Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb At the Wind Breaker stage event during AnimeJapan 2025, a newly released short promo video confirmed the addition of two new cast members voicing twin brothers for its upcoming second season The second season will begin airing in Japan on April 3 The new cast members consist of Soma Saito as Seiryu Sakaki and Kazuki Ura as Uryu Sakaki They join a main voice cast that is headlined by:  the returning staff from season one working on the second season include Toshifumi Akai as director Taishi Kawakami as character designer and co-chief animation director CloverWorks is once again in charge of the animation production The opening theme song for Wind Breaker season two will be performed by SixTONES Shytaupe will perform the main ending theme song “It’s myself.” The first season of Wind Breaker premiered on April 4 The delinquent action anime is based on the manga by Satoru Nii which started serialization on Kodansha’s Magazine Pocket on January 13 A total of 21 tankobon volumes have been released as of March 2025 Kodansha USA releases the manga in English Crunchyroll has confirmed that it will stream the second season in over 200 countries and territories worldwide It describes the main synopsis of season two as:  Sakura’s idea of what it means to be at the top has begun to change After making new friends and encountering new enemies in his time at Furin High School Watch as Sakura’s rise continues from high school delinquent to heroic legend Source: Wind Breaker Official Twitter The manga entered its last arc in July this year Shueisha's MANGA Plus service releases the manga in English Sakaki launched the manga in Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ manga service in May 2022 Shueisha will publish the manga's 11th compiled book volume on January 4 Source: Shonen Jump+ You are using an outdated browser. 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Neurotechnology and Systems Neuroergonomics Volume 2 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnrgo.2021.686596 Flow is a highly motivated and affectively positive state in which a person is deeply engaged in an activity and feeling enjoyment from it it would be optimal if all participants were in a state of flow flow states fluctuate amongst individuals due to differences in the dynamics of motivation and cognition To explore the possibility that inter-brain synchronization can provide a quantitative measure of the convergence and divergence of collective motivational dynamics we conducted a pilot study to investigate the relationship between inter-brain synchronization and the interpersonal similarity of flow state dynamics during the collaborative learning process In two English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes students were divided into groups of three-four and seated at desks facing each other while conducting a 60-min group work two groups with four members were randomly selected and their medial prefrontal neural activities were measured simultaneously using wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) devices Later the participants observed their own activities on recorded videos and retrospectively rated their subjective degree of flow state on a seven-point scale for each 2-min period For the pairs of students whose neural activities were measured the similarity of their flow experience dynamics was evaluated by the temporal correlation between their flow ratings Prefrontal inter-brain synchronization of the same student pairs during group work was evaluated using wavelet transform coherence even after controlling for the effects of within- vs cross-group pair types from the two variables These suggest that inter-brain synchronization can indeed provide a quantitative measure for converging and diverging collective motivational dynamics during collaborative learning with higher inter-brain synchronization corresponding to a more convergent flow experience In group learning, such as in classrooms, teachers find it optimal when the entire class functions together in the state of flow, being in synch with one another (Kent, 2013) the degree of flow fluctuates from moment to moment and varies among learners The cause of divergent flow dynamics between learners can be due to some students being distracted or perceiving the task at hand to be too difficult or too easy for their capabilities if convergence and divergence of flow experience between learners can be detected using an objective measure it may help to achieve optimal educational situations if a detection system identifies a student in a collaborative learning project who diverges from the other group members in terms of their flow state the teacher can be alerted to instigate countermeasures or changing the group composition to make the members' capability levels more compatible with one another giving feedback on shared flow dynamics to the learners themselves could facilitate behavioral changes that lead to better collaborations we hypothesized that the convergence and divergence of dynamically changing flow states between learners could also be associated with inter-brain synchronization between learners with those pairs who share flow dynamics showing higher inter-brain synchronization the division into groups enabled us to compare within-group and cross-group learning pairs This approach allowed us to test the following hypotheses: (1) flow dynamics are more convergent (i.e. temporally more correlated) between members of the same group who work together than between learners belonging to different groups; (2) inter-brain synchronization is higher between group members than between cross-group learners who share the same class but do not directly collaborate; and (3) the higher the inter-brain synchronization between a pair of learners the more similar their dynamics of experienced flow would be; thus inter-brain synchronization would provide an objective indicator of shared flow dynamics This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki All participants were briefed on the experimental procedure and provided written informed consent prior to participating in the experiments Two English as foreign language (EFL) active learning classes at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies The two classes consisted of 1st- or 2nd-grade students (27 in one class and 29 in the other) 16 students (age 19–22 years; 11 females and five males) were subjected to the fNIRS measurement and the retrospective evaluation of flow dynamics (see section fNIRS Brain Activity Measurements) In each class, students were divided into groups of four or three members and seated at desks facing each other (Figure 1A) students were asked to read and understand the script of a speech by Steve Jobs They then watched a video of the actual speech given by Steve Jobs to deepen their understanding of their reading they conducted a 60-min group study session comparing different opinions and making judgments The task switch timings between the four group activities were the same across the groups in each class but the pacing within each activity was decided by each group The group work activities were video-recorded for the later retrospective evaluation (see section Retrospective Evaluation of Subjective Flow Dynamics) (A) Snapshot of a working collaborative learning group with their mPFC activities being measured with wireless fNIRS devices Within-group pairs and cross-group pairs are indicated in red and blue lines only six out of 16 cross-group pairs are illustrated The placement of the fNIRS device followed that of a previous study (Nozawa et al., 2016). The center of the optode component was positioned at the center between FP1 and FP2 according to the international 10-20 system for EEG electrode placement, which covers the rostral limit of the superior frontal gyrus (Homan et al., 1987) The light source was placed on the subject's left-hand side a light detector with a 3 cm distance from the source was on the right-hand side and a light detector with a 1 cm distance from the source was placed between them Any makeup on the measurement position was removed and hair brushed away to ensure good optode-skin contact The optode component was covered with black rubber to shield it from external light The students were instructed to adopt and maintain a relaxed posture in the seat and to avoid rapid head movements as much as possible The 16 students who were subjected to the fNIRS recording conducted a retrospective evaluation of their subjective flow dynamics. They were first explained about the concept of flow, based on the description by Csikszentmihalyi (1997) with flow described as “a state in which you are so involved in the activity at hand that nothing else seems to matter The experience itself is so enjoyable that you will continue the activity for the sheer sake of doing it you simultaneously experience concentration It is also referred to as “being in the zone.”” Then watching the video recording of themselves performing the group work they retrospectively rated their flow level for every 2-min segment on a seven-level scale from 1 (“very low”) through 4 (“neutral”) to 7 (“very high”) This resulted in a series of 30 time points of flow level for the 60-min group work We calculated the similarity of flow dynamics and prefrontal inter-brain synchronization for all possible pairs of eight students in each class (Figure 1B) we had 24 pairs (6 pairs/group × 2 groups/class × 2 classes) of students in the same group (“within-group pairs”) and 32 pairs (4 × 4 pairs/class × 2 classes) of students who belonged to different groups (“cross-group pairs”) all possible random permutations re-assigning the eight students into two groups within each class were generated and combined for the two classes the difference of mean similarity values between the within-group and cross-group pairs for each instance of permutation was gathered to generate the null distribution the p-value of the observed difference of means was calculated as the proportion of permutation-based differences at least as extreme as the observed difference value the correlation values were also used to test the relationship between shared flow dynamics and prefrontal inter-brain synchronization (see below) from the 3 cm source-detector signal that contains both the non-neuronal shallow and brain-originated deep components thus extracting the brain-originated component and the test results were regarded as significant with q < 0.05 To test hypothesis (3) that higher prefrontal inter-brain synchronization is positively associated with more similar flow dynamics we identified the period range in which inter-brain synchronization was significantly higher for within-group than for cross-group pairs (thus sensitive to the collaborative interaction) as the period of interest The inter-brain synchronization values in the period of interest were averaged for each pair of students and correlated with the similarity values of flow dynamics A non-parametric permutation method was used to evaluate the significance (p-value) of the correlation We generated 10,000 random permutations shuffling the students in each class Each permutation of subjects produces a possible permutation of pairs We tested the significance of the observed correlation against the null distribution of correlation values between the original inter-brain synchronization values and the flow dynamics similarities with the permutated pair labels we also tested the correlation between inter-brain synchronization and flow dynamics after controlling for the effects of within- and cross-group pair types from the two variables (i.e. We additionally evaluated the interpersonal synchronization of the non-neuronal shallow signals that were obtained from the 1 cm source-detector channel and subjected to the same preprocessing procedure except for the dual source-detector regression for this interpersonal shallow signal synchronization we repeated the same analyses corresponding to the testing of hypotheses (2) and (3) above The comparison of the results with inter-brain synchronization and with interpersonal shallow signal synchronization helped us to check whether the obtained inter-brain synchronization results were indeed of neural origin Figure 2A shows an example of the flow dynamics for a group of four students. In this group, Student 2's flow dynamics were relatively divergent from the other members, with lower temporal correlation values with other members (z1,2 = 0.27, z2,3 = 0.30, z2,4 = 0.22), compared to the more convergent flow dynamics between the other three (z1,3 = 0.63, z1,4 = 0.76, z3,4 = 0.54; Figure 2B) (A) Example of retrospectively rated flow dynamics in a group (B) Flow dynamics similarity values between the members of the same group evaluated by Fisher z-transformed temporal correlation This indicates that the flow dynamics were significantly more similar for members of the same group than for those in different groups Similarity of flow dynamics between pairs of students within the same active-learning group (within-group) vs Asterisk indicates significant difference (p < 0.05) between the pair types For hypothesis (2) that inter-brain synchronization would be higher for within-group pairs than for cross-group pairs, we compared the medial prefrontal inter-brain synchronization between the within-group and cross-group pairs. On average, a higher inter-brain synchronization was found between the members of a same groups over a wide range of time scales (Figure 4) Permutation tests at each Fourier period indicated that the inter-brain synchronization difference was significant in the range of periods 9.3–13.9 s (FDR-adjusted q < 0.05) This indicates that inter-brain synchronization across these time scales was sensitive to the collaborative interaction The mean inter-brain synchronization in this period of interest was used in the subsequent correlation analyses Prefrontal inter-brain synchronization (IBS) between pairs of students within the same active-learning group (within-group) and across different groups (cross-group) Solid lines show the mean and shaded areas the standard error of the mean for each pair type Asterisks at the bottom indicates periods with a significant difference (q < 0.05; FDR-adjusted) between the pair types In addition, we compared the non-neuronal interpersonal shallow signal synchronization from the 1 cm source-detector channels between the within-group and cross-group pairs. No significant differences were found in interpersonal shallow signal synchronization in the period of interest identified above, though some significant differences were observed across longer time scales (35.0–44.1 s; Figure 5) Non-neuronal interpersonal shallow signal synchronization (ISSS) between pairs of students within the same active-learning group (within-group) and across different groups (cross-group) indicating a direct positive association between inter-brain synchronization and flow dynamics similarity (A) Raw relationship between the mean inter-brain synchronization (IBS) in the period of interest (9.3–13.9 s) and the similarity of flow dynamics over the pairs (B) Relationship between the mean IBS in the same period of interest and the similarity of flow dynamics after controlling for the effects of within-group vs Solid line and shared area in each panel indicate the linear regression fit and its 95% level interval Correlation analyses were repeated with the non-neuronal interpersonal shallow signal synchronization. There were no significant correlations with flow dynamics similarity (Figures 7A–D) supporting the neural origin of the observed association between inter-brain synchronization and shared flow dynamics (A) Raw relationship between the mean interpersonal shallow signal synchronization (ISSS) in the period of interest (9.3–13.9 s) and the similarity of flow dynamics over the pairs (B) Relationship between the mean ISSS in the same period of interest and the similarity of flow dynamics after controlling for the effects of within-group vs (C) Raw relationship between the mean ISSS in the period range 35.0–44.1 s where ISSS was significantly higher for within-group than cross-group pairs and the similarity of flow dynamics over the pairs (D) Relationship between the mean ISSS in the period range 35.0–44.1 s and the similarity of flow dynamics after controlling for the effects of pair types we analyzed the similarity or sharing of fluctuating flow experiences and prefrontal inter-brain synchronization among students in real collaborative learning activities held in EFL classes in university education we found that (1) flow dynamics were more convergent for the within-group than the cross-group pairs; (2) prefrontal inter-brain synchronization was higher among group members who directly collaborated than between cross-group learners who were just in the same class; and (3) prefrontal inter-brain synchronization was significantly positively correlated with the flow dynamics similarity even after controlling for the effects of pair types we discuss the possible mechanisms and implications of these results along with limitations and future directions both of which lead to temporally aligned affective processes the shared flow dynamics in collaborative learning groups could be regarded as a signature of high integration and unity between group members The underlying mechanisms for the enhanced inter-brain synchronization between group members may include the temporally aligned perception of challenge and achievement which were discussed above as the likely processes underlying shared flow dynamics temporal alignment of more fundamental cognitive processes during collaborative interactions such as perception and understanding of each other's utterances mentalizing each other's thoughts and intentions and shared attention to tasks and salient events during the group activity could also contribute to higher inter-brain synchronization within learning groups in high mutual engagement Among the time scales of low frequency oscillations (Zuo et al., 2010) the inter-brain synchronization differences between the within-group and cross-group pairs was significant in a relatively short time scale overlapping with the so-called “slow-3” sub-band (0.073–0.198 Hz or 5.1–13.7 s) This is perhaps not surprising given that the same group work was carried out in parallel among the groups in the same class all the students shared major cognitive events at longer time scales such as the switch timings between group activities (GW1–4) general from-beginning-to-end progress pattern in each group work and instructions and advice given by the teacher to the whole class occurrences and timings of more detailed interaction events and their solutions/achievements would have been more likely to vary among groups leading to higher within-group inter-brain synchronization on a shorter time scale prefrontal inter-brain synchronization could be used for comparative and longitudinal evaluation of convergent/divergent flow dynamics on a group level Such information could help teachers in deciding to take specific actions to facilitate flow as well as learners to improve their manner of collaboration and called for caution on the potential influence of sympathetic control These suggest that the collaborative interaction induced interpersonal synchronization in sympathetic nerve regulation the interpersonal shallow signal synchronization in either the shorter or longer time scales revealed no significant correlation with flow dynamics similarity These results indicate that the sharing of flow dynamics is better captured by the interpersonal synchronization of the prefrontal cortical activities rather than that of the autonomic blood flow regulation processes it remains to be confirmed whether shared experiences with peers as marked by the prefrontal inter-brain synchronization can inform success or failure in a learner achieving their goals The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study and KS contributed to the study design and experimentation YM contributed to the interpretation of the results RK contributed to the supervision and provided useful discussions throughout the project All authors contributed to manuscript revision This study was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP16K13274 and also by JST-COI Grant Number of JPMJCE1309 from the Japan Science and Technology Agency The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The authors thank Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and all the students in the measured classes for their kind cooperation On the same wavelength: exploring team neurosynchrony in undergraduate dyads solving a cyberlearning problem with collaborative scripts The ripple effect: emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Brain-to-brain 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Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb California schools spend millions on police officers What California can learn from Texas about bilingual education Are California schools becoming more vulnerable to measles Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue How earning a college degree put four California men on a path from prison to new lives | Documentary  Patrick Acuña’s journey from prison to UC Irvine | Video rising risk: Vaccination rates down in California Five Years Later: Covid’s Lasting Impact on Education Calling the cops: Policing in California schools Black teachers: How to recruit them and make them stay Lessons in Higher Education: California and Beyond Five years after Covid: Innovations that are driving results Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki announced today that she’s resigning from the presidency effectively July 31 Her resignation follows faculty criticism for how she handled sexual harassment allegations by a former university administrator against her husband “Serving as Sonoma State President has truly been an honor After thoughtful reflection and discussions with my family I made the decision to step away as president of this wonderful campus,” Sakaki said “I care deeply about Sonoma State and believe this choice will allow the campus community to move forward in a timely manner I am incredibly grateful to the entire SSU and the North Bay communities for the opportunity to serve during such a challenging and transformative time at Sonoma State.” who was the first Japanese American woman to serve as a university president has been under fire following allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation lodged against her Last month, state lawmakers urged her to step down following a vote of no confidence by the university’s faculty She’s been criticized for how she handled sexual harassment allegations made against her husband who was a lobbyist for the state’s Fire Victims Trust Sakaki announced she and McCallum had separated was paid $600,000 earlier this year to settle a claim she filed alleging that she had been sexually harassed by McCallum McCallum was an “official university volunteer,” the Los Angeles Times reported accompanying his wife at official functions The university’s faculty and staff also argued that Sakaki had failed to address declining enrollment a budget crisis and low morale among students and employees across Sonoma State Sakaki spent more than 40 years in various administrative positions across the California State University system and in the University of California system Sakaki was named President of the Year by the California State Student Association She also was a founding board member of the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education “Throughout her career in higher education President Sakaki has demonstrated a steadfast passion for the transformative power of a college degree,” said Cal State interim Chancellor Jolene Koester “We are grateful for her many years of service in higher learning including at Sonoma State and Fresno State.” An interim president is expected to be announced soon Da’Shay Templeton Physical fitness isn’t just a health issue — it’s tied to academic success And too many schools aren't focused on that Su Jin Jez Millions of potential college-goers would benefit if California created a council to assist people in accessing programs that could help them realize their dreams Karen D'Souza For arts students who lost so much as fires swept through the Los Angeles area in January a new musical instrument is a big step back toward normalcy Michael Burke And Amy DiPierro Milliken will take over UC's top job at a tumultuous time for the 10-campus system, facing federal threats and uncertainties on top of a likely state budget cut. Stay ahead of the latest developments on education in California and nationally from early childhood to college and beyond. Sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email. Print Sonoma State President Judy Sakaki who faced an outcry over her leadership amid a campus sexual harassment and retaliation scandal involving her and her husband announced Monday that she is stepping down The announcement marks the latest fallout from searing criticism over how California State University investigates and resolves sexual harassment and workforce retaliation complaints at its 23 campuses — a controversy that has shaken CSU’s leadership ranks and led its chancellor to step down in February The provost, Lisa Vollendorf, alleged she faced retaliation from Sakaki, her boss, after she reported the sexual harassment accusations about McCallum to top officials at the chancellor’s office, records in the case show. Sakaki and McCallum previously issued statements to The Times saying they had done nothing wrong. Sakaki denied retaliating