By Connie Lee and Eliana Rodriguez, Nov. 8, 2022
A recent Cal Poly Pomona lawsuit filed by a university police sergeant, first reported on by The Poly Post, has sparked a great deal of conversation on campus. To recall, the lawsuit suggests an uprising within the University Police Department and unreported investigations which include an $1 million theft from the CPP Foundation and alleged violations of the whistleblower protection act. Faculty and students share their thoughts on the recent CPP lawsuit.
Mario Guerrero | Department Chair and Professor of Political Science
“I hope the President publicly addresses the lawsuit in some fashion. Faculty read the Cal Poly Pomona Reddit page and Discord channels. Faculty know that students are disheartened and disappointed by the allegations.”
Alexis Ramos | criminology student
“I’ve heard about this and talked about it in my criminology classes. I think it is wild and President Coley should say something about it. She’s not for us. The situation makes me so mad. CPP is all about low income and transfer students and you would think that she is on the students’ side and have graduation rates go up, but it seems like she isn’t on our side at all and leans more towards protecting her faculty.”
Pegah Tajvidi | computer science student
“Honestly, I am really disappointed and shocked. Immediately when I read the article I wanted to transfer out. This year in general has put so much stress on me. It makes me doubt my professors and question if I want to continue here, given how difficult classes can be. I have no pride going here especially with this situation and school in general.”
Daniel Diaz | music industry studies student
“It’s surprising that it was barely discovered and was not noticed before and it has gotten to the point where so much money was used. I don’t know how that was flown under the radar so easily. The tuition is ours and we pay for school, and it is not fair that he uses the money to take a trip. If I was a student paying full tuition out of pocket for my classes, I would be extremely frustrated.”
Dominic Fisher | English literary studies student
“The lawsuit seems to me that Coley is trying to cover up her mistakes without actually being responsible for them. Instead of doing the right thing she is trying to save her reputation rather than own up to the situation. This can be seen when (according to the lawsuit) she asks the charges to be dropped and then she destroys all the evidence about the grant. It is obvious that Coley’s mistakes are catching up to her and she can only get away with so much.”
Zainab Hassanin | sociology student
“I’m not surprised at all that President Coley was trying to hide the embezzlement, but I am surprised that (according to the lawsuit) she went ahead and listed every name that gave a report claiming that they were fraudulent when you’re not legally allowed to disclose that information. She kind of dug her own grave if you ask me.”
Caleb Kaiser | business management and human resources student
“To be honest when I found out about it was really shocking because typically you don’t hear about this side of the school administration. It makes me look at the school administration differently especially when you hear they are trying to cover up embezzlement. It really makes me question if anything else like this happened in the past. Is there more that is currently going on right now?”
Chris Carrillo | archaeology student
“The CPP lawsuit is something I recently heard about the other day from my classes, and I was surprised that something so controversial was going on and being kept under wraps. A lawsuit that involves a crime as serious as embezzlement is something the students should be made aware of to keep full transparency with everyone.”
Anthony Robbins | criminology student
“My opinion on the lawsuit is that it is not surprising that CPP was covering up cases. CPP is a very left-based school, which means that they will not support or back up blue (police) by any means. On the other hand, I think it’s great that the police are stepping up to do something about it because any forms of shadiness within a college campus should be unacceptable.”
Feature image by Darren Loo
