School Still Seeks Professor’s Ouster
The California State University system plans to ask the State Personnel Board to reconsider an order reinstating a Cal State Northridge professor fired last summer for allegedly offering students grades in exchange for selling raffle tickets.
Cal State Northridge President James W. Cleary said in a written statement that the university “will pursue whatever course of action is available to have this case reconsidered.”
The professor, Eleazu Obinna, was suspended by the state board for 90 days for unprofessional conduct, but the university was ordered to reinstate him in the Pan-African studies department.
In its June 27 decision, the board said attorneys for the Cal State system did not present enough evidence to show that Obinna offered students “A” grades in exchange for selling $100 worth of raffle tickets for the nonprofit United Crusade Foundation that Obinna headed.
Obinna admitted that he asked students to sell the tickets on campus but denied in sworn testimony earlier this year that the sales were connected to grades.
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