against Vollendorf, declaring that the accusations “are utterly without basis.” California Recent revelations about how California State University handled sexual harassment and workplace retaliation complaints have rocked the nation’s largest four-year public university system Sakaki faced a revolt from faculty at her campus who voted 173 to 105 in favor of a resolution expressing no confidence in her leadership Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) to announce that Sakaki “should step down for the greater good of the university.” the senators released a statement welcoming her decision to resign saying it would “allow the Sonoma State community to start the healing process and return its focus to the university’s core mission — its students There remain deep cultural challenges within the Cal State system and change is long overdue There have been too many circumstances where women have been harassed We implore the incoming chancellor to make this glaring issue their top priority and advance change that we can all believe in and reestablish trust.” Sonoma State said Sakaki’s resignation would take effect on July 31 The university said she was the second woman appointed as president of Sonoma State and the first Japanese American woman to serve as a university president in the nation “I care deeply about Sonoma State and believe this choice will allow the campus community to move forward in a timely manner,” Sakaki said in a statement Faculty leaders at the university said The Times’ disclosures in April about the sexual harassment and retaliation allegations unleashed simmering frustrations about whether Sakaki could effectively lead the campus which has experienced a critical drop in student enrollment in recent years and high turnover among senior administrators Sakaki announced that she was separating from her husband after he sent emails to friends and family that Sakaki said were “inaccurate and unauthorized.” The emails criticized Vollendorf and media coverage of the scandal The Times also reported how part of the largest art collection donated to Sonoma State was destroyed at the president’s home during the deadly wine country firestorm of 2017 tensions surfaced on the campus about displaying more artwork in Sakaki and McCallum’s private residences something that was not “within the customary deployment” of the university’s art collection according to legal settlement records reviewed by The Times An employee who visited the couple’s home numerous times to assess how and where to hang the art reported that McCallum made her feel uncomfortable describing him as “a dirty old man,” a “pervert” and “creepy,” according to the records University President Judy Sakaki announced the separation days after a Times investigation detailed reports of sexual harassment by her husband The furor over how the nation’s largest four-year public university system handles similar accusations led Chancellor Joseph I. Castro to resign in February amid criticism over his handling of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation allegations involving a senior campus official when he was president of Fresno State University received $260,000 and a strong letter of recommendation from Castro The settlement, which was authorized by former Chancellor Timothy P. White, sparked public outrage and prompted trustees who oversee the system to order a review of how Title IX complaints are handled at each of the 23 campuses Vollendorf said she told the CSU general counsel in December 2018 that three women — two of them campus employees — alleged McCallum talked about his sex life, ran his fingers through one woman’s hair and then made “inappropriate personal comments” about her appearance during a party at his house, according to settlement records the provost’s attorney filed with system officials. The women, who reported the accusations to Vollendorf because they worked for her or knew her, described the behavior as “creepy,” “disgusting” and “pervy,” the records said. San Diego State University held off investigating at the request of police, who say their inquiry into the alleged October incident involving a minor is ongoing. The Times’ investigation noted that Vollendorf provided CSU officials with the names of the three women and three more people who said they witnessed such conduct. Cal State officials acknowledged that they did not launch a formal investigation into the sexual harassment claims and instead spoke to Sakaki about the accusations against her husband. They said CSU’s former Title IX officer interviewed three people — two complainants and an apparent witness — about the allegations. One person declined to be interviewed. CSU officials said that those interviewed declined to proceed. Officials denied Vollendorf was subjected to retaliation. Two complainants, who spoke with The Times on the condition of anonymity, said that fears of job loss and damage to the president’s reputation prompted them not to go forward. One complainant said she later told the Title IX officer that she believed Sakaki had retaliated against her over the claims. A former interim vice president at the university told The Times that he reported similar allegations in 2019 against McCallum on behalf of his staff to general counsel Andrew Jones, but that no one followed up with him. Gordon McDougall, who directed Sonoma State’s University Advancement Division before retiring in 2020, said he changed schedules to prevent women on his team from working with McCallum during campus events following complaints of inappropriate touching and comments. Colleen Shalby is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She has covered education, the pandemic, the vaccine rollout and breaking news throughout California. She was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of a dive-boat fire off the Santa Barbara coast. Shalby grew up in Southern California and graduated from George Washington University. She previously worked for PBS NewsHour and joined The Times in 2015. Robert J. Lopez is a former Los Angeles Times investigative journalist. He was part of a team of Times reporters awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for uncovering corruption in Bell, a small city near Los Angeles. He and several Times colleagues were Pulitzer Prize finalists in 2023 for investigations that exposed corruption, criminality and worker exploitation in California’s legal cannabis market. Born and raised in L.A., he is a graduate of the University of Hawaii. World & Nation Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Dear Reader,Unfortunately our comment platform isn\'t available at the moment due to issues with our paywall and authentication vendor provided to The Press Democrat as part of a records request states that Sakaki is transitioning to a faculty position Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki is embroiled in a scandal stemming from a $600,000 settlement paid to a former SSU provost who said she faced retaliation after relaying reports of alleged sexual harassment by the president’s estranged husband The Press Democrat on April 13 was the first to report California State University system paid former provost Lisa Vollendorf and her attorneys $600,000 in January to settle the retaliation claims who was provost at SSU from 2017 to June 2020 filed the retaliation claim with the CSU system in July 2021 Her claim accused Sakaki of retaliating against her in response to reports Vollendorf made of sexual harassment complaints by SSU female employees against McCallum at least two university employees have stated that McCallum made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate language and brushing their hair from their face in what was perceived as an unwelcome intimate gesture The university had stated the $600,000 was paid by insurance saying about $250,000 of the sum came from campus funds drawn from student tuition Sakaki has denied retaliation and McCallum has denied wrongdoing She has also declined repeated interview requests Several days after the initial Press Democrat report McCallum sent a late-night email he said was intended for close friends and family stating that Vollendorf leveled the accusations against him and Sakaki to cover for her poor job performance After The Press Democrat obtained a copy of the email he sent a follow-up statement stating that he had a hearing impairment that led him to stand close to people and apologizing for making anyone feel uncomfortable Sakaki announced she was separating from McCallum the revelations have dominated campus news and added to the scrutiny surrounding CSU’s handling of sexual harassment complaints the Academic Senate advanced to the full faculty a no-confidence vote on Sakaki’s leadership and student groups have marched in protest of Sakaki Some students have vowed to boycott graduation ceremonies if she does not Voting by faculty began May 6 and ended May 9 with approval of the no-confidence resolution Sakaki skipped graduation ceremonies May 21-22 she announced she would resign effective July 31 Outgoing Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki will be paid $254,438 in a new yearlong administrative role before transitioning to a faculty post within the California State University system The details of her separation are contained in a resignation agreement she reached with CSU amid a sexual harassment and retaliation scandal linked to her and her now-estranged husband provided to The Press Democrat on Wednesday through a public records request states that Sakaki is transitioning to a faculty job though it does not specify her post or say where she will be working Settlement Agreement and Release.pdf A resignation letter Sakaki sent to CSU as part of the agreement was dated May 23, two weeks before she publicly announced that she would step down Sakaki could not be reached for comment through her personal spokesman, Larry Kamer, who referred a request for an interview to Sonoma State communications staff. Robert Eyler, a spokesman for the university, said Sakaki is not granting interviews. Her salary going forward was calculated at the midpoint between her final president’s pay and the salary range for a full professor, the agreement states. Sakaki’s current annual pay is $324,052, plus $60,000 to cover housing costs, according to public records. Under the terms of her agreement, her new salary is funded by the CSU Chancellor’s office during a one year transition period beginning Aug. 1. Under the California State University’s executive transition program, outgoing presidents and other senior leaders are allowed a period of transition in order to assume other jobs in the system. To be eligible, recipients must have served five years in an executive position at the system; be in good standing at the commencement of the program; have previously identified a position in the system to return to upon completion of the transitional program; and not have accepted nonstate university system employment. The executive transition program was halted in the spring for all new hires following criticism that it led to big payouts to CSU executives who were leaving their posts under a cloud of controversy. The 23-campus California State University system is the nation’s largest four-year public university system. Sakaki, 69, has worked in higher education, including administrative roles for the CSU system and the University of California, for four decades. She is the first Japanese American woman in the nation to lead a four-year university. Under the terms of her resignation, Sakaki will be awarded the title of president emeritus upon her resignation, which is irrevocable. She also agreed to support the CSU chancellor and Sonoma State’s interim president as requested. According to the agreement, Sakaki must participate and “fully cooperate in any and all investigations, depositions, hearings trials or other legal or administrative proceedings related to her role as President of Sonoma State University.” Sakaki’s agreement stipulates that after her one-year transition period, she will have “retreat rights” at Sonoma State which will allow her to take a faculty position in the Department of Educational Leadership and Special Education. “If you choose to exercise those rights, you must inform the campus in a timely fashion, and they will be responsible for all costs associated with the appointment in future year(s),” the agreement states. Retreat rights allow someone to return to a faculty position at the end of their administrative appointment. The agreement states that if Sakaki seeks to “move your retreat rights for a faculty appointment to another CSU campus, you will need to negotiate that directly with the campus interested in securing your appointment.” Napoleon Reyes, the new president of the Sonoma chapter of the California Faculty Association, said that university department heads are usually involved in the granting of retreat rights. It’s unclear whether the head of the school’s Department of Educational Leadership and Special Education was involved in the granting of Sakaki’s retreat rights. The department chair could not be reached Wednesday afternoon. Reyes, who is a faculty member with the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, said he had concerns about Sakaki’s $254, 438 payout. He said that although that money is coming out of the Chancellor’s Office, he was worried that it might ultimately effect future Sonoma State funding. Sonoma State is facing a budget shortfall of between $15.5 million and $17 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year. “Right now, we already have a problem with our budget,” Reyes said. “I’m worried that down the line that will be taken from the budget of the university.” Ben Ford, a math professor at Sonoma State, said he didn’t think the CSU system was granting anything “special” to Sakaki. “The separation agreement sounds pretty standard to me but it also reflects the excessive levels of executive pay that have become the norm in higher education,” he said. Ford was among faculty members who had mixed feelings about the faculty no-confidence vote. Ford said that while he didn’t think Sakaki should be punished for things her husband was alleged to have done, he did not see a clear path to reestablish her leadership at the university. State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, who along with Sen. Mike McGuire called on Sakaki to resign immediately after the faculty no-confidence vote was approved, said it’s time for Sonoma State to move forward with new leadership. “The focus now should be on recruitment of a new president who can ensure the university moves forward to meet its challenges,” said Dodd, whose district includes the Rohnert Park campus. Columnist Marisa Endicott contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno. Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki is embroiled in a scandal stemming from a $600,000 settlement paid to a former SSU provost who said she faced retaliation after relaying reports of alleged sexual harassment by the president’s estranged husband, lobbyist Patrick McCallum. The Press Democrat on April 13 was the first to report California State University system paid former provost Lisa Vollendorf and her attorneys $600,000 in January to settle the retaliation claims. Vollendorf, who was provost at SSU from 2017 to June 2020, filed the retaliation claim with the CSU system in July 2021. Her claim accused Sakaki of retaliating against her in response to reports Vollendorf made of sexual harassment complaints by SSU female employees against McCallum. Since then, at least two university employees have stated that McCallum made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate language, standing too close, and brushing their hair from their face in what was perceived as an unwelcome intimate gesture. The university had stated the $600,000 was paid by insurance, but later backtracked, saying about $250,000 of the sum came from campus funds drawn from student tuition, fees and other sources. Sakaki has denied retaliation and McCallum has denied wrongdoing. She has also declined repeated interview requests. Several days after the initial Press Democrat report, McCallum sent a late-night email he said was intended for close friends and family, stating that Vollendorf leveled the accusations against him and Sakaki to cover for her poor job performance. After The Press Democrat obtained a copy of the email, he sent a follow-up statement stating that he had a hearing impairment that led him to stand close to people and apologizing for making anyone feel uncomfortable. The following day, Sakaki announced she was separating from McCallum. While Sakaki has kept a low profile, the revelations have dominated campus news and added to the scrutiny surrounding CSU’s handling of sexual harassment complaints. On April 28, the Academic Senate advanced to the full faculty a no-confidence vote on Sakaki’s leadership, and student groups have marched in protest of Sakaki, calling for her resignation. Some students have vowed to boycott graduation ceremonies if she does not. Voting by faculty began May 6 and ended May 9 with approval of the no-confidence resolution. Sakaki skipped graduation ceremonies May 21-22. On Monday, June 6, she announced she would resign effective July 31. six years after she took over as president at the Rohnert Park campus Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki, who has faced calls to resign amid a sexual harassment and retaliation scandal involving her and her now-estranged husband “Serving as Sonoma State President has truly been an honor,” Sakaki said in a news release from the California State University system “After thoughtful reflection and discussions with my family I made the decision to step away as president of this wonderful campus.” becoming the nation’s first Japanese American woman to lead a four-year university Read the news release announcing Sakaki’s resignation here. Sakaki faced growing pressure on and off campus to step down After she lost a no-confidence vote of the faculty in early May she skipped two of the university’s most high-profile spring events an open house for prospective students and graduation ceremonies North Bay State Sens. Bill Dodd and Mike McGuire, who had previously called on Sakaki to resign “President Sakaki has made the right decision to step aside,” the two lawmakers said in a joint statement “Today’s action will allow the Sonoma State community to start the healing process and return its focus to the university’s core mission — its students.” Sakaki’s resignation comes amid widening criticism about California State University’s handling of reports of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior at its 23-campus network the largest four-year university system in the nation in both the California State and University of California systems But her leadership of SSU has been embroiled in controversy since April 13 when The Press Democrat reported on the $600,000 settlement paid by the state system to settle a claim with a former SSU provost alleged Sakaki retaliated against her after she reported the sexual harassment complaints about McCallum to the CSU Chancellor’s Office in late 2018 Vollendorf is now the incoming president of State University New York Empire State College She has not responded to multiple requests for comment over the past eight weeks Current and former administrators said McCallum made the women uncomfortable with lingering hugs, by staring at women’s breasts, and in at least two instances described to The Press Democrat brushing hair off their faces in an overly familiar way Sakaki, who denies any retaliation occurred, announced her separation from McCallum on April 18 and disavowed private and public statements he’s made defending himself and addressing media reports McCallum, an official campus volunteer, has apologized for what he described as “gregarious” behavior and said he became more careful with additional training and experience as the spouse of a university president Sakaki made no mention of the controversy in her announcement Monday “I care deeply about Sonoma State and believe this choice will allow the campus community to move forward in a timely manner,” she said “I am incredibly grateful to the entire SSU and the North Bay communities for the opportunity to serve during such a challenging and transformative time at Sonoma State.” Sakaki is among Sonoma County’s highest paid public officials She did not specify what she planned to do next beyond “continuing my work with the various higher education boards and commissions on which I currently serve and engaging with projects that focus on educational equity Sakaki espoused close cooperation between administration and faculty, especially early in her tenure and reveled in meeting and greeting students But she kept a low profile in the past two months as the scandal involving her widened Sakaki’s critics said the scandal hobbled her ability to lead at a time when the university faces an alarming enrollment decline and a budget deficit of between $15.5 million and $17 million. Sonoma State faculty passed a vote of no confidence in Sakaki’s leadership on May 9 Dodd and McGuire called that day for her to step down a faculty member of Sonoma State’s criminology and criminal justice studies department and a proponent of the no-confidence effort called Sakaki’s resignation “a step in the right direction.” professor and chair of the History Department at Sonoma State who voted in favor of the no-confidence resolution “It’s the right call … I very much appreciate it so that the university can move forward,” he said who is also the new president of the Sonoma chapter of the California Faculty Association said the scandal had undermined Sakaki’s leadership “She finally recognized it would have been difficult for her to continue leading the university,” he said “The big challenge now is to make sure that all the stakeholders (faculty staff and students) at Sonoma State will have a voice in the process of selecting her replacement.” He said he would prefer someone who “rose from the ranks of faculty,” someone familiar with the unique perspectives of faculty as opposed to a “management person.” “Every time you appoint someone from a management background they tend to overlook issues affecting faculty and students,” said Reyes adding that he hopes to see new policies implemented at both Sonoma State and the CSU system aimed at preventing sexual harassment and the mishandling of Title IX cases State lawmakers recently called for a sweeping audit of the CSU sexual harassment policies that will examine CSU’s handling of sexual harassment and violence allegations McGuire and Dodd echoed that call in their statement Monday “There remain deep cultural challenges within the Cal State system and change is long overdue,” they said “There have been too many circumstances where women have been harassed The CSU system is still reckoning with the February resignation of Chancellor Joseph Castro who faced criticism for his handling of sexual harassment complaints against an administrator when he was president of Fresno State to retire instead of fully investigating the complaints Castro has rejected those reports and contends he took appropriate action launching two investigations and ultimately ordering Lamas to step down as vice president the CSU launched an independent assessment of its own practices around Title IX the federal law that prohibits discrimination in educational settings Sakaki’s response to complaints about her husband’s behavior has been the focus of extensive coverage in The Press Democrat as well as the Los Angeles Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education A former director at the Green Music Center said he tried to warn Sakaki about McCallum’s behavior with staff as far back as August 2016 but that Sakaki took no action in response Gordon McDougall, former interim vice president of university advancement, said he took steps to rearrange staff schedules to shield female staff members from having to work with McCallum during his tenure a senior administrator who was among the women who complained about McCallum’s behavior in 2019 said news of the leadership change left her hopeful “Sonoma State really has the potential to be a model public liberal arts college in California and I look forward to it living up to its potential,” she said I hope the CSU takes the opportunity to rethink the policy that gives the spouse of the president special access to campus.” PD Columnist Marisa Endicott contributed reporting You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com State Senators Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg called on Sonoma State University president Judy Sakaki to step down following a vote of no confidence by the university’s faculty, the Press-Democrat reported Monday About 44% of the university’s faculty voted on the no confidence resolution Sakaki has been criticized for how she handled campus sexual harassment allegations against her husband Patrick McCallum, who was a lobbyist for the state’s Fire Victims Trust. Sakaki announced her separation from McCallum last month Sakaki has also been criticized for her budget oversight over years of sharp enrollment declines said she’s “mindful of the concerns” that prompted faculty to vote for the no confidence resolution but did not indicate whether she was considering stepping down Milliken will take over UC's top job at a tumultuous time for the 10-campus system facing federal threats and uncertainties on top of a likely state budget cut Stay ahead of the latest developments on education in California and nationally from