Pomona Faculty Frustrated after Dean Steps Down and College Launches “Alarming” Replacement Process

Alexander Hall (Pomona's administrative building), and former Dean Melanie Wu. Photo credit: Pomona College Media Team

A week after Pomona College's 2025 Commencement, then-Acting President Bob Gaines announced that Dean of the College and Vice-President for Academic Affairs Yuqing Melanie Wu was stepping down from her administrative role and returning to the classroom. The May 29 announcement, sent only to faculty and staff, came as a surprise and a further blow to the office's fragile status after years of high turnover. 

On June 26, a little over a month since the announcement of Wu's stepping down, Gaines and Pomona's president Gabrielle "Gabi" Starr announced that Dr. Brent Carbajal had been hired from a pool of external candidates to fill the role for one year as Interim Dean while the College engages in a national search for a permanent replacement. Pomona’s decision to hire externally for the interim position has created frustration among faculty, with prominent professors and a former dean describing it as a sign of distrust between the administration and faculty.

Surprise Departure

Responsible for the institution's academic operations, the Dean of the College, often referred to simply as “the dean” by faculty, is Pomona’s number-two administrator, second only to the President. Traditionally, and as stipulated by the Faculty Handbook, the dean takes on the role of Acting President in the event that the President is absent. This tradition was broken in 2024, when Wu reportedly declined to step in during Starr's planned Spring 2025 sabbatical. 

Pomona has struggled with high dean turnover for over a decade, with seven deans since 2012, three of those being acting or interim deans. The last dean to serve over four years, the average tenure for senior academic officers at U.S. colleges and universities, stepped down in 2009.

According to professors the Independent spoke to on the condition of anonymity, Wu's departure from the office came as a surprise, with some suggesting Wu was asked to step down by Starr. 

The Vice-President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) of the Associated Students of Pomona College – Pomona's student government – told the Independent that she had not been formally notified of Wu's departure from the role. She had hoped to schedule a meeting with the dean in July, having received no indication Wu would step down. The VPAA and dean meet semi-regularly and serve together on several academic committees. 

Wu has been described by faculty as a “by the book” dean, something many at the small college were not used to. Wu came to Pomona from Indiana University Bloomington in 2014 as a visiting professor, and was hired as a tenured professor the following year. Before becoming Dean in 2022, Wu chaired the computer science department, and received the Wig Award, Pomona’s highest distinction for teaching.

According to several faculty members, Wu struggled to win the faculty’s trust and confidence, and was seen by some as a poor communicator. She oversaw Pomona’s emergence from COVID-19, a period in which the College struggled with an over-reliance on visiting professors and record-high enrollment, with Wu expanding tenure-track faculty searches in order to overcome these challenges. Gaines praised Wu for working on initiatives such as the “Center for Global Engagement,” universal access to course materials for students, and for promoting “faculty leadership opportunities through (sic) new Faculty Fellow program.”

Wu did not respond to a request for comment.

Dr. Melanie Wu. Photo Credit: Pomona College Media Team

“A vote of no confidence in the faculty”

In his email, Gaines wrote that an interim dean would be announced in the following days while Pomona prepared to begin a year-long national search to fill the position. 

“An interim Vice President for Academic Affairs will be announced within the coming weeks, while (sic) national search begins to find Pomona’s next Dean of the College,” wrote Gaines. Pomona has traditionally alternated between internal deans (hired from within the faculty) and external deans (brought in from other institutions). However, expectations were that, as had been the case in the past, the interim dean would be hired from within the faculty. 

In an email obtained by the Independent, then-Chair of the Faculty Kenneth Baxter Wolf shared in a “report out” to the faculty that he and his successor, Professor Ben Keim, were surprised to discover that the interim dean was to be hired externally, instead of from among faculty or current associate deans.

“I learned from [Keim] that he was being invited to participate in a Zoom vetting of four short-listed candidates, culled from a dozen interested adninistrators (sic) identified via ‘The Registry,’” wrote Wolf in the email, “Up to that point, Ben and I had both been operating under the assumption that Gabi would appoint an internal, interim Dean.”

Wolf explained that the Executive Committee of the Faculty–the faculty’s governing body, led by the Chair of the Faculty– had never been notified of Pomona’s intention to hire externally for the interim position. 

