a week.
But
Runyon’s censure did not end with
Calingo’s complete return to campus.
He said, and sources wishing to remain anonymous
confirmed, that the dean lives in Fresno,
some 250 miles away from the CSULB campus.
Runyon and the sources asserted that his
distant residence leaves him disengaged
from the local business community and suggested
that cost of living was Calingo’s
excuse for living in Fresno.
One
anonymous source in the college said that
the dean, now in his fourth year at CSULB,
had been expected to eventually move to
Long Beach after being hired in 2000.
“After
the second year, when Dean Calingo still
hadn’t moved his family down here,
the staff was wondering why,” the
source said. “[He said] he had no
plans to move because he couldn’t
afford it, which came as a shock to all
of us. I mean, he makes $130,000 a year.”
“There
are a lot of activities -- dinner meetings,
school and student functions,” the
source continued, “that he misses
because he doesn’t live in the area.”
Runyon
concurred, saying, “I find it just
appalling that he finds it too expensive
to buy a house around Long Beach, but our
newly hired professors do so. He makes twice
[as much money as] our newly hired tenure
track faculty make.”
Runyon
extended his reproach to Provost Gary Reichard,
with whom he had continuously raised concerns
about Calingo during the past four months.
“Reichard
seems to be ignoring the whole issue. He
apparently thinks it’s OK to have
a dean drive 250 miles to campus,”
Runyon said. “Being dean requires
being here.
“Community
business leaders think Mike Walter, the
previous dean, is still the dean because
[Calingo] is nowhere to be found,”
Runyon said.
Calingo
declined to comment on whether he lives
in Fresno, but disputed the claim that he
is out of touch with the business community.
“All my community organization memberships
are here in southern California,”
he said.
Reichard,
speaking over the phone, also responded
to Runyon’s claims. “I never
ignore concerns,” he said. “Dr.
Runyon and I have discussed the issue. He
just doesn’t agree with my conclusions.
“It’s
my judgment that [Calingo has] been running
the college very responsibly,” he
said. “My position is that while I
can expect a full-time dean to give full
attention to the college, I don’t
have a right to tell anyone where to live.”
Another
source lamented Runyon’s dismissal
as department chairman. “I’m
very disappointed,” the source said.
“I think [Runyon] is one of the most
genuine and respected faculty members among
the students. He has gone out of his way
to fill in for the dean at events that the
dean did not make it to.”
Both
sources also explained why they were uncomfortable
with being mentioned by name.
“I
think everyone’s kind of afraid around
here that they could be next,” one
source said. “There are some big players
in the department that you don’t want
to cross.”
Another
commented that “staff members feel
extremely vulnerable. The staff morale is
at an all-time low.”
Robert
Chi, the chairman of the college’s
information systems department, was selected
to act as the interim chairman of the finance
department following Runyon’s removal,
and will continue in the position through
the end of the summer semester, Calingo
said. Runyon will continue working as a
professor at the university.
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