early childhood to college and beyond Sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email The Sonoma State president said she was “embarrassed” by allegations at the heart of what she called the “most difficult personnel challenge in my entire 40-plus-year career” in higher education Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki on Thursday apologized to members of the school’s Academic Senate for the negative attention brought to the school by news of a $600,000 settlement with a former top administrator over sexual harassment allegations against Sakaki’s husband The revelations, first reported by The Press Democrat, detailed how the California State University system paid the settlement in January to former Provost Lisa Vollendorf to resolve a dispute related to staff complaints of sexual harassment involving Sakaki’s husband Vollendorf accused Sakaki of retaliation for making the reports to the university system about several female staff members’ complaints that this kind of sensational story takes precedence takes your energy … I really feel badly about that This was and has been the most difficult personnel challenge in my entire 40-plus-year career.” Appearing before the Zoom audience of faculty members, Sakaki began by reading a previously released written statement in which she insisted that she had not retaliated against Vollendorf and called the former provost’s claims “without basis.” She said the claims of sexual harassment had been investigated by the university system — not Sonoma State or officials under her supervision — and that she was told “that there was no finding.” McCallum has denied any wrongful conduct. several faculty members who attended the regularly scheduled virtual meeting of the Academic Senate the university’s main governing body for faculty expressed concerns over Sakaki’s handling of the matter chair of the school’s criminology and criminal justice department asked why McCallum was allowed access to the campus given the nature of the allegations against him why was your husband allowed to continue coming to campus?” he said A campus spokeswoman told The Press Democrat on Wednesday the complaints involved touching and conversations that made the affected employees uncomfortable Sakaki said she was not aware of the allegations until after the university system’s Title IX officer had completed their interviews with staff I wasn’t briefed on the situation until much after I was told that there was an investigation done by the Title IX person I didn’t know that the Title IX officer came to campus and spoke to people and then I was told that there was no finding.” chair of the faculty and head of the kinesiology department said she was concerned about the impact the scandal would have on the university at a time when the school is trying to recruit tenure-track faculty and incoming students “I’m going to be a part of that and sell the hell out of the university,” she said “Because we need the enrollment … if people ask But Morimoto said her focus is to help get the university beyond the current crisis “If people feel very strongly that there should be this vote of no confidence and I should be leading it then maybe I’m not the right person to lead right now,” she said “I want to look forward and I don’t want to get caught up in you know except to know for reasons of accountability and who we need to hold accountable,” she said chair of the communications and media studies department staff and faculty would interpret the university’s response to the harassment allegations and the university’s handling of them He stressed that he had not made up his mind about the matter and that he appreciated Sakaki’s willingness to respond to faculty concerns “Anybody who reads the stories are going to — if they’ve ever had a situation of sexual harassment on campus for instance — this could have a chilling effect on their willingness to come forward,” he said do they think the university will have their back.” president of the California Faculty Association at Sonoma State said the union is calling on the California Legislature to investigate Title IX compliance across the university system Union officials will be circulating a petition on each of the 23 campuses in the system “We have little or no confidence the trustees will do a complete thorough and transparent investigation,” Sims said Some faculty members felt it was important to address the controversy with their students School of Business Economics Dean Jean-Francois Coget wrote: “The Press Democrat and the LA Times have reported on deeply troubling allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation at SSU While I don’t know the specifics of what may or may not have happened I am heartbroken that sexual harassment still occurs in today’s society It is our duty to pursue justice courageously and protect victims The CSU also has important work to do in ameliorating its processes said his “heart goes to those who may feel confused or distraught The disasters happening around us remind me of our human frailty We must support each other in this distressing time I will keep you updated as I learn more about this situation.” The Sonoma State campus was quiet Thursday A daylong rainstorm and a campuswide power failure forced the cancellation of in-person classes and closure of several offices Several students interviewed Thursday morning were unaware of the controversy surrounding Sakaki and her husband Others said they’d heard about it through email and social media and at least one said he heard about it from his department dean Students and faculty were all brought up to speed with a statement released by the university in the afternoon which echoed most of the assertions in Sakaki’s statement about the situation with Vollendorf said she was shocked and saddened after her sorority sisters clued her in just before 6 p.m she was having conversations about it with other students everyone was pretty much in shock,” Florez-Avina said adding that she feels it will be difficult for Sakaki to overcome the controversy but that she hopes the president can four-year university in Rohnert Park since 2016 “Everyone I know loved Judy,” Florez-Avina said “I do root for her and I do want what is best for this campus.” Other students said they were not surprised by the news “I’m not super surprised because stuff like this happens all the time,” Pinzon said “It’s not the first time I’ve heard of SSU covering up stuff like this.” Pinzon said she feels powerless to do anything about the issue “At the end of the day I’m a student and we can’t really do (expletive) about it,” she said “It feels like nothing can be done about it.” students continued to express disappointment in Sakaki said the scandal only cemented certain feelings she had about Sakaki “I’ve been here for four years and I’ve only seen her like twice,” Gutierrez said “She doesn’t really have a presence on campus… I know she gets a ton of money but she doesn’t really do anything.” “It seems like she’s just protecting her husband because she doesn’t want her and her family to look bad said the settlement gives the impression there is some validity to the allegations of sexual harassment “It’s super suspicious that they gave her money,” Graf said “That really makes it seem like something bad did happen.” Press Democrat intern Kylie Lawrence contributed reporting to this story He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman who aspired to become an actor On Tuesday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested director and actor Hideo Sakaki. He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s who aspired to become an actor. According to the police The incident was said to have taken place on May 23 who had reportedly met at an acting instruction workshop led by the director had been out for some drinks and food when he invited her to his apartment to “talk a little bit more about acting.” He later suggested that she remove her clothes so he could check what she looked like naked as it would be difficult to land roles if she had a tattoo In March 2022, four women spoke to the weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun accusing the Versus and Battlefield Baseball actor of sexual assault with one of the allegations dating as far back as 2011 While admitting to having sex with three of the women He denied any kind of relationship with the fourth woman A Japanese film director has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting an aspiring actress marking the latest case in an industry embroiled in alleged sexual abuse also a representative director at a talent agency was arrested Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a woman in her 20s under the pretense of meeting to give her acting advice at a condominium in Tokyo's Minato Ward on the night of May 23 calling them "false accusations." The police believe Sakaki abused his position as a film director and are investigating several other complaints against him Sakaki allegedly told the woman that he wanted to check whether she had tattoos and asked her to take off her clothes saying she may have to get used to nudity in her future acting career The woman met Sakaki in the fall of 2015 at an actors' workshop She consulted the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department through a lawyer in September 2022 and filed a complaint in June 2023 Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine reported in March 2022 that Sakaki was suspected of coercing multiple actresses into performing sexual acts The report led to the cancellation of the release of his film "Honeymoon," which deals with domestic sexual violence The film industry has been rocked by a number of actors and others coming forward as part of the #MeToo movement A survey on gender and labor issues in the Japanese film industry showed last year that 49 out of 685 actors and others involved with the industry said they had witnessed instances of sexual assault or harassment by directors and producers Some 22 people claimed that they had experienced sexual assault or harassment by a film director or producer with the majority of the claims made by women according to the survey by the Japanese Film Project has appeared in several movies and television dramas including playing a leading role in the movie "ALIVE," according to the talent agency's website Japan comedian Matsumoto to go on hiatus amid sex scandal report Japan to introduce electronic arrest warrants, interrogation records Johnny's successor starts compensating sexual abuse victims, 23 paid To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Film director Hideo Sakaki was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting an aspiring actress after asking to talk with her privately on the pretext of giving acting advice 20 arrest came nearly two years after the premiere of his film was canceled following sexual violence allegations made against the director by several other actresses According to the Metropolitan Police Department Sakaki is suspected of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on the night of May 23 He became acquainted with her at a workshop where he served as an acting coach Sakaki invited her to an apartment to talk more about acting after they ate and drank together He hinted at a chance to appear in a movie and made her take off her clothes saying he wanted to check to see that she didn’t have any tattoos Police said they have received sexual assault complaints against Sakaki from other women as well the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine reported that actresses who have appeared in Sakaki’s films and others said the director forced them to have sex with him The release of “Mitsugetsu,” Sakaki’s film portraying sexual abuse in a family Sakaki denied the magazine’s report through a representative in response to an inquiry from The Asahi Shimbun Group calls for end to sexual harassment in the film industry Famed directors denounce sexual abuse in Japanese filmmaking Wild comedy 'Poor Things' wins top prize at Venice Festival Victims of power in entertainment world not limited to Johnny’s Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission lobbyist Patrick McCallum says a former provost raised the allegations to cover up for her own poor performance In a rambling email to “friends and family,” Patrick McCallum — the husband of embattled Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki — said a former administrator who exposed sexual harassment claims against him did so to cover for her own poor job performance The email is McCallum’s first detailed public response since the allegations were reported by The Press Democrat last week though he did issue a terse apology to anyone he may have offended he has repeatedly stated that his attorneys would not allow him to respond “The lawyers have lifted that restriction and I can tell you my view of what took place.” McCallum contacted The Press Democrat through an intermediary and in a call to the newspaper’s editor to ask that the email not be published saying that it had been written late at night and was intended only for family and close friends Read McCallum’s original statement here. McCallum sent a seven-paragraph statement saying he was “deeply sorry for the damage and hurt that I have caused.” He said he had not properly dealt with the trauma of almost losing his life in the 2017 Tubbs fire which destroyed the home he shared with Sakaki He also said that a hearing impairment may have led him to move in closer to people Read McCallum’s followup statement here. McCallum’s original email was obtained by The Press Democrat independently It offers unfiltered insights by McCallum about the escalating Sonoma State controversy and provides a glimpse into the tumultuous relationship involving Sakaki and her former provost-turned-whistleblower The email strongly criticizes former provost Lisa Vollendorf who in January received a $600,000 settlement from the California State University system to resolve a claim that Sakaki retaliated against her after she reported sexual harassment complaints involving McCallum McCallum said just weeks after Vollendorf was hired in 2017 he and Sakaki started hearing numerous complaints about Vollendorf “Judy would say a few months after hiring Lisa Vollendorf as her provost she made the worst hire of her career and as we will find out she did,” McCallum wrote eight different faculty and students complained to him about Vollendorf McCallum said Sakaki made several unsuccessful attempts to address the conflicts between Vollendorf and the campus community including recommending a “coach” who had been a former CSU provost “Judy has tried everything and now knows Lisa has to go and is ready to fire her when she gets a call from the system chancellor there have been a filed compliant (sic) against me and to hold off from firing lisa,” McCallum wrote “Later Lisa would admit to Judy she was the one who filed the complaint as ‘I had to protect myself from you.’” who has not responded to Press Democrat calls or emails this week Her 2021 claim paints a far different picture of the conflict Vollendorf’s claim states that after Sakaki was informed about sexual harassment reports against McCallum the university president began “a campaign of retaliation.” Among her complaints: Sakaki limited the scope of Vollendorf’s job duties and required her to undergo “inappropriate and unprofessional therapeutic ‘coaching’ by an untrained therapist.” The January 2022 $600,000 payout to Vollendorf Vollendorf reported to CSU officials that several female SSU employees had raised sexual harassment concerns involving McCallum a semi-retired high-profile education lobbyist who has been married to Sakaki since 2016 the same year she assumed the helm at Sonoma State Two of the women who complained spoke to The Press Democrat last week One said McCallum had acted “creepy” and made her feel uncomfortable Another said she took steps not to be alone with McCallum at social events according to the claim Vollendorf filed in July 2021 with the CSU Chancelor’s Office The former provost’s claim also states that Sakaki violated an agreement the two women reached to arrange Vollendorf’s transfer to the CSU Chancellor’s Office Sakaki has denied accusations of retaliation she said she was “surprised and saddened” when she heard of the allegations against her husband “Although he denies engaging in any inappropriate behavior it was important for him and me to learn about these concerns,” her statement read “There have been no complaints since we were informed of the concerns.” a veteran Sacramento lobbyist considered by CSU to be an official volunteer and ambassador for the campus also issued a blanket denial Wednesday disputing he had engaged in “any wrongful conduct toward anyone.” McCallum again expressed regret for any discomfort that may have been caused by his interactions he said that when he first arrived on the Rohnert Park campus he was unaware that a president’s spouse was perceived to have more power and influence than he thought and that he was expected to behave professionally “I interacted with staff and students as if they were my friends,” he wrote “Judy would hug everybody and after they hug (sic) Judy they would hug me.” McCallum said that after learning of a complaint about his behavior he and Sakaki agreed that he needed to “reduce his presence on campus” and that he “only shake hands and not trust anyone.” He said that for the last three to four years my gregarious nature did create some discomfort for some staff and that allowed Lisa and one other woman to used (sic) it to go after Judy (I) found women who were uncomfortable with me in those first years on campus For those woman (sic) I am so sorry what my words and enthusiasm may have done and how that is now hurt (sic) Judy “I also know that Lisa (Vollendorf) and one other woman who (filed) the complaint made up accusations and used me as a way to get at their anger and efforts to get Judy fired Many of those accusations are completely false.” McCallum’s email is the latest twist in a controversy that has rocked the campus since April 13, when The Press Democrat first reported on the $600,000 settlement A related Los Angeles Times story published later that day questions about Sakaki’s husband and her leadership have erupted across the Rohnert Park campus and reverberated to the California State University headquarters in Long Beach In an emotional online meeting Thursday of the Sonoma State Academic Senate Sakaki apologized for the scandal and said she was embarrassed by how the situation has engulfed the school On Sunday, a senior administrator who was interviewed by a CSU investigator and has characterized McCallum’s behavior toward her as harassment, said she considered the email he wrote Saturday as an admission of his behavior The administrator asked that her name not be used because she feared retaliation that could negatively affect her career She said she reported McCallum’s Saturday night email to the chancellor’s office the administrator wrote that “it is clear that while Patrick McCallum said he ‘missed’ the message that the president’s spouse has power he insists that he is entitled to play a role in the running of the university even though he went through absolutely no process to put him in that position.” She said all other university administrators “Telling people they have to do what you say because of whom you’re sleeping with which he did on a regular basis is sexual harassment on its face,“ she said his sense of entitlement — his entitlement to touch people and policy whether welcomed or not,“ she said during a phone interview Sunday another SSU employee told The Press Democrat that McCallum would frequently make unusual demands of her time for errands that benefited him and Sakaki “Does it mean anything that I’m sleeping with the president?” McCallum’s email is likely to complicate even more a controversy that has many questioning Sakaki’s leadership particularly at a time when tough decisions are going to be required to resolve budget shortfalls who chairs the kinesiology department and is head of the Academic Senate said on Sunday that the email adds more fuel to what has become a “distraction” ahead of talks about budget cuts I don’t understand how (McCallum) thought this would be a helpful letter,” Morimoto said Leadership is needed to manage painful discussions that have to be had.“ Morimoto said she received the email from a “non-Sonoma State email,” and that she doesn’t believe it has been widely circulated yet She said she thought that when it does get out in the public it’s going to spell more trouble for Sakaki I don’t think Judy can survive it,” she said adding that there is currently a move among some faculty members to push for a vote of no confidence EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been revised to specify that eight faculty members and students complained to Patrick McCallum about SSU Provost Lisa Vollendorf An earlier version of the story misidentified the person who had received those complaints Sakaki also noted that the announcement was supposed to be made on the same date as the release of the manga's seventh compiled book volume on August 30 last week They added that they pleaded with the editorial staff to release the announcement at the same time as the seventh volume release saying that they thought releasing a new volume without informing readers that it would be the final volume was insincere to readers Sakaki also promised to release more details in the coming days J-Novel Club is publishing both the original light novels by Suzu Enoshima and the manga adaptation by Rumiwo Sakaki in English Sakaki launched the manga in B's-LOG COMIC in June 2019 and removed the original story from Shōsetsuka ni Narō A student gathering Tuesday ended with a march to President Judy Sakaki’s office Two days ahead of a potential no-confidence vote by the Academic Senate embattled Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki was confronted Tuesday by an emotional group of students who told her they no longer had faith in her leadership Upset that tuition fees have been used to pay for part of a $600,000 settlement to resolve a retaliation claim made after reports of sexual harassment were leveled against Sakaki's husband about 10 students carrying roses marched to Sakaki’s office demanding that she hear their concerns Emotions ran high as Sakaki spoke with the group and acknowledged their unease A few of the students began to cry as they shared their feelings of distrust in her authority One student even promised Sakaki that she would go into the field of academia to ensure that nothing like what has taken place at SSU ever happens again received the $600,000 settlement to resolve a July 2021 claim she filed with the California State University system Her claim accused Sakaki of retaliating against her in response to reports Vollendorf made of sexual harassment complaints by SSU female employees against Patrick McCallum She has also declined repeated interview requests since The Press Democrat first reported the settlement April 13 Her impromptu meeting Tuesday with the students was surprising given that Sakaki has tried to keep a low-profile since negative reaction to the settlement and concerns about her leadership have started to build Sakaki has separated from her husband and on Saturday abstained from attending the annual Seawolf Decision Day as talk mounted of possible protests should she officiate at graduation ceremonies May 21-22 the Academic Senate will weigh whether to put a vote of no confidence in Sakaki’s leadership before all faculty Tuesday’s student action followed a protest led by MEChA de Sonoma and SSU’s Black Student Union Around 70 to 80 students and faculty members were present and students from the organizations passed out flyers with barcodes linking to a survey where students can voice their opinions on the settlement and Sakaki’s leadership She called for Sakaki’s resignation and encouraged SSU students to join together to stand up for themselves This is not what a Seawolf does,” Foster said She emphasized the need for students to care about the issue and do something about it together Some students found other ways to express their displeasure An anonymous group early Tuesday used chalk to write “Our money is being used for the cover-up,” and similar messages across campus Janitors were spotted washing away the messages by Sean Kenneally and Hannah Tibbetts both student tour guides at the campus’ welcome center High school students on tour Tuesday were confused about the messages He later said tour guides have been told to direct any questions regarding the settlement to Julia Gonzalez SSU’s assistant vice president of strategic communications coming in to tour and I feel so bad for them,” Foster said because I don’t want to sit there and lie to them and say SSU is such a good place you’re going to have such an amazing experience I’ve had a horrible experience here and I’m pretty sure a lot of you share that same feeling.” EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been slightly revised to specify that Thursday’s Academic Senate decision is focused on whether to put a vote of no confidence in President Judy Sakaki’s leadership before all faculty Press Democrat intern Kylie Lawrence can be reached at kylie.lawrence@pressdemocrat.com President Sakaki announced Thursday she would not be attending the Saturday and Sunday ceremonies amid a sexual harassment and retaliation scandal that has clouded her leadership announced Thursday afternoon she will not be attending this weekend’s commencement ceremonies Sakaki made the announcement in an email