Mike Lee officially “retired” as president of Sonoma State University in California’s wine country just one days after being put on administrative leave.
Chancellor Mildred Garcia dished out the punishment after she said Lee agreed to the demands of pro-Palestinian protesters without “appropriate approval.”
Tonight, acting Sonoma State President Nathan Evans sent out an email announcing Lee’s “retirement” saying he came out of retirement one year ago to accept his new position and “has decided to go back into retirement effective immediately.”
Evans expressed a “degree of sadness about the impact recent events have made on campus leadership” but also urged the campus community to “focus on the graduates and their supporters” and celebrate their accomplishments.
He credited “Lee’s leadership as a model for navigating change” and credited him for working with Provost Karen Moranski for shepherding “an academic master plan and reorganization that better aligns university resources with current enrollment” and for “developing community partnerships and philanthropic opportunities that connected the campus more closely to the people and workforce needs of the region. He will be missed.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council issued a statement thanking “California State University Chancellor Mildred García, who in a letter acknowledged deep concern ‘about the impact Lee’s decision might have on “many of our students and community members.”
A parent of a graduating senior who is of the Jewish faith told the Jewish Journal “When even a President of a State University can be duped with misinformation and disinformation, the whole world should be concerned about our younger generations falling for propaganda. History is repeating in real time. This small victory shows that with concerted effort, we can break the cycle of history.”
Pro-Palestinian student supporters who at first celebrated Lee agreeing to their demands said on social media “We Choose ‘Insubordination’ We know our history. We know what happened when folks ‘just followed orders,” reported KQED.
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