“I wrote Bob (Gaines), Gabi (Starr), and finally Janet Benton (Chair of the Board of Trustees), strongly advocating for an internal interim Dean; I even nominated one I thought would be most suitable. But clearly that train had already left the station,” Wolf told his colleagues.

Wolf concluded his email by expressing frustration with the administration’s decision:

“What does this say about the President’s trust in us? Is there truly no one in the faculty equal to the task of serving as interim dean? Is the Registry likely to produce candidates who know enough about a college like Pomona to be effective in that role in the short run?”

A former Dean of the College, who requested anonymity, told the Independent that the decision was unusual and concerning. “Starr's action,” the former dean said, “is a vote of no confidence in the faculty and a sign that she believes there is something very wrong between the Office of the Dean of the College and the faculty. This is alarming.”

“If I sound frustrated, it is because I am,” Wolf wrote in his email, explaining that the administration had again acted without transparency or collaboration with faculty. Trust between faculty and the administration has weakened greatly in recent years, in part over the College’s position on the war in Gaza, divestment, and response to campus protests.

Gaines and Starr responded to faculty concerns via email on June 18, beginning by noting that Pomona’s deanship needed change “to ensure the dean is better supported and able to flourish alongside the faculty.”

“After extensive conversation and consideration, we made the decision to partner with the Registry, a national resource for seasoned leaders in higher education, to identify a pool of strong external candidates for our interim dean,” continued the email, noting that 12 candidates had applied.

Gaines and Starr explained that an external dean would be better suited towards improving the deanship. “We were in search of individuals who could quickly grasp our charge—to explore new ways of supporting our faculty while identifying structural and procedural improvements that will make the deanship a more sustainable role.”

“Bringing in a seasoned external interim dean offers the benefit of an objective and fresh perspective to help the College identify opportunities we might otherwise overlook and to apply insights gained elsewhere to strengthen our academic and administrative foundation,” they added.

“The decision to appoint an interim dean with external experience was made to ensure an objective perspective and to provide stability while we prepare for a national search for a permanent appointment,” a spokesperson for the College told the Independent. “Interim leaders sourced through organizations such as The Registry bring deep expertise in higher education administration and are selected based on the College’s specific needs at a given time.”

A Replacement from “The Registry”

Gaines and Starr announced on June 26 that Dr. Brent Carbajal had been appointed interim VP of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College for the 2025-26 academic year. Carbajal, a graduate of Lewis & Clark College and the University of Washington, was a professor of Spanish before becoming a department chair and eventual provost at Western Washington University until retiring in 2022. 

After retiring, Carbajal joined The Registry, a consulting company specialized in providing colleges and universities with interim administrators. As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, interim administrators are increasingly sought after by universities and colleges. Carbajal's only reported placement for The Registry is as interim provost at SUNY Plattsburgh for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Dr. Brent Carbajal. Photo Credit: Pomona College Media Team

Several faculty members expressed concern to the Independent that Registry-provided interims have a history of being used by college presidents to “stabilize” or cut budgets. At SUNY Plattsburgh, Carbajal worked to implement a previously planned austerity target and SUNY-system wide “academic portfolio optimization,” a euphemism for consolidating and cutting under-enrolled programs. 

“The interim appointment does not signal a predetermined agenda,” a spokesperson for the college told the Independent. “All decisions—including those related to budgeting or academic priorities—will continue to be made through established shared governance processes, in close consultation with faculty, staff, and other stakeholders."

The spokesperson also noted that in recent years, Pomona has partnered with The Registry to fill roles in the Offices of Admissions & Financial Aid and Student Affairs.

In his “report out” to the faculty, Wolf requested that the Chair of the Faculty be invited to observe all Executive Staff (the college’s senior administrative leadership) meetings during the interim dean’s tenure. “Such a partnership with the Chair of Faculty will not only give the new Dean a reasonable chance of success, but will make sure that the Faculty are represented at the table where real decisions are being made,” he wrote.

Chair of the Faculty Ben Keim did not respond to a request for comment.

Wolf, whose term as Chair of the Faculty ended on June 30, declined to elaborate on his report. “I wish the new interim Dean all the best and I will work with him as much as I can in my new capacity as a private citizen,” Wolf wrote in an email to the Independent. “It has, from the first, been the process that bothers me.”

Starr announced Wu’s departure from the deanship and Carbajal’s interim appointment to the student body via email on July 3.