addressed to “graduating students.” “The spotlight this weekend is on you and rightly so You deserve an uninterrupted celebration of your achievements and a total focus on the potential of your bright futures All of which is why I have made the decision not to attend commencement in person this year I really struggled with this decision,” Sakaki wrote The weekend commencement ceremonies represent the second prominent university event Sakaki has chosen to skip in recent weeks the annual campus open house where prospective students and their parents have the opportunity to meet current students Sakaki did not address the scandal surrounding her acknowledge her presence at the ceremonies would be a distraction “Sharing in the pure joy of this day is one of my greatest honors as president of Sonoma State But I do not want my presence to distract in any way from this joyous event I want the focus solely on the moment of success that you have earned and for the day to remain wholly yours,” she said Sakaki has declined Press Democrat requests for in-person or phone interviews did not respond to a request Thursday for an interview with Sakaki has been president of the Rohnert Park campus since July 2016 Her historic appointment — the first Japanese American woman to lead a four-year college in the nation — was heralded as the dawning of a new era for the university one Sakaki has sought to define as vigorously focused on diversity transparency and cooperation between administration and faculty But her public troubles began April 13, when the The Press Democrat first reported that the California State University system paid a $600,000 settlement in January to a former SSU provost to resolve a dispute related to sexual harassment complaints against Sakaki’s husband lobbyist and campus volunteer Patrick McCallum Sakaki denies any retaliation took place and has since announced her separation from McCallum, disavowing private and public statements he’s made defending himself and addressing media reports. McCallum has apologized for his “gregarious” behavior but he denied it was sexual in nature. Sakaki’s critics say the scandal has hobbled her ability to lead at a time when the university faces an alarming decline in enrollment and a budget deficit of $15.5 million to $17 million. As graduation approached, calls intensified from students asking her not to attend. Will Stephenson, 25, who is set to receive his bachelor’s degree in political science on Sunday, said he was relieved to hear Sakaki would not be attending weekend ceremonies. He said the past few weeks of media coverage, outside scrutiny and campus debate have cast a pall over the university and Sakaki’s presence would have been hard for some students to accept. “Having her present would remind us all what’s been going on,” Stephenson said. “It’s better to not have to go up there and pretend like we’re OK with what she’s been doing.” Lauren Morimoto, chair of the faculty and head of the university’s Academic Senate, said Sakaki’s decision will allow the focus of the ceremonies to remain on students. “I respect the president's decision to step aside to ensure that our students remain the story at commencement,” said Morimoto, who opposed the no-confidence resolution put forward by the Academic Senate, the faculty governing body. “I hope that we can support her decision by acknowledging that she is doing what she thinks is best for our students, whether we agree with it or not and we can act to center and celebrate our students and their achievements over the two days of commencement,” Morimoto said. The university president is typically a fairly prominent presence during graduation ceremonies. “She would be doing the welcome,” Morimoto said. “She would be the one who says, ‘You can move your tassels to the left.’” History Chair Steve Estes said he was disappointed Sakaki had decided to skip the graduation ceremonies. Estes, who supported the no-confidence vote, said her presence would have shown the kind of “leadership” that he contends has been lacking during her tenure. Estes said faculty are required to attend the commencement as part of their work duties. “I don’t think there should be a double standard for her,” he said. “I would encourage the president to attend graduation because I would like to see that kind of leadership.” Graduation ceremonies will be held Saturday and Sunday, with 2,313 undergraduate and graduate students expected to receive diplomas. Saturday will see honors conferred to graduates of the schools of Business and Economics; Science and Technology; and Arts and Humanities. On Sunday, diplomas will be awarded to students of Education; Social Sciences A; and Social Sciences B. Morimoto echoed Sakaki’s wish to keep the weekend celebration focused on students, who “deserve the spotlight, and our staff and faculty are doing their damnedest to make sure that happens.” Dear Reader,Unfortunately our comment platform isn\'t available at the moment due to issues with our paywall and authentication vendor. Thanks for your patience. In her six months as president of Sonoma State University, Judy Sakaki has made waves with her goals to shift the school's focus from facilities to student and faculty. Key actions were taken by SSU President Judy Sakaki during her first five months: - Pulled the plug on plans for $10 million outdoor concert pavilion at the Green Music Center. - Declared her intention to hire more full-time faculty. - Began beefing up SSU's Student Affairs division by consolidating services in multiple departments under one administrative umbrella. Brought in Michael Young as interim vice president for student affairs. Young recently retired as chief of student affairs at UC Santa Barbara. Matthew Lopez-Phillips, who held the job previously, was named as his associate. - Brought in a new team of interim cabinet members with national reputations to help her in the transition. Created a new permanent chief of staff post filled by Bill Kidder, former associate provost at UC Riverside. Announced the retirement of Larry Furukawa-Schlereth as vice president of administration and finance and co-executive director for the Green Music Center. She replaced him with Stan Nosek, retired vice chancellor for administration at UC Davis. - Announced plans to move graduation for the first time to Weill Hall in 2017 and to split up commencement ceremonies by departments. Don't underestimate the power of Judy Sakaki, Sonoma State University's soft-spoken new president. That would be a mistake. Ask the Ku Klux Klansmen or the notorious basketball coach she stood up to at Fresno State. They saw firsthand that her quiet determination and a sharply honed mission can be formidable weapons. Sakaki doesn't believe that strength and compassion are mutually exclusive. Now in her sixth month at SSU, Sakaki, 63, has quickly made it clear that she is there to serve its 9,400 students and the faculty who teach them, even if it involves taking on a few sacred cows. She has quickly pressed her stamp on the school, canceling one of the flagship construction projects launched by her predecessor, creating a new temporary cabinet of her own hand-picked advisors and announcing her intent to reverse a trend established during the previous administration of replacing full-time faculty with part-timers. Those who know Sakaki are not the least bit surprised. She comes from a working-class, Japanese-American family who lost everything in the World War II internment camps. She is the first in her family to go to college and has made it her mission throughout her career to make college accessible to everyone. “You wouldn't automatically see her as a firebrand. But when you look at the arc of her life, she's never wavered, never taken the easy route and has always worked for people who need help and deserve help,” said longtime friend Patrick Hayashi, who teamed with Sakaki in 1987 to create the advocacy group Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education after UC Berkeley was accused of using illegal racial quotas to suppress Asian-American admission. The importance of a mentor is a lesson that Sakaki learned early. When a high school counselor told a teenage Sakaki that she would be “really good in retail sales,” she trotted off to J.J. Newberry's in downtown Oakland to get started on her career. Through a vocational education program at Skyline High, the daughter of a truck mechanic would gain work experience at the big five-and-dime at Broadway and Telegraph Avenue. “I was very dutiful doing the work, lining up things. But one evening I started looking around. And it hit me. I looked into the faces of my co-workers. And they were all women of color in their 40s and 50s and 60s. And they would tell their stories to me. I started thinking, ‘There must be more.' ” An educational recruiter at school planted the seed that a young girl who spent her early years in a rough, multi-ethnic neighborhood in East Oakland could consider going to college in the early 1970s, a time when career expectations for women, particularly minority women, were not high. “That's when my passions started about what college can do to change a young person's life,” said Sakaki, who credits that recruiter with redirecting her from a dead end and setting her on an upward path that culminated in her appointment earlier this year as SSU's president. “It doesn't just change your life,” she said of a college education. “It changes your family's life. It changes your community's life, and it changes society as a whole.” With her appointment to the top job at SSU, Sakaki became the first Japanese-American woman in the country to head up a four-year college or university and the second woman to serve as president of SSU. At each rung in her rise, Sakai was coaxed to the next level by a supporter who saw something greater behind her modest reserve than she might have seen in herself. Along the way she made a practice of reaching down to those just behind her. Sakaki is quick to acknowledge that her career success, propelled by a quiet persistence and what her associates describe as a gift for using reason rather than force to bring people around to her agenda, is also the result of many helping hands. And it has given rise to a mantra that defines her educational ethos: “Each one, teach one.” “You think about the power one person can have on another person, and that is the message I am telling the staff here,” she said. “Each one of us can have an impact on someone, and you don't even know it.” Still early in her tenure at SSU, Sakaki's promised collaborative approach to leadership and a student-centered agenda is taking shape. “She's a diplomat. She's very sensitive to people and extremely hardworking. She finds out what she needs to know, prepares and studies issues and talks to people, and gently coaxes people to move forward. She's not imposing her views. She's doing due diligence and leading,” said Jeri Echeverria, a former colleague from Fresno who Sakaki coaxed out of retirement to be her interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. Out of the gate, Sakaki declared her goal to shift the university's focus from facilities to students and the faculty who teach them. As a CSU graduate, her intent is not to make SSU elite but, instead, more accessible to “every possible student, because every student has the potential and there are so many students in this region that could really do well here.” Her predecessor, Ruben Armiñana, engineered an aggressive capital projects agenda that dramatically transformed the face of the school, with the $145 million Green Music Center his crowning legacy. His priorities also led to bitter divisions with the faculty and a vote of no confidence. One of Sakaki's early decisions was to pull the plug on long-held plans to construct an outdoor performance pavilion at the Green Music Center after deciding the money would be better spent on academic programs and the needs of students and faculty. It was a bold action, something she describes as her most important and “difficult” decision so far. “To me, that was a decision about her focus on priorities,” said Bill Silver, dean of the School of Business and Economics and an expert in organizational and business leadership. “She declared from the beginning her priority is for students.” Sakaki immediately established her turf. She announced the retirement of Larry Furukawa-Schlereth, Armiñana's powerful vice president of administration and finance who also served as director of the Green Music Center. Neither Furukawa-Schlereth nor Armiñana returned telephone calls seeking comment. Two other key members of Armiñana's team retired shortly before her arrival. Sakaki replaced them with her own interim “A-Team” of high-level cabinet members, all former CSU and UC colleagues. It includes a key mentor, former Fresno State President John Welty, who serves as a special advisor on the Green Music Center. They all will serve on an interim basis while she searches for the best candidates to permanently fill the posts. Sakaki reasoned that a temporary brain trust with so much experience but no personal investment in the outcome could take an unbiased look at the university and come up with improvements and efficiencies. An often repeated observation among students and faculty is that Sakaki is “a breath of fresh air.” Until now, she has served almost exclusively in Student Affairs, the division that provides student support services for everything from health, counseling and extracurricular activities to student housing, recruitment, financial aid and athletics. Some students tend to see the new president as something of a collegiate rock star. Her face flapped on banners in welcome when they arrived for the semester, and she mingled among them for “Move In” and the “Big Nite” carnival. Many clamber for selfies with her, and she gamely obliges. “I love her, and I really think the majority of students really, really love her,” said Student Body President Emily Hinton, a junior who described Armiñana as kind but Sakaki more accessible. “We're seeing a definite culture change on campus.” Hinton said when she brought the new president a student body resolution asking for more library access during finals - students were crammed shoulder to shoulder on the first floor and had to exit at 9 p.m. - it didn't stall in the bureaucracy. Sakaki immediately ran it past her cabinet and issued an order to open up the second floor and keep the library open 24 hours during crunch time, calling it “a no brainer.” “We're trying to help students graduate,” she said. Sakaki is rolling out her optimistic vision at a financially critical time that won't make her goals easy. California's public university systems have suffered years of state funding cuts, dropping from $9,363 to $7,916 per student between 2000 and 2014. Trustees are now weighing a $270 tuition hike to deal with a budget shortfall that led the system to turn away more than 30,000 eligible applicants this fall, according to Chancellor Timothy White. Sakaki said a tuition hike is “the last resort.” She noted that while financial aid would cover the increase for the neediest, those families in the middle who make slightly too much to qualify might feel it the most. She said her mission is to make sure it doesn't discourage anyone from finishing. “What we're looking at on the operational side of the university is, are we as lean as we can possibly be?” she said, adding that her team will be looking for more efficiencies. Wary faculty are watching to see how those challenges impact her promise to increase the number of full-time professors, reversing a long trend toward filling posts with part-time and adjunct instructors. Two decades ago, nearly 70 percent of the faculty at SSU was permanent. Today, only 242 - or 39 percent - of the 619 faculty members are on the tenure track, a practice one professor describes as “educating students on the cheap.” The shift has reduced job opportunities and increased the workload of tenured faculty, said Elaine Newman, a professor of math and statistics and SSU chapter president of the California Faculty Association. “I think there is a hopeful feeling among faculty that the tone of this administration is different, more focused on shared governance,” she said. Nonetheless, some observers couch their optimism with a wait-and-see attitude. “I'm cautiously optimistic,” said Catherine Nelson, a political science professor who represents SSU on the statewide Academic Senate, “but I'm not of the camp that thinks everything is going to be great because we have a new president and she has a more open attitude. I'm not trying to heap praise on her. But her perspective is fresh and different and comes out of a student affairs environment where she was more in tune with issues that affected students directly.” Sakaki has spent her first four months packing her schedule with events, appearances, meetings and one-on-ones with every department, organization and interest group on campus, and is now venturing out into the community as a cheerleader for all things “Sea Wolf.” When her old Camry hybrid died, she ordered a replacement in “Sea Wolf Blue.” She takes to the stage at every performance at the Green Music Center to introduce headliners, from “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah to cellist Yo-Yo Ma and recently accepted a challenge to narrate composer Aaron Copland's “Lincoln Portrait” with the University's Wind Ensemble. “I'm up for anything, especially for students,” said Sakaki, who at Davis was persuaded to engage in a cow-milking contest. In her dark suits and low-heeled pumps, she's become a familiar part of the SSU scene. Looking to all sides while walking the paths, she says, “Hello. How are you?” and “Have a good day” to everyone she passes, from students to groundskeepers behind the wheel of maintenance vehicles. She's a hugger, whether it's office colleagues or Lobo, the blue-costumed Sea Wolf mascot. At events she works the crowd, always on the move, walking up with an extended hand again and again. She constantly invites ideas and feedback. As she makes her way through the food court called “The Kitchens,” where she sometimes grabs a bite, a young Asian-American student asks if he can call her “Auntie Judy.” “You can call me Auntie,” she says, later explaining, “In the Asian culture, if there is an older person you respect, you call them Auntie.” Sakaki has launched a program of “Walk and Talks,” inviting students, staff or faculty to sign up for a 30-minute stroll on campus with the president to chat about what's on their minds. It's her way of shoehorning more face time as well as exercise into an already jammed schedule. Her day routinely ends long after midnight with homework or personal business, a bruising schedule she adopted during the 12 years she spent working on her Ph.D. A self-confessed sentimentalist, she saves family treasures like the suitcase her grandfather brought with him when he emigrated from Japan and a button her mother, Masako, made from peach seeds she found at the Topaz Japanese Internment Camp in the high desert of Utah, where the family was incarcerated during World War II. Sakaki frequently shares her family story, drawing inspiration from their strength and perseverance. Both grandmothers were “picture brides,” a common practice in the early 1900s, when young Asian women set off for the U.S. and Hawaii to marry men selected by their parents using photographs only. “My grandmother said she went to the boat dock to see her older sister off, and at the last minute her sister got scared and said, ‘Please, you go instead.' It was right when the boat was pulling away. My grandmother got on the boat with her sister's suitcase. She didn't even have her own clothes.” Her families on both sides left everything behind when they were abruptly sent off to camps, she said, enduring a harsh life with few creature comforts in bleak overcrowded barracks. “That experience was deeply embedded in the psyche of how we were raised,” she said, along with her elders' adherence to the Japanese philosophy of “shikata ga nai,” which loosely means accepting what can't be changed and making the best of it. “What struck me about my grandmother is no matter what happened she had this very positive, optimistic view. Whenever I have an experience that is difficult or challenging or that people don't understand, I think, ‘Oh, my grandmother.' ” In 2009, while working as vice president of student affairs for the UC system, Sakaki spearheaded a task force to award honorary degrees to some 700 Japanese-Americans who were forced to drop out of UC schools when they were sent to relocation camps. UC had a longstanding policy against awarding honorary degrees to anyone, so it wasn't a quick and easy sell to regents, said longtime friend Hayashi, who was born at the same Utah camp where her family was incarcerated. “She was opposed every step of the way. People thought it was a long time ago and it would start a slippery slope of honorary degrees,” said Hayashi. “But she developed strong arguments and kept pushing, and finally built up the political support to get it approved. She did a remarkable thing.” Then she went to all the coaches, including Tarkanian, and politely but firmly asked for cooperation with her new policy and got it. “I just held my ground. I knew it was the right thing,” she said. “In your core, when you know something is right, it gives you the strength to stick by it.” Her greatest challenge came in 1997, when a young African-American student, Malcolm Boyd, was beaten with a lead pipe outside an off-campus frat party. The school had no police chief at the time. Welty put Sakaki in charge. “One of the toughest things I've ever had to do is meet (Boyd's) parents in the intensive care unit and apologize for what happened to their son. He could have been my son, or anyone's son.” It turned out the beating was done by two young white supremacists. “Because I was the person identified in the newspaper as being in charge, the KKK called me on my office phone and left the most awful hate I've ever heard in my life,” she said, some directed at her personally as an Asian-American. “It shook me to the core.” The Klan demanded permission to demonstrate on campus. Told that free speech rules required her to allow it, and that she could control only the rally's time and place, she gave them the emptiest time possible at 5 p.m. Saturday and arranged to bus interested students off site to a tolerance teach-in while white-robed Klansmen rode in on horses. “I made it through the whole week, and on the weekends I just needed to take a drive to the mountains and sit there and cry,” she remembered. “To weep for why there is such hate and how we as a society had gotten to that place. ... As an administrator, you have these kinds of experiences that change you and give you a passion for what you do. It's why I'm so committed to diversity and making sure first-generation college students have a chance.” Sakaki packs a lot into her day, regularly working from 8 a.m. to midnight, leaving little time for her personal life. Using characteristic time efficiency, since arriving in July she has managed to find a house, buy a new car and get married. All were possible because she is disinclined to dither over quotidian matters. With only a couple of weekends to look, she bought a house in Fountaingrove big enough for the entertaining demanded of a university president, filled the walls with original art donated to SSU by the Benziger wine family that was otherwise going into storage and threw a welcoming party for new faculty. She also arranged her own wedding in September and held it in the garden of her new home. She shopped for her own wedding ring online at 2 a.m. Wearing a modern dress made from vintage purple kimono fabric that had been in her family for many years, Sakaki married Patrick McCallum, an educational consultant and lobbyist whose clients include many community colleges. The pair both “push it,” as her old friend, Frank Chong, president of Santa Rosa Junior College said, putting in long hours and taking work home. But when they get the time, they share a love of hiking and getting outdoors. Sakaki has two grown sons from a previous marriage. Her youngest, Gary Wong, 32, is a high school English teacher in Sacramento with two small sons. Her oldest, Dennis Wong, 35, is a doctor with a 4-year-old daughter. Sakaki makes family a priority in what extra time she has, doting on her three grandchildren. Her cousin, Sherry Hirota of Oakland, said Sakaki is the one who brings people together, hosting the family's traditional New Year's Day celebration. At SSU, she's settling in. She removed the dark wood bookshelves that marked Armiñana's space, lightening up the president's office with white walls and artwork. People who come to her office for meetings often are served tea out of a vintage Japanese tea set. Sakaki's closest friends all say the same thing about her: that whatever actions she takes, it's out of a single-minded goal to get more students to dream big and go to college, and back that with the support they need to succeed. In July, during her third week on the job, she hosted 500 disadvantaged and minority kids from a Sacramento after-school program run by a friend. She enlisted the faculty and staff to engage them in hands-on activities to excite them about education. “I didn't want them to just get a tour of the buildings,” she said, pulling out a large pile of thank-you cards they sent. “I wanted them to have an experience they will never forget because that's how we're going to open their eyes to different possibilities. That's how we're going to change things, to get kids to think, ‘I can go to college.'