The California State Auditor released a report today stating that the California State University system is inconsistent in hiring practices and has spent millions of dollars in providing legal counsel and settlements for employment discrimination lawsuits between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2007.

Requested by Assemblymember Lori Saldana and initiated by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, the report studied the following five CSU campuses because of their size and location throughout the state: Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State University, Sacramento State, San Diego State and San Francisco State.

The report found that all of the universities have similar processes for hiring, but not all regard gender and ethnicity as important in the selection process.

According to the report, “departments on some campuses consider the gender and ethnic composition of search committees, while other campuses forbid it,” which leads to women and minorities being underrepresented on search committees for professors. It also stated that the University of California has guidelines that ensure women and minorities have equal opportunity to be part of search committees.

Paul Browning, spokesperson for the chancellor’s office, said the CSU system is constantly striving to ensure a diverse workforce while complying with the provisions of Proposition 209, which states that public institutions cannot discriminate based upon race.

“We’re a really diverse university,” he said.

Throughout the past five fiscal years studied by the audit, it was found that the CSU was subject to 92 employment discrimination lawsuits. As of June 30, 28 were still in process and 40 lawsuits resulted in settlements costing $2.3 million, the report stated. An additional $5.3 million was spent providing outside counsel for the university’s defense. Of the 92 lawsuits, 68 percent of them were found to have been due to alleged race and gender discrimination.

The Auditor recommended that the university should “issue systemwide guidance on the hiring process for management personnel” as well as “establish more complete policies to guide the recruitment process for system executives to ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and consistent among searches.”

Chief of Public Affairs for the California State Auditor Margarita Fernandez said the CSU has to follow up after 60 days, six months and one year and inform the Bureau of State Audits on what kind of changes are being made.

“There is also legislation…that requires us to report to the legislature if agencies have not implemented our recommendations after one year,” she said.

Browning said the Board of Trustees will hold an impromptu meeting in the next week to discuss the findings and recommendations of the audit, along with an audit release in November which found the CSU system in need of more oversight in its compensation policies for executives.

“We agree in concept with the Auditor’s recommendations,” Browning said. “We’ll act on them as soon as reasonable.”

Natalye Childress Smith can be reached at [email protected].