California university president retires amid protest backlash
The president of Sonoma State University is abruptly retiring after being placed on administrative leave this week for "insubordination" related to an agreement he had announced with pro-Palestinian student protesters.
President Mike Lee's retirement announcement came two days after his public reprimand.
"I will continue to work with Acting President Nathan Evans and our Board of Trustees leadership during this transitional period. Additional information will be forthcoming," California State University Chancellor Mildred García said in a release Friday.
Lee sent a campus-wide memo Tuesday noting that he had made several concessions to occupants of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. Among other promises, Lee told students he would initiate an academic boycott of Israel and work with a local chapter of the activist group Students for Justice in Palestine to form an advisory council on some decisions.
The following day, García announced that Lee had sent the memo “without the appropriate approvals" and noted he would be disciplined "because of this insubordination and the consequences it has brought upon the system."
Lee's statement garnered the sharpest response against a campus chancellor or president in California to date related to the protests.
Protests against the war in Gaza have consumed campuses across the country for weeks, spurring dozens of arrests and occasional violence. They have also led to the cancellation of graduation ceremonies and criticism of administrative response at numerous university campuses, including UCLA.
Evans, in his own statement, urged students and faculty to turn their focus to Saturday's commencement ceremony, celebrating the university's graduates.
"We will create spaces and places to process President Lee’s retirement and other recent developments as a community in the coming days and weeks," Evans wrote in a message to students. "For now, I encourage all of us to focus on our graduates and their supporters."
Lee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Blake Jones contributed to this report.