?” You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @megmcconahey. Print Sonoma State President Judy Sakaki was part of a group of Cal State presidents who met with a top aide from the Assembly speaker’s office in February to say they had lost confidence in the system chancellor over his handling of a sexual harassment case Sakaki now faces a revolt from some faculty on the Academic Senate at her own campus who are drafting a resolution for a no-confidence vote in her leadership after a Times investigation detailed accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation involving Sakaki and her husband Records show that just weeks before the Feb 15 phone meeting with Assemblyman Anthony Rendon’s office Sakaki signed a settlement in which CSU agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a legal claim filed by a former provost who reported the harassment allegations against the president’s husband and alleged that Sakaki then retaliated against her A Rendon spokeswoman confirmed that the meeting took place and said the speaker had been unaware of the settlement when Sakaki and four other CSU presidents met with his higher education aide Sakaki and other presidents said they and other top administrators across the nation’s largest four-year public university system had lost confidence in Castro according to a campus president who took part in the discussion who asked not to be named to be able to discuss the private meeting with Rendon’s office The state senator who represents the district that includes Sonoma State told The Times Wednesday that the latest disclosure about Sakaki’s meeting with the speaker’s office smacked of “hypocrisy.” and now I’m hearing clearly that there’s a lack of confidence in her leadership,” Sen Sakaki did not respond to messages seeking comment Sakaki and McCallum previously issued statements to The Times saying they had done nothing wrong Sakaki denied retaliating against then-Provost Lisa Vollendorf declaring that the accusations “are utterly without basis.” Sakaki signed a settlement agreement with Vollendorf who alleged she faced retaliation from the president after she reported the sexual harassment accusations about McCallum to the CSU general counsel McCallum is an official campus volunteer who has attended many university events with his wife He also is a veteran lobbyist for higher education associations and victims who lost homes in wildfires in recent years McCallum and Sakaki lost their Santa Rosa house in the 2017 Tubbs fire which killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes the retired appellate court judge who oversees the Fire Victim Trust — a fund set up to pay PG&E Corp wildfire victims — announced that it was no longer retaining McCallum as a lobbyist “We want our entire focus to be on what we’re doing to help fire victims rebuild their lives not on unrelated issues that have become a distraction in recent days,” John K The disclosures about the allegations and settlement have unleashed simmering tensions on the Sonoma campus where faculty leaders have voiced concerns about dropping student enrollment and whether Sakaki can continue leading the campus in light of the scandal involving her and her husband On Monday, Sakaki announced she was separating from McCallum, saying he sent emails to family and friends about the scandal that she described as “inaccurate and unauthorized.” The emails referenced “hurtful allegations” and criticized Vollendorf, according to an email that was reviewed by Times reporters. The Academic Senate’s executive committee will discuss a vote of no confidence for Sakaki at its meeting on Thursday. Senate Chair Lauren Morimoto expects the committee to put the no-confidence vote on the Senate agenda for the following week. Professor Talena Sanders, who’s helping to draft the no-confidence resolution, said the scandal is a tipping point for many who have voiced frustration over Sakaki’s leadership in the midst of an ongoing drop in enrollment. “I think this has become such a big distraction, to put it mildly, that there’s no effective way she can lead the university. She’s already been failing as a leader in so many ways with our budget and enrollment crisis,” said Sanders. “The faculty has been dissatisfied for a while. Morale has been low for a while.” The CSU has experienced a systemwide decrease of roughly 13,000 students over the past year, the Assembly Budget Committee on Education Finance estimated at a recent hearing. But a handful of universities, including Sonoma State, have been affected more than others. “This seems to be a failure from the Chancellor’s Office to adequately investigate its own protocol ... I think there needs to be an outside investigation into this entire situation,” Sanders said. CSU paid $600,000 to settle a former Sonoma State provost’s legal claim that she suffered retaliation after reporting sexual harassment by the university president’s husband The Times’ investigation of Sonoma State detailed Vollendorf’s reports to the CSU about the allegations against McCallum. Vollendorf is a longtime higher-education administrator and was recently appointed as president of State University of New York Empire State College. Vollendorf said she told the general counsel in December 2018 that three women — two of them campus employees — alleged McCallum talked about his sex life, ran his fingers through one woman’s hair and then made “inappropriate personal comments” about her appearance during a party at his house, according to settlement records that the provost’s attorney filed with system officials. Gordon McDougall, who directed Sonoma State’s University Advancement Division before retiring in 2020, said he changed schedules to prevent women on his team from working with McCallum during campus events following “complaints of inappropriate touching and comments.” embattled Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki announced she is separating from Patrick McCallum who is at the center of sexual harassment allegations Sonoma State President Judy Sakaki said Monday that she is separating from her husband, Patrick McCallum, who is at the center of allegations of sexual harassment The announcement comes less than a week after The Press Democrat first reported revelations that the California State University system paid a $600,000 settlement in January to a former provost to resolve a dispute related to the complaints involving McCallum Sakaki’s announcement also comes after a tumultuous weekend during which McCallum, in a rambling email to “friends and family,” claimed Vollendorf exposed the sexual harassment allegations, which were never substantiated, to cover for her own poor job performance. On Monday, Lauren Morimoto, head of the kinesiology department, said the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate, which she chairs, will decide Thursday whether to schedule a vote of no confidence against Sakaki by the full senate. By Monday afternoon, California Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, had weighed in on the controversy, also raising questions about Sakaki’s leadership. “The reports are a significant distraction for the university at a critical time, and raise serious questions about her leadership and (judgment),” said Dodd, whose district encompasses the university, which is based in Rohnert Park. “It is concerning and deserves close scrutiny by the CSU chancellor and board of trustees as to how the interests of students and employees can be best served going forward.” Dodd spokesman Paul Payne said the senator was not specifically calling for a formal investigation. “He’s just saying the chancellor and (CSU) trustees should take a close look at the situation and decide the best thing to do to benefit students and faculty,” he said. Sakaki, through a spokesman, declined to comment on Monday’s statement, which asked for her privacy to be respected. “These past few days have been extremely difficult. I am now faced with a challenge that I never thought I would need to confront: disavowing the words and actions of my husband, Patrick McCallum,” Sakaki wrote. “At this time, I have made the difficult personal decision to separate from Patrick. This past weekend, Patrick sent an inaccurate and unauthorized email to friends and family. The email was sent without my knowledge or consent and does not reflect my viewpoint. I consider the matters between Dr. (Lisa) Vollendorf and me to be resolved.” McCallum’s email and statement over the weekend was his first detailed public response since the allegations were reported by The Press Democrat last week, though he did issue a terse apology to anyone he may have offended. On Monday, McCallum did not respond to a request for an interview but did issue another statement by text regarding his wife’s announcement. “I continue to stand by the veracity of my statements and hope with all my heart that my marriage can survive the stress that this unfounded controversy has placed on it,” he wrote. The January 2022 $600,000 payout to Vollendorf, who left Sonoma State in 2020, came from CSU insurance, a university spokesperson said. About a year earlier, Vollendorf reported to CSU officials that several female SSU employees had raised sexual harassment concerns involving McCallum, a semiretired education lobbyist who has been married to Sakaki since 2016, the year she assumed the helm at Sonoma State. Two of the women who complained spoke to The Press Democrat. One said McCallum had acted “creepy” and made her feel uncomfortable. Another said she took steps not to be alone with McCallum at social events. Vollendorf’s report, and the ensuing CSU investigation, triggered retaliation from Sakaki, according to the claim Vollendorf filed in July 2021 with the CSU Chancelor’s Office. The claim also states that Sakaki violated an agreement to arrange Vollendorf’s transfer to the CSU Chancellor’s Office. Sakaki has denied accusations of retaliation. In a statement last week, she said she was “surprised and saddened” when she heard of the allegations against her husband. In Monday’s statement, Sakaki said she continues to be focused on her work and is thankful for the support she is receiving. “My focus is on leading Sonoma State University,” Sakaki wrote. “I am grateful to the many faculty, staff, students, alumni, members of the extended Sonoma State community, and friends and colleagues from all over the country who have offered their support.” Morimoto, the Academic Senate chair, said some faculty view Sakaki’s separation as a strategic play to distance herself from McCallum in an effort to keep her job. “Most people see it as sort of a desperation move,” she said. “It doesn’t really deal with the things that people are upset about, which is the retaliation and the Title IX issues.” For his part, McCallum said he will focus on his work with retired appellate court Justice John Trotter, who oversees the Fire Victim Trust, a fund created by Pacific Gas & Electric after the 2017 North Bay wildfires and other blazes. “I am going back to my job of getting wildfire victims fully compensated,” McCallum said Monday in a text message. “Judge Trotter hired me to come up with solutions and lobby the (governor and state legislature) and that is what I’m focusing on.” McCallum and Sakaki lost their home in the 2017 Tubbs fire, narrowly outracing the flames as they ran for their lives. In a statement Sunday night, McCallum blamed part of his troubles on unresolved post-traumatic stress from that episode. Dr. Judy K. Sakaki, president of Sonoma State University, will step down, effective July 31. Last month, two California state senators called on Sakaki to resign amid a no confidence vote by faculty members – a vote that came after allegations Sakaki retaliated against an employee who reported sexual harassment by Sakaki's estranged husband. That ended in a settlement that brought negative attention to the school.  "Serving as Sonoma State President has truly been an honor. After thoughtful reflection and discussions with my family, I made the decision to step away as president of this wonderful campus," Sakaki said. She was the first Japanese woman to serve as a university president in the U.S. Sonoma State said under Sakaki's tenure, student graduation rates have improved. The school also said its two-year transfer graduation rate is now the highest of all California State Universities. Sakaki recounted the experience again last week in a video presented to the Academic Senate before it decided to push ahead with a motion of no confidence in her leadership amid a campus sexual harassment and retaliation scandal involving the president and her husband What Sakaki didn’t say in the video — and has not discussed widely — is that nearly $85,000 in artwork donated to the university for public viewing and educational purposes was among the items destroyed when the massive wildfire burned her home to the ground The destruction of the artwork and the push by McCallum to hang additional art from the university’s collection in their replacement homes became a key issue in the sexual harassment reports against the president’s husband that recently sparked a scandal threatening the president’s leadership Sonoma State’s faculty starts voting this week on a motion of no confidence in Sakaki’s leadership 44 state lawmakers have called for a systemwide audit of how sexual harassment allegations involving employees are investigated as well as payouts made to top executives Weeks after Sonoma State’s president criticized the CSU’s sex harassment response, she herself is embroiled in scandal, with faculty revolting against her. McCallum became frustrated that the process was not moving fast enough and questioned whether Sakaki’s Cabinet, or leadership team, had to vote on installing the artwork, according to allegations in the settlement records. A top university leader said she overheard him telling two women on staff: “I sleep with the head of the Cabinet, so I basically am on the Cabinet and get a vote, and I vote for the art,” according to the records. The acrylic, mixed-media and watercolor images lost in the fire were part of the largest gift of art in the history of Sonoma State, valued at more than $2 million. The Benziger Family Winery, a Sonoma Valley institution, donated the collection of about 450 pieces in 2015 so that the images would remain together and be displayed in prominent public spaces on campus, according to donation documents the university released in response to a California Public Records Act request by Times reporters. Joe Benziger, who helped arrange the donation, told The Times that he had heard secondhand from faculty friends that some artwork had been destroyed but that the family never received an official accounting from Sakaki or other Sonoma State administrators. “It was meant to stay at the university,” he said of the artwork. “We didn’t even keep it for our home.” Eighteen pieces of art were destroyed at Sakaki’s home, including a piece of calligraphy by the artist Wang Dongling valued at $15,900; a mixed-media work by the late artist Nancy Graves valued at $12,900; and an oil on masonite painting by the artist Joseph Maruska valued at $5,400, records show. Sonoma State officials sought to recoup the loss, filing an insurance claim shortly after the wildfire, according to the records. Flames from the blaze did not reach the campus. In a written response, a university spokeswoman said the art was on loan to Sakaki to display in her home because she often hosts events that benefit the campus. The spokeswoman, Julia Gonzalez, said the university received an insurance claim payment for the “value of the artwork” and that no Sonoma State art was installed in the couple’s homes after the blaze. The accounts about the sexual harassment allegations and the tensions over hanging the artwork in Sakaki’s home were documented in records related to a legal claim filed by Lisa Vollendorf, a former provost at Sonoma State. A Times investigation last month detailed how California State University paid $600,000 to settle the claim which alleged that Vollendorf faced retaliation from Sakaki after she reported to top Cal State officials that several women had accused McCallum of unwanted touching and making sexual comments Sakaki and McCallum have said they did nothing wrong, and Sakaki described the retaliation accusations as “utterly without basis.” Sakaki later announced that she had separated from her husband after he sent emails criticizing Vollendorf and news reports about the scandal communications that Sakaki called “inaccurate and unauthorized.” The Benziger family purchased its ranch in 1980 in Glen Ellen a bucolic community in the heart of the Sonoma Valley The multigenerational family business became a leader in biodynamic In the early 1980s, Joe Benziger met Bob Nugent, a renowned local artist and art professor at Sonoma State, when they broke up a fight at a polo match. They became friends and came up with the idea of commissioning contemporary art for Benziger wine bottles. For more than three decades, hundreds of artists created original pieces, the only requirement being that the works incorporated the Parthenon. A re-creation of the Greek temple was on the property when it was purchased by the family. “We thought it would be a really cool thing to tie all the art together and the property,” Benziger told The Times. The collection, which featured prominent artists such as Sol LeWitt, Robert Arneson and Squeak Carnwath, became too large for the family to display. Benziger said the family wanted to keep the collection together and believed that Sonoma State, which his daughters attended, would be an ideal location because it had ample public spaces and was developing its wine business management program. With the help of Nugent, who curated the collection, they donated the art to the university in late 2015, about six months before Sakaki arrived. “We wanted the public to enjoy it,” Benziger said. “We also wanted it to be used as a teaching tool for up-and-coming students.” In an interview, Nugent said benefiting the students was “one of the major reasons” behind the donation. In a thank-you letter, a former Sonoma State vice president who directed fundraising assured the family that the university would be “proud and most grateful to display an art collection of this caliber and diversity in our new Wine Spectator Learning Center, the University Art Gallery and the Schultz Information Center.” In a donation acceptance document, the university acknowledged a key restriction to the gift: “collection to be kept together.” In March 2016, Sonoma State announced the gift in a news release. The university noted that the pieces would be displayed in campus galleries and other spaces for the public to enjoy. “It will be wonderful,” a university official said in the release, “for the students to have a large collection to study and use to organize exhibitions.” Last week, as Sakaki fought to restore confidence in her leadership before the Academic Senate, she drew on the Tubbs fire as a reminder that Sonoma State is her home. “I was forced to abandon everything I owned as I fled from that house in the midst of intense fires, explosions and smoke,” she said of the wildfire, which killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes. After the devastation, McCallum pushed to have artwork installed in the couple’s new residence, according to the settlement records. Vollendorf alleged in the records that McCallum made sexually harassing comments during discussions about the university art collection and that some staff were uncomfortable with placing the art in the couple’s private homes after the fire. “A significant amount of tension surrounded the discussions about displaying the art at their private residences since this was not within the customary deployment of SSU’s art collection and since a large portion of a donated private collection had burned in 2017 at the home,” according to the records. Vollendorf, who said she had overheard the McCallum comments about sleeping “with the head of the Cabinet,” reported that staffers “found Mr. McCallum’s statements connecting sex, power and influence to be offensive and disturbing.” The allegations were among the reports of sexual harassment that Vollendorf said she passed along to the chancellor’s office. Cal State system officials acknowledged that they did not launch a formal investigation into the sexual harassment claims and instead spoke to Sakaki about the accusations against her husband. The husband of Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki is a veteran Sacramento lobbyist who has specialized in higher education clients and causes The California State University system in January reached a $600,000 settlement to resolve a claim by a former Sonoma State University provost alleging SSU President Judy Sakaki retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment complaints about Sakaki’s husband CSU investigators interviewed three individuals in 2019 who had reported their encounters with McCallum to the provost Vollendorf said the allegations “painted a cohesive picture of harassment” by McCallum An SSU spokesperson told The Press Democrat the complaints involved “touching and conversations that made some individuals uncomfortable.” According to excerpts from the Title IX investigation shared by SSU with The Press Democrat one of the individuals said they hadn’t been harassed by Sakaki’s spouse and didn’t want to make a complaint Another said they hadn’t witnessed harassment A fourth person said they did not want a formal investigation but requested that McCallum be talked to about what is considered appropriate behavior McCallum initially issued a blanket denial Wednesday that he had acted inappropriately “I deny any allegation that I engaged in any wrongful conduct toward anyone,” he said in a written statement in response to more detailed questions from The Press Democrat about specific allegations of misconduct “I want to apologize to anyone who has felt uncomfortable in my presence or through my actions,” he said “It was never my intent to act disrespectfully but it's clear that I made some people uncomfortable Here is some basic background on McCallum’s professional life his work in higher education and ties to Sonoma State through Sakaki McCallum frequently served as a “university volunteer” and was an active presence on campus attending many SSU-sponsored events with campus employees including some hosted at his and Sakaki’s home They have since resettled in a Bennett Valley home a Sacramento-based lobbying firm specializing in but not limited to issues in higher education The group lists over 40 community college districts in California as being clients and also worked on behalf of clients in health care • He lobbies for employee associations including the California Association for Alcohol/Drug Educators and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association McCallum became a lead face and chief lobbyist for Up from the Ashes an advocacy group focused on wildfire policy A self-described coalition of wildfire survivors Up from the Ashes was backed by heavyweight trial attorneys representing thousands of property owners against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. • He majored in international relations and economics at San Francisco State then earned a master’s in public policy from Occidental College • He served as executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges which grew from 1,600 members to over 9,000 members during his tenure The short statement from the husband of SSU President Judy Sakaki rejected allegations made public Wednesday of sexual harassment by McCallum affecting SSU employees the husband of Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki late on Wednesday night issued a written statement in response to allegations reported by a former SSU provost that he sexually harassed several university employees “I deny any allegation that I engaged in any wrongful conduct toward anyone,” McCallum The Press Democrat had sought a response from McCallum before publishing its story online and immediately incorporated part of his response in that online story as well as in the story published in print Thursday Sakaki, in a separate written statement Wednesday evening said she was “surprised and saddened to learn of the allegations” against McCallum She also rejected the claims by Vollendorf of retaliation Vollendorf declined to comment on Wednesday The $600,000 settlement, reached Jan. 13, was signed by Sakaki, McCallum, Vollendorf and an attorney for the CSU system a legislative advocacy and government relations consultancy with a focus on higher education He was previously executive director for the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges “I am extremely proud of what Judy Sakaki has accomplished as President of Sonoma State University in changing the culture redirecting resources to students and faculty and proposing and supporting new pedagogical strategies that now make Sonoma State University one of the best CSU campuses for student success I am also proud of my service as a Sonoma State volunteer and enjoy assisting Judy as a champion for the campus staff and campus supporters have been wonderful to us both especially after we suffered the loss of our home and nearly our lives during the fires I deny any allegation that I engaged in any wrongful conduct toward anyone We look forward to our mutual focus of making Sonoma State University the best campus in the CSU system with exceptional academic outcomes for students their families and the community as a whole.” there’s more to the medium of anime and manga than just the typical action battle shonens RELATED: The Top 10 New Manga Series Of 2022 Our favorite new title to begin serialization in 2022 Kenji Sakaki’s ‘death survival game’ series blew us away with both its fresh take on the horror genre and its eerie art – so much so that we reached out to the mangaka in the hopes that she would take the time to provide us with further insights into her creative process Sakaki agreed to take time out of her busy schedule to exclusively speak with us about not only her difficult journey to Tokyo Underworld‘s serialization but also the inspirations behind its story and monstrous executioner designs Neridigans Inc.: How difficult was the journey to get Tokyo Underworld serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Plus Kenji Sakaki: It was a long and difficult journey to get Tokyo Underworld serialize and several works were sacrificed but once I decided to depict a hell similar to Tokyo so the serialization was decided right away.  it was very difficult to start a weekly serialization with a child so I decided to delay the start date of Tokyo Underworld‘s serialization Nerdigans Inc.: How difficult is it to balance being a wife and mother while working the harsh schedule of a weekly serialization?  