This story was published in collaboration with The Merced FOCUS.
MERCED, Calif. — Rasha Almohamadi spent most of her life skeptical of pursuing higher education. Almohamadi, a single mother, came from war-stricken Yemen, where she said professors “are like God” and women are “not allowed to dream.”
But a few years ago, she sat in on an ethnic studies class at Merced College — and it transformed her way of thinking.
“They were discussing a paper about something regarding ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Almohamadi recalled. “It was beautiful…I could sense the safety that a professor gave them to feel like that.”
The course was taught by Mehra Gharibian, a professor who had recently joined Merced College to create the ethnic studies program.
Gharibian encouraged Almohamadi to enroll at the college, which she did in spring 2024. She planned to take one of Gharibian’s ethnic studies classes before graduating.
But just before his class started in spring 2025, it was abruptly canceled. Gharibian was placed on paid administrative leave a few months earlier. He resigned shortly after being placed on leave and never returned to campus to teach.
Gharibian wasn’t the only faculty member in his department to leave. Liliana Cruz, the only other ethnic studies professor on campus, also resigned the same month.
The state made it a requirement to graduate from community college with at least one ethnic studies course shortly before all of this unfolded. The abrupt loss of both of these professors left hundreds of students displaced just before the 2025 spring semester.
An investigation by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS found that the ethnic studies class cancellations happened as a wider conflict played out behind the scenes at the college over a dean, John Albano. And Gharibian and Cruz were among at least 10 faculty and employees who filed complaints against Albano in fall 2024 alleging racial and gender discrimination.
The complaints described remarks allegedly made by Albano that the employees perceived as disparaging toward women and employees of color. The faculty and employees also alleged feeling intimidated or forced to perform more menial tasks when they requested time off.
Ultimately, all complaints against Albano were either dismissed or were deemed informal based on standards for reporting complaints, and an investigator the college hired found no wrongdoing by Albano. Meanwhile, Albano moved laterally to a dean position with a different school at the college. And in February, Albano announced plans to return to a faculty role in the coming fall semester.
Gharibian and Cruz resigned soon after filing their complaints. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS have been unable to obtain copies of those complaints. Cruz could not be reached for comment on this story, and Gharibian declined to comment. Gharibian also signed a resignation agreement with a non-disparagement clause barring him from alleging wrongdoing by college officials.
Personnel schedules from the Merced College Board of Trustees meetings show two new professors were hired for ethnic studies a few months after Gharibian and Cruz resigned, and they began teaching last August.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS obtained more than 100 pages of documents to understand how the administrative disruption played out and subsequently affected students’ courses. The documents included copies of four complaints, responses to the complaints written by college administrators, a resignation agreement by one of the employees involved, and correspondences between college administrators. The news outlets also spoke to more than a dozen sources close to the situation, including faculty members, employees, administrators and students.
Almohamadi, like most other students, scrambled to find other classes to satisfy the ethnic studies requirement for graduation. She’s now on track to transfer to UC Merced for an economics degree in policy and analysis with a focus on energy production and nuclear innovation. She aspires to become a policymaker and establish nuclear energy in developing countries.
Still, she’s disheartened that she didn’t get the chance to take a class from Gharibian.
“I come from a place where our opinions and rights are oppressed,” Almohamadi said. “When I went to that class, for once, I loved how everyone was sharing their opinion openly, and I thought I will do the same. I felt sad when that didn’t happen.”
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS reached out to multiple college administrators and representatives, including John Albano, to request information and interviews in the course of this investigation.
Albano forwarded the request to Jill Cunningham, Merced College’s vice president of external relations. Cunningham declined a meeting and interview request and asked for a list of questions. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS sent a list of 15 written questions to her and gave her one week to answer them. Cunningham never responded, though she provided a statement in response to a previous inquiry about Albano that was published in full in another story. Part of that statement includes the following:
“Merced College is committed to fostering a positive, supportive, and engaged workplace culture as reflected in our consistently strong employee-engagement results and our ongoing emphasis on employee wellbeing,” the statement reads. “The District is proud of the positive learning and working environment it has fostered which has contributed to our ability to serve students as reflected in our student success metrics. To protect the privacy of our employees and the integrity of personnel processes, the District does not comment on confidential personnel matters.”
