Faculty, Resigning Dean Trade Barbs Over Business School Probationary Status

A decision last month by a national accreditation board to put the School of Business Administration at California State University, Long Beach, on academic probation has resulted in a bitter war of words between the school’s faculty and its resigning dean.

In an open letter to students, the school’s 18-member faculty council has blamed the probationary status on an “unstable administrative environment” resulting from the six-year tenure of Dean Mohamed Moustafa. After the loss of accreditation, Moustafa announced his resignation effective in September. But the letter urged him to step down immediately so that the faculty can “move forward, under new and effective leadership, toward the shared goal of real academic excellence.”

The verbal fracas is the latest in a long series of arguments between Moustafa and the faculty over the management of the business school.

In an April memo announcing his resignation, Moustafa blamed the school’s troubles on resistance to academic improvement by a segment of the faculty. He also said senior faculty members had not published enough scholarly work.

The faculty council’s recent letter disagreed, accusing Moustafa of misrepresenting the faculty’s work to the accreditation board and of discriminating against longtime faculty members by allowing newer instructors to accept reduced teaching loads in order to pursue research.

A new dean will be selected by Curtis L. McCray, who is expected to take office in August as the university’s new president.