Kenji Sakaki: Juggling a weekly series and childcare is very difficult I am fast at drawing manuscripts and good at managing my schedule I like the weekly series and hope to keep it that way as long as I can Nerdigans Inc.: Is all of the incredible art seen in Tokyo Underworld manga hand drawn Kenji Sakaki: I do all my painting on the computer but I changed because the computer is easier Nerdigans Inc.: What was the inspiration for Tokyo Underworld Kenji Sakaki:  I wanted to depict Hell The Japanese idea of Hell is a place where people who have committed sins go and are punished by the demons that live there I wanted to depict the escape from hell in an entertaining manga style Nerdigans Inc.: Why did you ultimately decide to use an urban setting for Tokyo Underworld Kenji Sakaki: The reason for setting it in a city is I wanted to depict one strange town I like to make stories in a limited space (I like LOST I decided to make a tour of famous places in Tokyo Are the execution sites depicted in Tokyo Underworld based on actual locations Kenji Sakaki: They were conceived by incorporating an actual location in Tokyo The Rainbow Bridge in Daiba is an actual bridge and Ginza is famous for its department stores there were several execution sites throughout the city Nerdigans Inc.: Another concept of Tokyo Underworld that we really found interesting were guiltograms and how even self-guilt contributes to the weight of one’s guilt Kenji Sakaki: A guilt-gram is a unit of weight for grudges It is weighted according to the intensity of the grudge directed at you or others the more the person directs the grudge toward himself…this is a point I like to make here Nerdigans Inc.: An aspect we really love about Tokyo Underworld is the concept of the executioners being based off of real life historical figures What was your inspiration for their designs I wanted to use a motif of an enemy that readers could easily visualize and understand So I chose a great historical figure with an eerie RELATED: The Top 5 Creepiest Manga Monsters Nerdigans Inc.: The designs for the executioners seen in Tokyo Underworld thus far are the most creative and creepy interpretations of historical figures we’ve seen depicted in historical-based fiction What was the creative process behind them and who is your favorite Kenji Sakaki: I like Benkei’s design best I made him a familiar historical figure in Japan Since Benkei is the first executioner to appear in Tokyo Underworld I decided to go with a character who does not talk much to emphasize his eeriness I chose to give him an ugly design to leave a strong impression of the Toyosu Guilty market dealers combined with the sea It is quite difficult to draw the barnacles on his back Kenji Sakaki: The executioner Antoinette is the queen of love and eating (predation) for which I used an octopus and various movie space-lifeforms as references Nerdigans Inc.: What can readers expect from Tokyo Underworld in 2023 readers can look forward to several major battles against the executioners With the recent events revealed at the end of 2022 Yami and the gang will feel an increased sense of urgency and speed in their search for a way out of the Tokyo Underworld NEXT: The Top 10 Manga Moments Of 2022 More About:Manga The California State University system paid $600,000 in January to a former top Sonoma State University administrator to resolve a dispute related to staff complaints of sexual harassment involving SSU President Judy Sakaki’s husband records obtained by The Press Democrat reveal The seven-page settlement and the claim that triggered it show former provost Lisa Vollendorf accused Sakaki of retaliation for reporting sexual harassment complaints by several female Sonoma State employees against Patrick McCallum He is Sakaki’s husband and a prominent education lobbyist Vollendorf in 2018 reported allegations to the California State University executive vice chancellor “which painted a cohesive picture of harassment” by McCallum That claim and the ensuing settlement — signed Jan Sakaki and McCallum — were provided to The Press Democrat on Wednesday morning by the CSU Chancellor’s Office based in Long Beach after a public records request The documents do not describe specific behavior or detailed allegations related to McCallum university spokesperson Julia Gonzalez said the nature of complaints brought to administrators would not likely constitute sexual harassment.” “(They) involved complaints of touching and conversations that made some individuals uncomfortable,” she said said she was “surprised and saddened” when she heard of the allegations against her husband Sakaki also denied allegations that she retaliated against any employee calling Vollendorf’s claims “utterly without basis.” Vollendorf received an exemplary performance evaluation as provost from Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki in 2018 several women affiliated with SSU approached Dr Vollendorf with allegations of sexual harassment “The allegations — all of which painted a cohesive picture of harassment — were against President Sakaki’s husband including attending many SSU-sponsored events attended by employees.” The claim accused CSU of failing to “follow its own policies related to harassment and discrimination.” Sexual harassment includes “unwelcome verbal nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature," according to CSU's definition The settlement also accused CSU of “negligently failing to control President Sakaki’s conduct as required” by a 2019 separation agreement she reached with Vollendorf McCallum issued a short written statement late Wednesday saying he was proud of his service as a Sonoma State volunteer “I deny any allegation that I engaged in any wrongful conduct toward anyone,” he said “The University takes allegations of sexual harassment very “The allegations of any unprofessional conduct by President Sakaki’s spouse were carefully reviewed by the system’s Title IX compliance officer They concluded that the conduct that was reported would not likely constitute sexual harassment by policy’s standards,” she added Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education People interviewed didn’t want to engage in a formal complaint process the Title IX officer conducted no further investigation According to excerpts from the Title IX investigation shared by Gonzalez of the four people the compliance officer reached out to One said they hadn’t been harassed by Sakaki’s spouse and didn’t want to make a complaint and another said they hadn’t witnessed harassment I am not asking for any remedy as I do not think I have been harmed but I am glad to have spoken to you about a situation that has been difficult to negotiate,” the person said according to an excerpt of the Title IX report shared by Gonzalez Vollendorf filed the claim after Sakaki reportedly violated the terms of a 2019 separation agreement that transferred Vollendorf’s employment to the Chancellor’s Office in 2020 She spent a year there before leaving to take a job as interim provost at the University of Northern Colorado Vollendorf made her 2018 report to the CSU Chancellor’s Office in line with her responsibilities as a mandated reporter requires her to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment or sexual abuse by university employees then under the leadership of Chancellor Timothy White which included speaking with Sakaki in April 2019 acknowledged White spoke with Sakaki about the reported concerns regarding her husband “(They) discussed the important role and expectations for the president’s spouse who is technically an official university volunteer and an ambassador for the university.” Vollendorf and her attorney described the interviews as “cursory” and accused CSU officials of failing to follow policies related to workplace harassment and discrimination President Sakaki began a campaign of retaliation against Dr Vollendorf,” the former provost said in her claim That included limiting the scope of Vollendorf’s job responsibilities at Sonoma State and requiring her to undergo “inappropriate and unprofessional therapeutic ‘coaching’ by an untrained therapist.” Vollendorf said she was “forced to leave her position as SSU provost rather than continue to be subjected to this hostile and retaliatory behavior Sakaki denied she had retaliated against Vollendorf in her statement “Let me be clear: I would not and never have retaliated against any person who raises concerns or questions my decisions,” she said “The claims of retaliation are utterly without basis I do not feel it would be appropriate to comment further.” Sonoma State agreed to the $600,000 settlement because officials wanted to “avoid the need for costly and protracted litigation,” Gonzalez said “While CSU denied that there is any wrongdoing this settlement allowed for resolution without litigation and for both parties to move forward.” She also addressed any public perception the $600,000 settlement will come from student fees “It’s really important that people know that the settlement is not paid from any student tuition or fees,” Gonzalez said “The university has insurance to cover settlements such as this.” News of the settlement at Sonoma State comes as the California State University the nation’s largest four-year college system deals with the abrupt departure of its top leader amid furor over mismanagement of complaints about staff misconduct former Chancellor Joseph Castro resigned in February amid criticism over accusations that he mishandled sexual abuse and misconduct allegations during his time as president of Fresno State Some Sonoma State employees said in recent days the campus has been buzzing with accounts of McCallum’s reported misbehavior and the CSU investigation News of the sexual harassment claims and settlement come at a time of significant challenge on campus as the school struggles to rebound from the pandemic’s impact on enrollment who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from top administrators said there has been a vacuum in leadership at Sonoma State leaving many faculty members feeling “severely demoralized.” “There are definitely rumors about what’s happening behind the scenes.” is set to become president of State University of New York Empire State College later this year Vollendorf spent a year as special adviser for academic planning and operational continuity in the CSU Chancellor's Office That move was agreed upon in November 2019 according to the separation agreement negotiated between Vollendorf and Sakaki that was also released to The Press Democrat Sonoma State paid for Vollendorf’s salary and benefits while she was in that position both women agreed to make only “respectful positive and professional” statements about the other’s work Vollendorf filed her claim against CSU July 26 after comments Sakaki made five months earlier “Concrete evidence emerged of President Sakaki’s interference with Dr Vollendorf’s job prospects and defamatory statements about her,” the claim read Sakaki, 69, came to Sonoma State University in 2016 after serving as vice president of student affairs in the University of California Office of the President She is the seventh president of Sonoma State and was the first Japanese American woman to be president of a four-year university with an additional $60,000 stipend for housing McCallum’s Sacramento-based consulting firm specializes in legislative advocacy and government relations Sakaki and McCallum, 68, lost their Fountaingrove home in the 2017 Tubbs fire, barely escaping with their lives faculty and staff at Sonoma State were similarly displaced that year Sakaki and McCallum relocated to a home in Bennett Valley After the 2017 fires, McCallum headed Up From the Ashes, a coalition of residents who lost their homes, which lobbies the state Legislature on issues such as compensation for fire victims. Reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay. Reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno. Reach PD Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @InYourCornerTPD 707-521-5250, kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com 707-521-5213, martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com 707-521-5470, marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com props: {"enabled":true,"viewLimit":1,"excludeLabels":["Sponsored"],"timeframe":2592000000,"displayOverlay":true,"promoCode":"registration_meter","isLoggedIn":false,"requiresUserInput":false,"displayGate":true,"views":1} skipWhenExists: false }); Create an account CMSBrowserComponents.load({ el: '#vue-1746508874861-352' props: {"className":"content-meter__toggler","beforeExpanded":"Create an account","beforeCollapsed":"Create a free account","targets":[".content-meter"],"toggleClass":"content-meter--open","iconModifiers":["xl"],"iconName":"chevron-up","initiallyExpanded":true,"expandedIconName":"chevron-down"} skipWhenExists: false });Create a free Diverse: Issues In Higher Education account to continue reading Judy Sakaki becomes president of Sonoma State University (SSU) in July it will be a milestone in the school’s history Not only will SSU leadership change hands for the first time since 1992 but the university will welcome its second female president and first Asian American president Asian American presidents comprise less than 1 percent of the total number of college and university presidents in the United States Asian Americans in higher education are the workhorses and not the show horses,” says Dr superintendent/president of Santa Rosa Junior College “They’re people behind the scenes doing a lot of the work without getting credit for it and when it comes time to consider bringing these people forward to an executive-level position Chong and Sakaki have been colleagues for 30 years and early on in their careers collaborated to found Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE) “She’s a wonderful listener and collaborator she’s a very insightful person and she’s a very inclusive person,” Chong says of Sakaki “Coming from a student affairs background and a counseling background I think will serve her well as she ascends to a presidency because a lot of what we do is problem-solve and try to get people to work together.” one of Sakaki’s first jobs was as a community outreach coordinator at California State University reaching out to Black and Latino students in Oakland She now serves as the vice president of student affairs in the office of University of California (UC) System President Janet Napolitano SSU President Judy Sakaki was told in 2016 about concerns over her husband’s behavior according to a former Green Music Center director That account and another case raise new questions about Sakaki’s handling of harassment claims at Sonoma State This story is based on nearly a dozen interviews with current and former Sonoma State employees a Title IX expert and hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the newspaper through public records requests Reporters Kaylee Tornay and Marisa Endicott interviewed former Green Music Center Managing Director Kevin Wenrick five times over the past month Wenrick reached out to the newspaper April 19, six days after The Press Democrat first reported a $600,000 settlement paid by the California State University system to a former SSU provost over retaliation claims tied to sexual harassment reports involving SSU President Judy Sakaki’s husband corroborating accounts from others and available documents from the time were used to piece together the chronology in which Wenrick said he shared his concerns about McCallum with Sakaki and his firing six weeks later in September 2016 Sakaki and former SSU Vice President of Student Affairs William Gregory Sawyer did not respond to interview requests Sakaki answered written questions through a personal spokesperson The Press Democrat continues to dig into the Sonoma State University controversy Three reporters are reviewing public documents and seeking greater transparency from SSU officials and leaders in the Cal State system Sonoma State University Title IX Resources •SSU Title IX Compliance Office: 707-664-4140 or ophd@sonoma.edu •SSU Victim's Advocate: 707-664-2698 or susan.pulido@sonoma.edu •SSU Human Resources Whistleblower contact Director of Employee and Labor Relations: 707-664-2212 or erin.taylor@sonoma.edu A former administrator at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center says he tried to tell President Judy Sakaki about the discomfort some female staff members were experiencing around her husband in August 2016 and now he suspects he lost his job because of it In a series of interviews with The Press Democrat over several weeks former managing director of the Green Music Center said he was fired within weeks of his conversation with Sakaki leaving him feeling confused and conflicted he believed he was fired because he is gay after reading recent reports that a former Sonoma State provost had also accused Sakaki of retaliation for making reports of sexual harassment against Sakaki’s husband said she had no recollection of such a conversation with Wenrick and denied any retaliation Sakaki, 69, has been under fire since April 13, when The Press Democrat reported the California State University system paid a $600,000 settlement to former provost Lisa Vollendorf who made sexual harassment reports to the CSU Chancellor’s Office on behalf of three female employees against Sakaki’s now-estranged husband Wenrick’s allegations come as Sakaki is defending her actions involving a vice president with sexual harassment claims in his past That case involves former Vice President of Student Affairs William Gregory Sawyer even though he had no references from his previous employer which declined to renew his contract after 16 years A month before Sawyer arrived in Rohnert Park CSU Channel Islands notified Sonoma State it was investigating him for possible violations of Title IX the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational settings Sawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment but public records reviewed by The Press Democrat show he denied any wrongdoing at the time determined after more than a year of investigation that Sawyer’s behavior which included a wide range of alleged inappropriate comments and actions toward female employees amounted to “unprofessional conduct.” However it was not considered “severe and pervasive” enough to have violated Title IX When Sakaki was notified about the findings in December 2019 her response consisted of a single conversation Sawyer about the professional standards expected of a vice president of student affairs and of her expectation that he must conduct himself in a manner that would never put his behavior into question,” a campus spokesperson said in an email Sakaki’s response mirrors a conversation then-CSU Chancellor Tim White had with her about McCallum just months earlier in April 2019 according to records in the settlement with Vollendorf White and deputy counsel Leora Freedman explained to Sakaki their expectations for the conduct of a presidential spouse McCallum has said the conversation caused him to change his behavior with SSU staff Wenrick’s account and Sawyer’s case raise new questions about what Sakaki knew about her husband’s behavior and how she approached the subject of sexual harassment and its impact on staff They also shine a light on shortcomings in CSU practices involving Title IX investigations and the effect on victims “The entire system seems flawed in favor of the accused,” said Raquel De Los Santos who worked with Sawyer years ago and was involved in two grievances filed against him a Title IX expert and hundreds of pages of public documents She did not attend this weekend’s graduation ceremonies because she wanted the spotlight to remain on celebrating students and their achievements Sakaki has said in public statements she was not aware of any allegations against McCallum until “one year” after the CSU finished investigating former provost Lisa Vollendorf’s complaint — which would mean sometime in 2020 who used the surname Martin until he married in 2017 had worked at Sonoma State for nearly 16 years He started as a locksmith and worked his way up to become managing director of operations logistics and facilities management at the Green Music Center in 2014 After Sakaki arrived in 2016 she and McCallum would often go backstage to greet artists and were frequent visitors at the in-house Prelude Restaurant and Bar “We were seeing them on a real regular basis in the first month that they were there.” But female staff quickly began to feel uncomfortable around McCallum said Wenrick and two other former Green Music Center administrators who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because they fear retribution talking about how uncomfortable Patrick made them feel when he was around,” Wenrick said He said other former employees told him McCallum made them feel uncomfortable by staring at female employees’ breasts and giving lingering hugs Wenrick said two employees discussed their feelings with him directly and would go out of their way to avoid McCallum waiting to greet him and Sakaki until they were already seated at Prelude The Press Democrat is not identifying the women because they are reported victims of sexual harassment One woman declined to speak with The Press Democrat and the other did not respond to multiple requests for interviews Wenrick and the two other former Green Music Center administrators said they were aware one of the women was keeping a log of her experiences with McCallum we need to report it,” a former midlevel director said She never made a report because she was never told about any harassment directly from people who experienced it “They had just barely been there a few months and I didn't want to create this big controversy which may have turned out to be nothing,” he said “I didn't want to damage her reputation or damage her in such a way that she wouldn't be able to effectively meet and (get) people to have confidence in her.” “(McCallum’s) behavior has been going on literally for years now,” he said “But at the time … it was a brand new thing.” On the night of the Yo-Yo Ma concert I just wanted to give you a quick heads-up about this,” Wenrick said “And I told her that there's been some female employees having some concerns about Patrick's behavior he’s making them feel a little uncomfortable I didn't really get into any major details or anything like that.” He said Sakaki acknowledged his remark but made no further comment and asked no questions ‘OK.’ And then she never said another word (until she) went on stage and did her thing And that was the last I heard of it,” Wenrick said said the president “has no recollection of the conversation (Wenrick) alleges took place.” Sakaki would never retaliate against anyone for bringing forward workplace issues,” Kamer said “She has made clear that she abhors discrimination based on race Her entire professional life has been dedicated to creating opportunities for members of underrepresented communities.” McCallum also cast doubt on the conversation “I just want to say in absolute total confidence if Judy had ever heard anything about my behavior there’s no question she would have talked to me about it,” he said McCallum has apologized for actions that made staff uncomfortable while denying he ever had inappropriate intentions In a long email sent to several friends and family members April 16 he explained he had very little understanding of how the actions of a president’s spouse could be perceived and admitted he had been too friendly with people and too eager to get involved with campus matters After attending a workshop about a year into Sakaki’s presidency “I was careful who I hugged and shook hands even if someone just hugged Judy and was coming up to hug me next,” he said in his email The two former music center administrators said Wenrick told them he planned to speak with Sakaki about McCallum One said she also heard him telling co-workers about his conversation with Sakaki after it happened I'm going to have to tell the president,’” said a former associate director who asked not to be identified out of concerns about retaliation Wenrick was called to a meeting with his supervisor and SSU’s director of human resources He was told his position had been eliminated based on a consultant’s recommendation a former president of Fresno State University had been hired by Sakaki as a consultant to review the Green Music Center’s finances The $145 million center had been losing money and was covering expenses with money from the university’s general fund including state appropriations and tuition Welty recommended eliminating two positions Wenrick said he was not allowed to retire in lieu of being fired and he was prohibited from applying for other open positions on campus “They did (that) with everybody else that they moved If they no longer wanted them in the particular job that they were in they moved them to another position,” Wenrick said He was granted the right to sue from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on June 26 the possibility of retaliation for coming forward about McCallum didn’t occur to him The most likely explanation for his firing He began to pursue a lawsuit on that basis Wenrick cited what he described as a derogatory comment Sakaki made to him about his relationship; a demotion his partner received at Sonoma State shortly after Sakaki’s comment; and his own firing CSU’s lawyers rejected the settlement offer in January saying Wenrick’s firing “was based on legitimate business reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with (his) sexual orientation.” Wenrick dropped the matter soon after because his husband was being considered for a job with the CSU and he didn’t want to threaten their only source of income “We just decided it wasn't worth it,” Wenrick said “It wasn't worth pursuing this because there was going to be zero consequences to Judy Sakaki and there may be serious consequences to (us).” Sonoma State sent an offer letter to Sawyer offering him the position of vice president of student affairs had left CSU Channel Islands in December 2017 then-president Erica Beck lauded him for a “MacGyver-like skill set and incredible passion,” according to the Camarillo Acorn newspaper Beck made it clear Sawyer’s differences with the campus were serious enough to warrant a speedy separation He was notified he was not being retained on Oct His employment was to end three days later according to documents obtained by The Press Democrat records show Sawyer and the university signed a settlement allowing him to retire instead said in an email that Sawyer’s departure from Channel Islands “did not involve any Title IX issues.” A spokesperson for the university said the Title IX investigation that would later unfold was not a factor in the decision When Sonoma State reached out for a reference for Sawyer during its hiring process officials were told Sawyer’s retirement was due to a “misalignment between Dr Sawyer’s vision for the Division of Student Affairs and the future direction of CSUCI,” said Channel Islands spokesperson Nancy Gill Sonoma State officials said that didn’t ring alarm bells “The fact that someone may not be a good fit at one institution does not preclude their success in a similar role at a different institution,” SSU spokesperson Julia Gonzalez told The Press Democrat “President Sakaki had a professional relationship with Dr Sawyer prior to hiring him and based on her knowledge of his skills and experience believed that he would be successful at Sonoma State,” she said CSU Channel Islands received a report from a woman in the student affairs office that triggered a Title IX investigation Channel Islands notified Sonoma State about the investigation Sawyer started a month later at the Rohnert Park campus and a woman who initially spoke with investigators as a witness then filed her own complaint against Sawyer “Due to the circumstances of the complaint (including the nature of the allegations) the campus determined that it was not necessary to place Dr Sawyer on leave while the CSUCI investigation was in progress,” Gonzalez said A redacted copy of the investigation released to The Press Democrat by the Channel Islands campus shows the women told investigators Sawyer made inappropriate comments and pried into personal details of their lives He allegedly called one woman “spicy” and “feisty” and would put his hand on her and others’ lower backs who worked as Sawyer’s assistant for the better part of a decade in the early 2000s was interviewed as a witness in the 2018 investigation she said she told investigators Sawyer called her frequently late at night and once shared that he was calling from the bathtub while at a conference He once tried to look at the size tag in the waistband of her pants during a conversation about her weight loss The incident was corroborated by another witness De Los Santos said she didn’t recognize the behavior as harassment at first Sawyer cultivated a sense that employees in his office were family and I feel so embarrassed,” De Los Santos told The Press Democrat “You rationalize it away because he wasn't coming in under the table and grabbing you … And then you start thinking De Los Santos’ sense of institutional betrayal is fueled by her own experience trying to make a complaint about Sawyer in 2010 filed with Channel Islands human resources alleged Sawyer discriminated against her by moving her into a different position when she returned from maternity leave She felt it was in retaliation for her pushing back against his inappropriate behavior A human resources employee reviewed the notes from her investigation and upheld the campus’ decision without re-interviewing De Los Santos “It was the worst time of my life.” The experience shook her faith in the system When she was asked to speak as a witness in the 2018 investigation De Los Santos said she “was surprised and really sad,” especially because the woman filing the complaint was De Los Santos’ student assistant who later became a full-time staff member in Sawyer’s department and I didn’t … It's sickening to know that happened.” Documents show that after learning of Sawyer’s new job in Sonoma County who’d previously been afraid to report Sawyer told the investigator she “was disappointed that Sawyer was allowed to leave CSUCI ‘on his own terms and get a brand-new group of women to treat this way.’” who was a popular and well-connected administrator at both institutions did not respond to repeated requests for comment he denied any inappropriate intent and some of the specific allegations “Sawyer never expressed regret that he may have made any of the females interviewed feel uncomfortable nor did he comment that it was possible his behavior could have been perceived as inappropriate,” the investigator’s report said the investigator found the allegations of both women to be credible Records show that although the Channel Islands Title IX Office substantiated the women’s complaints the behavior did not reach the level of “severe and pervasive” as to violate policy the office determined the behavior amounted to “unprofessional conduct.” Sakaki was informed of the outcome of the investigations though Sakaki did speak with Sawyer about the expected standards for his role Sawyer remained in his position until his retirement two years later in December 2021 Sonoma State said it received no complaints of inappropriate conduct during his tenure who now has doubts about university protections for those who come forward “The CSU has an issue with how they handle these complaints Lack of transparency and inconsistent response to harassment reports affect more than just the individuals involved a Title IX expert and founder of the California-based Title IX Consulting Group For others watching and reading about investigations and their outcomes “Students and employees don't know if they have a campus that will really be there to help and support them when they're in dire need or … through an emergency De Los Santos said watching reports from her former assistant and other women go nowhere confirmed the “wake-up call” when she was rebuffed after trying to sound an alarm about Sawyer “I learned very quickly that they're there to protect the campus She also said she was disappointed Sawyer was so easily hired at Sonoma State “If you know in this day and age that there's allegations against somebody who kept his story to himself for six years “I don’t want any other person that works at Sonoma State — whether they’re custodial landscaping level or vice president level — I don’t want them to go through what I had to go through,” he said if they would have listened to some of us out of the gate we wouldn't be where we are today,” Wenrick said Reach PD Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com A tenure that began with immense promise and a historic glow ends under a cloud as Sonoma State University struggles with sagging morale declining enrollment and an identity crisis One of the ways Judy Sakaki shook things up back in 2016 after being named the seventh president of Sonoma State University to Weill Hall in the posh Green Music Center the embattled 69-year old announced that she would not be attending this year’s commencement and her alleged retaliation against Lisa Vollendorf the former provost who’d filed those complaints her reign began with immense promise and a historic glow The daughter of parents who spent World War II in a remote Utah internment camp Sakaki was the first Japanese American woman in the nation to become president of a four-year college or university It ends 6 1/2 years later under a cloud of scandal as the university struggles with sagging morale rapidly declining enrollment and an identity crisis it’s a really cool school with a lot of great programs,” said Stefan Kiesbye a novelist who chairs the English department “But we’re not in a strong position right now We have a problem telling students across California exactly who we are.” “You deserve an uninterrupted celebration of your achievements,” she wrote “and a total focus on the potential of your bright futures.” Sakaki’s own future was dimmed by her handling of those harassment claims against her husband said he’d warned her about McCallum’s behavior as early as 2016 Sakaki said through a spokesperson she had no recollection of any such warning McCallum denies “any allegation that I engaged in any wrongful conduct toward anyone.” This much is beyond debate: The missteps that led to a $600,000 settlement to Vollendorf are part of a pattern a wider pathology afflicting the California State University as a whole Sakaki isn’t to blame for all the school’s current woes Her presidency can be viewed as a series of Job-like trials a string of personal and professional misfortunes more wildfires; a pandemic that depressed enrollment at many universities She chalked up some victories despite those headwinds Sakaki succeeded in uncoupling the university’s finances from those of the money-siphoning Green Music Center at once a world-class performing arts center and money pit that cost $145 million Sakaki presided over major upgrades to the quality of student life and overhauled her predecessor’s recruitment philosophy She also oversaw significant increases in Sonoma State’s graduation rates: SSU now boasts the highest on-time graduation rates for transfer students in the 23-school California State University system Even as they sympathize with Sakaki for the tribulations she endured her critics found fault with her response to them After running barefoot for her life in the 2017 Tubbs fire Sakaki was still traumatized when she returned to the job a former Sonoma State environmental history professor and faculty chair “after losing everything and nearly dying.” “some highlights and some weak points,” said Watt who retired from Sonoma State in June 2021 and now lives in Iceland Watt expressed concern in an April interview with what appeared to her to be a “rush to judgment” to punish a woman of color “blaming her and taking her career down for some stupid things her husband may or may not have done.” Watt went on: “I do think that there’s been a continuing sense of [Sakaki] being missing in action,” in recent years “She kind of lost that leadership presence and never got it back,” agreed another faculty member “everything has changed” for students: “their relationship to work “And we have not been able to keep up with that combative relationship with faculty,” recalled Watt and whose most lasting legacy was the $145 million Green Music Center Among Sakaki’s most herculean feats was one of her earliest: She made sure that the university’s finances were disentangled from those of the center That venue had been losing money and was covering expenses by drawing from the university’s general fund a former Fresno State University president brought in by Sakaki to review the music center’s finances While Armiñana was busy building his “monument to the self,” recalled kinesiology professor Ellen Carlton And so we were glad to be rid of him and very optimistic about a new regime.” by a faculty eager for meaningful collaboration with its top administrator “We all felt like we were coming out of a cave it really had been that bad,” recalled Carlton Judy came in saying she was going to be very collaborative “She showed a lot of leadership that first year,” recalled Watt Armiñana had laid plans for a $10 million outdoor concert pavilion for the music center and wasted no time announcing the retirement of the center’s co-executive director a vice president of administration and finance who’d long been viewed as Arminana’s right-hand man She brought in a dream team of interim cabinet members with national reputations Graduation ceremonies would be moved to Weill Hall with commencement ceremonies split up by departments Sakaki made major moves to beef up the student affairs division the school added therapists and career counselors which offers resources to undocumented students The student affairs division had become “kind of a mess” under the previous president so Sakaki’s push to overhaul and make it more welcoming to students While a majority of college presidents have a background in academic affairs Sakaki had spent her career in the area of student affairs For all her talk of shifting the university’s focus from facilities to students and faculty they weren’t sold on Sakaki’s commitment to “the other side of the house,” as McCuan describes the school’s Academic Affairs division from the last six years of Armiñana’s reign through the first six year’s of Sakaki’s was “a lack of funding for the primary mission of the university: education.” of “a series of expenses around treating students better developing their needs,” and investing in “more buildings,” including “the apartments in Petaluma where nobody lives.” Hoping to attract faculty, Sonoma State in 2018 spent $40 million on a 90-unit apartment complex in Petaluma to house university employees From the time Marina Crossing Apartments opened it took nearly two years before half of its units were rented fewer than half the occupied units housed SSU faculty or staff Occupancy rates at the complex have improved since October 2020 when the university decided to open units to the general public Sakaki and McCallum hosted weekly dinners in their home for students human connections,” to let her new community know that “she cared.” an “implicit bias” toward a “soft-spoken Asian woman” whom after McCallum released a rambling email to “friends and family” in which he claimed that Vollendorf exposed sexual harassment allegations against him honeymoon phase of Sakaki’s presidency ended abruptly as the Tubbs fire swept over the Mayacamas Mountains Sakaki and McCallum were forced to flee — she in a robe him in his boxers — flying embers singeing their skin they “almost died five times” before they were rescued With Sakaki in trauma and working to rebuild her life a power vacuum opened in the administration who’d been hired the previous March as the university’s new provost After Sakaki returned and became more engaged in day-to-day business of the college a role entailing frequent interactions with both women “They had very different management styles and it was almost a tug of war as to who was going to run the university.” is that “she doesn’t really have a backup plan if someone isn’t a team player.” incremental.” She would appeal to people’s “team spirit,” said Watt “But that doesn’t work in all circumstances.” Sakaki would go on to say that hiring Vollendorf was a huge mistake Vollendorf has repeatedly declined to discuss the settlement or her role at the university and she did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story Next month she will take over as president of Empire State College in New York Sonoma State became the 21st of the CSU’s 23 campuses to be designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution qualifying the school for millions of dollars in federal funds She also undertook what McCallum described as a “radical redirection” of the school’s recruitment philosophy Sonoma State was intensively recruiting Southern California “A resort that offered classes,” was Carlton’s description the university has focused more on serving what the admissions office calls “our local six-county service region,” and building transfer pathways from regional community colleges The university increased support for transfer students by creating a Transfer Center “and is proud of having the distinction of having the best on-time graduation rates for transfer students in the CSU,” provost Karen Moranski shared in a recent email Moranski credited Sakaki for her tireless efforts “to build strategic partnerships with community colleges throughout California,” adding that Sonoma State boasts “the best on-time graduation rates for transfer students in the CSU.” have reversed the downward trajectory of enrollment which has declined by 23% — from 9,323 to 7,182 — since Sakaki arrived COVID-19 and California’s demographics factor largely in that trend many students made the choice to hunker down live at home and take classes at the closest campus That’s resulted in swollen enrollments in Southern California and fewer students applying to CSU schools in the northern part of the state There’s another reason that only 7.7% of students who were accepted to Sonoma State for the 2020-21 school year ultimately chose to enroll at the Rohnert Park campus It gets back to the university’s identity crisis the school hasn’t settled on a distinct brand; doesn’t know exactly what it is He pinned part of the blame for the university’s fuzzy identity on Vollendorf the ex-provost who co-chaired the task force that came up with “Building Our Future @ SSU — Strategic Plan 2025,” which had been in the process of making Sonoma State “a go-to campus around climate change.” The idea was to put out “a real strategic plan asking what are the jobs needed around climate change And then get the resources to recruit the faculty to develop these programs and expand them.” Cheered by an enthusiastic crowd at Seawolf Plaza on April 5, 2019, Sakaki had signed the President's Climate Leadership Commitment, pledging to achieve carbon neutrality for electricity-powered campus operations by 2045 Pitts presented Sakaki with a Certificate of Recognition from the California Senate following the Sonoma State faculty’s approval of a resolution expressing no confidence in Sakaki’s leadership issued a joint statement calling on the president to step down You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88 which finally led to Enoshima terminating the licensing contract around the end of April earlier this year The B's-LOG COMIC editing staff then attempted to provide assurances to Enoshima by replacing staff and providing a deadline upon which Sakaki would submit all remaining storyboards up to the manga's final chapter making the deadline to submit the storyboards impossible to meet Enoshima also began to suffer from some health issues leading to difficulties to extend the deadline and finally leading to an end to the licensing agreement The manga's currently released seven volumes will be available while supplies last but the publisher Kadokawa has no plans to reprint the manga Kadokawa cannot comment on the continued availability of the digital version and overseas translated versions of the manga but will make announcements as soon as it is able Update: ANN reached out to J-Novel Club for comment and the company stated its license for the manga extended through volume 6 The company stated that while it does not comment on ongoing licensing negotiations "the situation with the original Japanese manga adaptation rights will likely impact any future licensing." The editing staff reiterated that the blame lies entirely with them for the manga's abrupt cancellation Sakaki also apologized to fans of the manga agreeing to the B's-LOG COMIC editing staff's account of the matter and encouraging manga fans to read the original novel J-Novel Club is publishing both the original light novels by Suzu Enoshima Sources: B's-LOG COMIC X/Twitter account, Rumiwo Sakaki's X/Twitter account The loss of support from North Bay state Sens Mike McGuire and Bill Dodd could cripple Sakaki’s ability to overcome both the scandal in her office and the ongoing fiscal problems at Sonoma State Even as Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki was calling for a time of healing in the immediate aftermath of a faculty no-confidence vote against her Monday she lost the support of two men who should be her biggest political allies called on her to step down immediately after the vote in which 62% of the faculty members who participated said they no longer had faith in Sakaki Faculty no-confidence votes are not uncommon in academia and often illustrate the historic cultural rift between university administrators and professors the loss of support from McGuire and Dodd could cripple her ability to overcome what has become the most tumultuous period of her career a period that started with revelations that the university had paid a $600,000 settlement to a former provost who had reported complaints of sexual harassment against Sakaki’s husband The news of the settlement was first reported by The Press Democrat on April 13 For full coverage of the SSU investigation, click here Dodd and McGuire — both California State University alumni — say their main priority is the academic future of the nearly half million students at Sonoma State and the other 22 CSU campuses that comprise the nation’s largest and most diverse four-year university system analyzing the situation and her ability to do the best job that those students and faculty members deserve to have done — and alumni and donors deserve to have done — at the school who graduated from Sonoma State in 2002 and was recognized by the school as a distinguished alumnus in 2015 said it’s time for a culture change at his alma mater and the rest of the CSU system “The university needs the opportunity to refocus on what’s important its mission to educate students,” McGuire said He added the scandal involving Sakaki’s now-estranged husband is a “huge distraction” that’s hobbling the university is ultimately the decision of the CSU chancellor and Board of Trustees students should come back to a university that’s free of controversy.” Sakaki declined a request for an in-person or phone interview “We’ve already said what we’re going to say about senators Dodd and McGuire,” he said Dodd said Sakaki faces insurmountable damage for her handling of sexual harassment allegations against her husband which came as the university faces a crippling budget deficit of $15.5 million to $17 million and a 24% decline in enrollment McGuire acknowledged the virtues of forgiveness but he made it clear he thought Sonoma State would be better off moving forward without Sakaki at the helm These are strong words coming from state lawmakers whose local support is ideal given the state Legislature controls the CSU system’s purse strings Eleni Kounalakis and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon are ex officio CSU trustees CSU leadership in Long Beach is paying attention to recent developments at Sonoma State as well as the totality of a president’s achievements are collectively and thoughtfully considered when the Trustees or the Chancellor evaluate the effectiveness of campus leadership,” CSU spokesperson Michael Uhlenkamp said this week chair of Sonoma State’s Political Science department said he believes the senators’ call for Sakaki to step down will cripple Sakaki’s credibility when it comes to making the fiscal case for such things as one-time funding for infrastructure work That one-time funding for capital projects upgrades and deferred maintenance previously went through the CSU Board of Trustees CSU presidents and administrators seeking such funds are being asked to hit up their legislative representatives “Given California’s current unique fiscal situation with the state boasting its largest-ever surplus of funds campuses have been advised to work with their local delegations to seek one-time funding in support of individual infrastructure projects that had been previously approved by the Board of Trustees,” Uhlenkamp said in an email said “there might be some tension” in Sakaki’s requests for one-time funds when the gatekeepers for those funds have said “you need to go.” The loss of support from Dodd and McGuire “makes a huge difference because it sends a signal to the community to Long Beach and the Board of Trustees that things are not copacetic at Sonoma State — that the ability to lead is broken You can’t just keep throwing money on a bad bet You have to call for accountability,” he said The scandal that has enveloped Sakaki comes amid a period of reckoning for the CSU system which is currently under intense scrutiny for its handling of sexual harassment allegations involving multiple administrators and several campuses State lawmakers recently called for a sweeping audit of the CSU sexual harassment policies that will examine CSU’s handling of sexual harassment and violence allegations chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in a May 2 news release cited recent news reports about CSU’s handing of sexual harassment allegations including the $600,000 settlement CSU paid to settle a retaliation claim by former Sonoma State Provost Lisa Vollendorf who reported the sexual harassment allegations involving McCallum The legislative audit comes amid the ongoing fallout over the February resignation of Chancellor Joseph Castro who has been criticized for his handling of sexual harassment complaints against an administrator when he was president of Fresno State University to retire instead of adequately investigating the complaints Castro rejects those reports and contends that he took appropriate action Noreen Evans said Dodd and McGuire’s request for Sakaki to relinquish her post was both unusual and significant Evans said she could not comment on the specifics of the allegations against McCallum or their veracity But she said many are likely to appreciate Dodd and McGuire’s “stand as men against any kind of sexual harassment.” “It's significant to the women of the community that they're willing to stand up and be counted,” Evans said “And it's also significant in that it is unusual for a legislator to call for the resignation of a high-level official I can't comment on the truth of any of this Not all agree that Sakaki should step down a board member of the Sonoma State University Foundation and an emeritus math and statistics professor expressed her disappointment in the senators’ stance Chan called on McGuire to “provide support for Dr to continue her strong leadership instead of calling her to resign.” including increasing the graduation rate for transfer students and instituting changes that have made the university finances more transparent Chan said the “historic nature” of Sakaki’s career as the first Japanese American woman in the nation to lead a four-year university “As an Asian American and an immigrant to this country Judy Sakaki my colleague at Sonoma State University,” Chan wrote “I am very disappointed that you took a negative stand toward her Please stop calling President Sakaki to resign but instead (provide) her and our campus support during this challenging time.” Dodd and McGuire insist their main concern is the education of students I am totally sad by this entire situation,” Dodd said “But it’s become abundantly clear to me that President Sakaki needs to step down for the good of Sonoma State University and the greater community As the representative of Sonoma State University and the community I feel like I should have my opinion known.” Dodd said all leaders need to be held to the highest standard “It's a serious problem to create an atmosphere that can dissuade victims of harassment from coming forward,” he said “I just feel like that's what's happened there.” With only a week left before Sonoma State’s graduation some students are anxious of how the turmoil surrounding Sakaki is going to affect commencement ceremonies said some students are saying they’ll turn their backs to Sakaki when she speaks or makes an appearance “Her being there is going to be really upsetting for people,” Molloy said “Several students have said to me or spoken in the classroom that if she’s going to be at graduation Molloy, a communications and journalism major, said she’s expected to graduate in December or next spring. After news of the $600,000 settlement broke, Molloy launched a moveon.org campaign calling on Sakaki to step down. The online petition has so far been signed by 1,062 people EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to include statements by former CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro who rejects claims that he did not adequately investigate allegations of sexual harassment against an administrator while he was president of Fresno State University a painter who uses ore as pigment in her works His name is already well-known among art lovers with an early ear and he is being watched with keen interest as a hot newcomer The event "STONE WATER" will be held in collaboration with the Italian-born sports brand "ellesse" Elesse has chosen "ORES" as its inspiration for the 2024 season; ORES means a piece of the earth and it was at this point that the connection with Sakaki was born an art director and graphic designer with whom he has originally interacted and who has done jacket art direction and graphic design for artists such as Kaze Fujii and Perfume Three types of posters created in collaboration with MOTTY will be exhibited and sold The work is a mixture of emotion and order collaborative wear with "Elesse" was also produced "STONE WATER" can be enjoyed from various angles This is a rare opportunity to experience the fresh talent of Jingo Sakaki Merchandise largely themed around Yuya and Declan and Yusaku and Ai in his most marketable form the same product lineup is also available in Yu-Gi-Oh Source One of Yugipedia's anime and manga experts I usually cover merchandise and TCG set spoilers anime and have a passion for anything dinosaur-related You have /5 articles left.Sign up for a free account or log in Sonoma State’s Academic Senate cited various leadership issues in a no-confidence vote of President Judy Sakaki A divided faculty at Sonoma State University voted no confidence in embattled president Judy Sakaki on Monday citing a range of issues that include a recent scandal in which her husband allegedly sexually harassed college employees 173 faculty members voted in favor of the no-confidence resolution But only 278 of 629 eligible voters cast a ballot—fewer than half of the Academic Senate membership Voting was conducted online and ran from Friday to Monday McCallum has denied any wrongdoing. Sakaki announced their separation as the claims circulated But Sakaki’s inaction concerning her husband’s alleged sexual harassment of employees is hardly the only matter of contention for faculty members The no-confidence resolution also accused the president of demonstrating poor leadership amid slumping enrollment low employee morale and a challenged Title IX office The loss of $85,000 of university artwork hanging in Sakaki’s home when it was destroyed in a 2017 fire is another issue that has prompted criticism faculty chair of Sonoma State’s Academic Senate noted that there was an appetite among some of her peers for bringing a no-confidence vote as early as December But the claims against McCallum—and Sakaki’s inadequate response to them—marked the tipping point “I think it definitely ratcheted things up especially based on the comments I heard from people were more focused on those two issues [alleged sexual harassment and retaliation] and not on the budget not on enrollment,” Morimoto told Inside Higher Ed A quick scan of the arguments for and against the no-confidence vote turns up a long list of issues that extend beyond McCallum to broader concerns about Sakaki’s leadership But the sexual harassment and retaliation scandal factor heavily into the arguments for the no-confidence vote with many suggesting the incident broke their trust in Sakaki “I have lost all confidence that President Sakaki can successfully lead our university This scandal has been met with excuses and deflections rather than concern for victims’ well-being or acknowledgment of responsibility,” one faculty member wrote in a statement explaining their reasoning for the no-confidence vote “The university is now drawn into arguments and damage control since President Sakaki is refusing to step down; faculty and staff across campus are expending valuable time on this embarrassing and poorly handled issue rather than attending to the exceedingly urgent budget crisis President Sakaki’s understanding of the role of leadership seems to be sorely lacking a situation which unfortunately long predates this particular scandal.” Others suggested that the scandal harms an already vulnerable university money and attention away from a multitude of important issues “I believe that the question before us is this: Do we have confidence in the leadership of this President Do we believe that President Sakaki can lead us out of this Do we believe she can bring us back from the brink I don’t see how the answer can be anything but ‘No.’ Platitudes are not plans And Sonoma State needs a plan,” one faculty member wrote “Listening sessions won’t fix our budget woes … or provide stability to the offices that have seen significant turnover during President Sakaki’s tenure Promises won’t protect the victims of sexual assault and harassment on our campus who have been re-traumatized by processes that seem more intent on protecting the institution than them and I don’t think we’ll find that with our current President.” Defenders of Sakaki argued that she is being unfairly maligned and that both racism and sexism are at play with the Japanese American president being held accountable for her husband’s actions Sakaki were a white man and that her husband (the alleged perpetrator) was a woman of color how the press and the campus would have dealt with this issue I just think it is important for us to consider this question,” Karner Werder wrote in opposition to a no-confidence vote Sakaki would not be as damned as the real Dr And I believe that his woman of color wife (as alleged perpetrator) would be the scapegoat in this situation I would just like others to consider this.” Others opposed to the no-confidence vote suggested that more information was needed before such a measure should be taken and that Sakaki is merely a scapegoat in a broken system “I believe that the incident at hand represents a failing of Title IX both on our campus and at the Statewide CSU level—and that this is being conflated with other challenges on our campus (some of which are due to fires and COVID),” wrote Wendy Ostroff a cognitive and developmental science professor “I am troubled by the ease with which we vilify and desire to take down individual scapegoats in a corrupt and broken system I am also deeply troubled by sensationalized news reporting being regarded as truth when we have not been given all of the information; when full investigations have not happened before full and fair investigations could be carried out persons of color and first-generation/in higher education folks President Sakaki as well as our former Chancellor [Joseph] Castro are going to take the fall after being put in impossible situations by systems of hegemony and hierarchy (i.e. forced to sign documents and make deals by corrupt lawyers and power structures).” Castro resigned in February amid criticisms that he mishandled sexual harassment and bullying by a subordinate while he was president at California State University Sonoma State did not respond to multiple requests for comment “While most of the faculty did not vote on this referendum Sakaki is heartened by the support she received from a significant portion of the faculty and continues to receive from supporters on and off the campus,” Kamer said in an email “She is also very mindful of the concerns expressed by the majority who did vote She has in recent days shared plans to improve Sonoma State’s Title IX programs and enforcement The vote is evidence that there’s work to be done to improve the tenor of conversations and sense of collaboration others have weighed in on the no-confidence vote Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education defended Sakaki in a letter of support “As the first Japanese American woman selected to lead a major university in the United States She has worked tirelessly to contribute to the field of higher education and to continually focus our collective efforts on embracing equity and diversity justice and inclusion,” APAHE stated in a letter that noted Sakaki’s mentorship The letter goes on to call Sakaki “an accomplished professional and a role model and an exemplar to many young professionals providing access to budding leaders to learn from her She is a mentor and confidante to many faculty and administrative leaders in higher education.” “The faculty has spoken and it’s time for the healing process to begin,” Democratic state senators Bill Dodd and Mike McGuire, representing local districts, said in a statement reported by the Los Angeles Times “President Sakaki should step down for the greater good of the university.” Sakaki has made no mention of resigning in the limited public statements she’s made since the vote a no-confidence vote doesn’t pack the punch it used to pretty much the kiss of death for a presidency,” said Terrence MacTaggart a senior consultant and senior fellow for AGB Consulting MacTaggart suggests that growing discord between faculty and administrators has seemingly increased the number of no-confidence votes in higher ed While he notes that a no-confidence vote will get the attention of trustees and the Cal State system it’s up to the governing body to determine if the vote has real consequences they may well seek some reconciliation measures seek changes on behalf of the behavior of the president,” MacTaggart said continued to serve for another five to 10 years because they patched things up the other extreme is if the board feels the faculty are right and they should have caught things earlier that may lead to the resignation of the president.” If Sakaki survives the no-confidence vote and continues to serve she would be following in the footsteps of her predecessor who survived his own no-confidence vote in 2007 continued to serve until his retirement in 2016 And memories of system leadership overlooking Armiñana’s no-confidence vote in 2007 are still fresh at Sonoma State where Morimoto wonders if something similar will play out with Sakaki “I don’t think this vote of no confidence will inspire trustees to take action unless they’ve already decided they want her out for their own reasons,” Morimoto said I don’t think they give a damn what we think and they proved that during the Ruben Armiñana no-confidence vote.” We need to distinguish between good DEI and bad DEI Trump’s directive on sanctuary cities takes aim at state laws that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuitio A week after restoring foreign students’ legal status immigration officials detailed plans for a new policy granting Learn high-impact ways to re-engage students drive enrollment and support your team’s well-being Subscribe for free to Inside Higher Ed’s newsletters opinion and great new careers in higher education — delivered to your inbox View Newsletters Copyright © 2025 Inside Higher Ed All rights reserved. | Website designed by nclud The information you submit will be stored and used to communicate with you about your interest in Commercial UAV News. To understand more about how we use and store information, please refer to our privacy policy  Commercial UAV Expo Commercial UAV News Editorial Analyst Scott Howe spoke with Bobby Sakaki, Head of Product for Ascent AeroSystems In an interview at the recent Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas Sakaki discussed the drone’s durability and versatility and demonstrated how quickly the Spirit can be assembled and deployed Scott Howe is the Editorial Analyst for Commercial UAV News He is a writer and editor with more than 35 years of experience working in fields such as higher education Subscribe to our weekly global newsletter for news insight and market information about commercial drones Subscribe Free reports focused on the commercial drone industry         View Reports Commercial UAV Expo Geo Week Commercial UAV Forum lobster tostadas and dog-friendly bar snacks You can travel the world without the pricey airfare thanks to many of the new restaurants that have recently opened in and around Arlington Check out these new options for international flavors wine or espresso martinis) at this micro-roaster’s latest Arlington location in Rosslyn try sweet and savory options including pastries For Five’s signature “stuffed cookies,” breakfast sandwiches Mexican birria grilled cheese sandwiches and a variety of clever salads a crawfish maki roll and Wagyu fried rice are a few of the menu items at this new Japanese restaurant in Clarendon whose dazzling special effects are achieved with dry ice Filling the former Meridian Pint space in Dominion Hills rice and noodle dishes such as pad Thai and Crazy Fried Rice and signature dishes such as the Soul Seafood Sunrise (seafood stir-fry in yellow curry) and Salmon Sunshine (salmon with coconut curry sauce) The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Billed as “the DMV’s first Halal BBQ joint” (you guessed it—there is no pork on the menu) this Ballston Quarter newcomer adheres to Islamic dietary standards and preparations for hearty fare such as beef brisket turkey sausage and beef “Dino” ribs which explains why Old Bay is part of the seasoning mix for the brisket rub as well as in sides like Old Bay mac ‘n’ cheese This restaurant has been dishing up traditional Honduran and Salvadoran cuisine for breakfast The extensive menu includes options like chicken tamales carne asada and seafood dishes such as shrimp ceviche and fried tilapia with green bananas a spicy quencher made with beer and tomato juice Raising and Educating Our Children During Uncertain Times the first Mexican American Top Chef winner features dishes ranging from seafood fajitas and Texas short rib tacos to venison tostadas the sprawling restaurant has a long list of signature cocktails this is the third Makers Union location in the DMV Almost 13 years after opening Cheesetique in The Village at Shirlington, cheesemonger Jill Erber teamed with eight-time James Beard Award-nominated chef Cathal Armstrong to do something different in the space albeit mostly Italian varieties that complement the restaurant’s house-made pastas such as oxtail ravioli and artichoke agnolotti The beverage program features all-Italian wine list and 24 specialty rolls such as the Crunch Muffy (shrimp tempura melted mozzarella and sweet soy sauce) and Fire Mountain (spicy octopus Tucked inside the Centro Arlington apartment building the restaurant also has noodle and grilled teriyaki meat dishes You can watch dumplings being made on-site with fillings such as pork and chive; chicken and shiitake; or black truffle and Wagyu beef at this Clarendon newcomer where the temptations also include soup dumplings Shanghai roasted duck and a bevvy of noodle and rice dishes Previous concepts by chef-owner Leopold Liao Six months after Thirsty Bernie closed its doors at the corner of Langston Boulevard and Glebe Road Fans of the former watering hole will still find plenty of TV screens showing all the sports and bar food appetizers including wings and hush puppies fish tacos and seafood boils featuring snow crabs Stop in for Thursday Karoake Nights from 8-11:30 p.m. Chef Seng Luangrath, who learned how to cook from neighbors and elders at a refugee camp in Thailand after her family fled Laos, recently opened a second location of Padaek in Arlington Ridge. (The first is in Seven Corners.) Serving Lao and Thai cuisine for lunch and dinner the 3,500-square-foot space has an open kitchen private dining and occasional tasting menus at the Chef Counter Enjoy super flavorful dishes such as panang curry This Middle Eastern restaurant and hookah bar takes the place of the former Layalina Restaurant in the Bluemont neighborhood. On the menu are hummus, baba ghanoush, shawarmas, lamb chops, kabobs and falafel. Keep an eye on their social media pages for updates on live entertainment Liberty Barbecue reopened last fall with a new name, menu and interior design Patrons can still dig into favorites such as wings but the new menu also includes a wider spectrum of mid-Atlantic and Southern dishes beyond barbecue A sister establishment of The Liberty Tavern The Falls serves house-made baked goods from executive pastry chef Bridie McCulla during its breakfast This real-deal Chinese restaurant is the 11th in the Chang family’s empire and the eighth named after its eponymous patriarch once the chef of the Chinese Embassy in D.C Signature menu items include Amish honey pork ribs a vegan scallion bubble pancake and Wagyu beef lo mein Ask for dishes that use the shiitake mushroom sauce Chang developed using fungi from an Amish farmer in New York Pronounced “bridge,” this Water Park coffee shop aims to connect the community one cup of joe at a time Drawing on her experience as an unhoused single mother founder Skyler Kelley donates a portion of the proceeds from her sales to local nonprofits especially those that support single mothers people experiencing homelessness and the LGBTQ+ community Meet your daily servings of veggies at this new Water Park kiosk where all sandwiches are plant-based and kosher-certified a house-made beet patty (or Impossible Burger) topped with cashew bleu cheese or the Fried Chick’n Caesar Sandwich with parmesan Other menu items include grilled cheese and a toasted bagel with cashew cream cheese Pair any order with fries (white or sweet potato onion rings and handspun shakes with house-made oat ice cream Enjoy eggs in sandwich form? With 12 egg-on-challah (egg bread, naturally) sammie options, this new Water Park counter is for you.  Our food critic’s pick: the Paulie Cicero a “breakfast-meets-antipasto” combo of prosciutto sun-dried tomatoes and Mike’s hot honey on a toasted challah bun.” If you prefer your food in a bowl including garlic-parm-truffle and honey-butter If you’ve never thought about putting white wine-lemon cream sauce on a pizza with roasted mushrooms But if you want a New York-style classic cheese or pepperoni along with fresh salads and beverages such as agua frescas (in flavors like mandarin-chai tea or blackberry rosemary) Priya Ammu is a self-taught chef whose vegan street food concept also has locations in D.C. and Bethesda. The menu centers on one of the Mumbai native’s favorite dishes: the Indian lentil crepes known as dosas, folded over a variety of fillings. Ammu also makes uttapam, open-face pancakes. Our food critic recommends the masala uttapam then flipped over on the griddle and topped with crispy chopped cilantro and three chutneys: onion tamarind mango habanero and cilantro sesame.” Whatever you choose wash it down with a mango-ginger or sweet basil lassi The National Landing outpost of this DMV gelateria serves a rotating list of all-natural Italian gelatos in flavors such as Aztec chocolate Founder Gianluigi Dellaccio is a pastry chef so it tracks that his menu of temptations also includes funnel cake Ahmad Ashkar’s Middle Eastern carryout tastes good and does good and the eatery partners with the World Food Programme to help feed refugees worldwide The fast-casual fare includes falafel bowls or sandwiches on fresh-baked pita bread stuffed with the signature food (fried chickpea fritters) cucumber-tomato salad and crispy pita chips The eatery has several other D.C.-area locations You can now get this food truck’s Vietnamese street food from its first brick-and-mortar spot at Water Park. Feast on the bo-khirria banh mi, a beef stew-and-mozzarella sandwich on French bread that our food critic dubbed “a spectacular mess.” Other dishes include oxtail pho tacos on flour or corn tortillas or roti flatbread James Beard Award semi-finalist chef Rahman “Rock” Harper pays homage to his mom with this Water Park takeout which serves fried chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders made with the chef’s signature blend of 13 ingredients and fried in duck fat try the Virginia Honey Butter Chicken Sandwich go for the Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich topped with coleslaw and dill pickles All of the chicken is antibiotic- and cage-free and comes from Bell & Evans an organic-certified hatchery in Pennsylvania Experience the confluence of Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Polynesian and Thai cuisine at this new Water Park kiosk (it’s also got a full-service restaurant and bar in Reston) Add chicken or tofu to ginger fried rice or pad Thai Top your meal off with a signature cocktail The only full-service cocktail bar at Water Park this picturesque restaurant sits atop the water wall that is the focal point of the area’s outdoor food hall Reserve a spot indoors or outdoors and snack on plates of prosciutto pretzel rods Signature cocktails include Waterworks (miso coconut brown sugar and pisco or shochu) and Who You Callin Basic such as the Ocean City (olive-infused gin and pickled sea cucumber brine) and Summer’s Child (gin cucumber-infused Dolin Blanc vermouth and St-Germain elderflower liqueur) ramen and stir fry make up just part of the menu at this Columbia Pike izakaya in the former Rincome Thai space Appetizers include yakitori (skewered meats) while signature maki rolls include Honey Shrimp and the O Ryu with spicy and crunchy fatty tuna topped white fatty tuna Stir-fried options include kimchi fried rice with beef and drunken udon Become a digital partner ... About UsContact UsSubscribeAdvertiseWrite for Us Here’s what we know about the lives and professional backgrounds of those at the center of the dispute The California State University system in January reached a $600,000 settlement to resolve a claim by former Sonoma State provost Lisa Vollendorf alleging SSU President Judy Sakaki retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment complaints against Sakaki’s husband Judy Sakaki, 69, has served as president of Sonoma State University since July 2016 The first-generation college student and Oakland native is the first Japanese American woman to head up a four-year university in the country Sakaki was also the first new president of Sonoma State University in over two decades and only its second female president She previously worked as a senior administrator for the University of California system