By Christopher Pimentel, May 12, 2026
The Academic Senate passed a resolution during its meeting May 6, reaffirming its strong support for a fully staffed, independent university Ombuds office and calling for the initiation of an expedited search to fill the Ombuds position.
According to Senate Chair Peter Hanink, the vote demonstrates how the Academic Senate is unified in its belief the university must invest in resources such as Ombuds, which helps solve conflicts. He emphasized how important it is for the university to tackle these problems before they snowball into bigger situations, like Title IX complaints or lawsuits.
After a meeting with the Office of the President Feb. 13, former Ombudsman Mark Patterson was removed from his position without a given reason. Although a flyer was quietly posted on the office’s door as early as March 2, the Poly Post was the first to break the news campus wide on March 23. The university remained quiet until a notice regarding Ombuds closure was sent via email by the Office of the President on April 14.
“There is nothing on campus that resembles that resource,” said College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences senator Mario Guerrero. “In the wake of this most recent removal of Ombuds, there was an email sent out for other resources, but even for students there is nothing that speaks to conflict resolution specifically.”
Guerrero highlighted that while students are aware of systemic failures informally, such as the recurring issues with the library’s escalator, the problems expose the symbolic standard of how the university is operated. The resolution to Guerrero means more than just reviving the Ombuds, it sets a clear path and standard for a new age of resolving issues on campus.
The resolution document also states the Academic Senate will be consulted in the development of any future policies, structural changes or decisions affecting the Ombuds office in support of keeping the principles of a shared governance structure.
According to a senator, who would like to remain anonymous due to concerns regarding media portrayal and misinterpretation, the Academic Senate was adamant about voting for approval not only for the support of the Ombuds office but also for cooperative communication and discussion. The Academic Senate has been disregarded regularly for many other decisions of this caliber, according to the senator.
“We have voted on things that have been under serious consideration, like removing the fine arts program that happened a while ago,” the senator said. “Everybody voted to keep it, and it went up to President Ortiz and he just said, ‘Nope, guess what it’s gone.’ The consensus of the vote was: ‘We support this. This is fine, but next time we really want you to consult us and to take our point of view into consideration.’”
According to the California Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, the Academic Senate and university administrators are supposed to work as a shared governance in decision making. However, Senator of the College of Business Administration Pamela Adams said the university administration has been “rubber stamping” ideas without consultation.
Adams highlighted the importance of having the administration hear from the Academic Senate, as everyone needs to talk it through to understand why a decision is being made and put it in the point of view of faculty, staff and students.
The meeting also congratulated recipients of the Emeritus Awards, which were awarded to retiring faculty who had 10 years of service and were recommended by their department, along with staff who had the same amount of service and demonstrated exceptional professional service to the campus, according to the faculty and staff Emeritus web page.
There were also certain cases for those who had less service time, such as Assistant Professor Brian Newman, who died in January. From his impact of being a part of the Safer Return task force on getting students back on campus during COVID-19 to his immediate impact on the campus and his knowledge of knowing how to help, Hanink said Newman’s recognition as an emeritus professor was essential.
“When we have professors who pass away, we in part thank them for the work they didn’t get the chance to do and recognize the loss,” Hanink said. “But in Brian’s case, we thanked him for the work he did while he was here, even though it was only six years.”
The meeting also recognized senators retiring from the Academic Senate: George Proctor, Teresa Lloro, Dennis Quinn, Kang Hoon Sung, Amiyah Ellsworth and Paivi Hoikkala, who will take the role of Academic Senator to represent CPP at the Cal State University governing body. Eileen Wallis, Saba Salekfard, Michelle Soto-Pena and Rita Kumar were also recognized as new senators.
The meeting also approved a new self-support counterpart for students looking to receive a Master of Science in computer science. This will allow students who are busy working to take the courses necessary to earn the degree online. By changing the M.S. in materials engineering from a self-support program to a state-support program, students can only receive the degree if they take the courses on campus.
There is also a new master’s degree program following the state-support system for a M.S. in computer engineering. The development of the program will occur before it launches in the fall 2027 semester and will follow a 30-unit curriculum with a coherent core sequence with five elective emphases: general computer engineering, software engineering, artificial intelligence/machine learning, cybersecurity and robotics, according to the Academic Programs Committee.
The senate also approved new minors such as computational linguistics and artificial intelligence, along with a new exercise science option for Bachelor of Science in kinesiology. The discontinuation of footwear design and merchandising minor in the Apparel Merchandising and Marketing department was also approved, leaving fashion merchandising as the only AMM minor. The minor was discontinued due to a lack of enrollment, absence of course offerings and no measurable contribution to program outcomes, according to the Academic Programs Committee.
This was the final Academic Senate meeting of the 2025-26 academic year and the schedule for the next academic year will be released sometime before the summer meeting in August.