Albano later replied by email to the questions. “There were two independent investigations initiated by the district and all allegations were either exonerated or not sustained by the independent reviewers,” he wrote.
Neither Cunningham nor Albano responded to follow-up questions asking to clarify which two independent investigations Albano referred to.
Neither Merced College President Chris Vitelli nor any members of the Merced College Board of Trustees responded to multiple inquiries.
Tension in the ethnic studies department
Mehra Gharibian began teaching ethnic studies at Merced College in 2022. Renée Dekker, who worked as the administrative coordinator for the School of Arts and Social Sciences, said Gharibian was brought on to develop the ethnic studies program. Liliana Cruz was hired as the second ethnic studies professor in January 2024.
The program’s development followed a new state graduation requirement that went into effect in fall 2024, which ensures every student takes an ethnic studies class in order to graduate with an associate degree.
From the time both Gharibian and Cruz were hired, Dekker alleges, based on her observations, interactions between them and Albano were not friendly, and, at times, even racially charged. Their conflict culminated in tense confrontations and a heated staff meeting observed by multiple other employees.
Some of those claims are echoed by Andrea, a part-time faculty member. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS agreed to identify her by first name only because she fears using her full name would limit future employment opportunities.
Andrea and Dekker were also among the 10 Merced College employees to file complaints against Albano in late 2024.
In both their complaints, they alleged that Albano seemed to keep a close watch of Cruz and Gharibian by frequently filling up his water bottle near their offices.
Dekker alleged in her complaint that after walking past Gharibian’s office more than four times in half an hour, Albano once said to her, “Oh, it’s going down.” The following week, Gharibian and Albano, according to Dekker’s account, got into a dispute.
Both Andrea and Dekker also allege two confrontations occurred between Albano and Gharibian over Gharibian’s office hours.
The first confrontation, according to Dekker’s complaint, happened when Albano observed that a student appeared to be waiting for Gharibian to show up at his office. When Gharibian arrived, Dekker could overhear as Albano allegedly “sternly and loudly reprimanded” Gharibian in the hallway. Gharibian told Albano he scheduled a special appointment for the student outside of his assigned hours and stepped out to use the bathroom because the student was late.
In the second confrontation, Gharibian was walking with Adam Fong, a history professor and faculty lead at the time, when Albano allegedly asked Gharibian if they could talk about issues with his office hours. Gharibian said he wanted Fong there as a faculty lead, to which Albano “firmly responded that Adam didn’t need to be present and it was not necessary for anyone to be there while they met.”
After that, Albano reportedly turned to Fong, threw up his hands, and said, “Well what the heck was that, Adam? See!"
Fong declined to comment on this situation. But Andrea was surprised, and she said in an interview that she detailed the comment from Albano in her complaint because it didn’t sit well with her.
“There were four people of color in our building. There was Adam Fong, there was [Cruz], there was [Gharibian] and then there was [Dekker]. But, why is it that three out of those four people were feeling like they were being targeted or watched for some reason?” Andrea said.
Gharibian is Middle Eastern, Cruz is Hispanic and Dekker and Fong are Asian. The college did not respond to questions about the incidents.
Dekker’s complaint also alleged Albano made what she felt were demeaning and racially-charged comments, including that Gharibian “could pose a safety issue” and that “these ethnic people are always trying to question authority and see every situation as a threat against them.”
In her complaint, Dekker also said it seemed as if Albano dismissed Cruz’s input in department meetings, and he often told Dekker not to help or speak to her.
Meeting results in tempers and tears
Andrea and Dekker both also documented what they described as a tense meeting in May 2024 that they found concerning.
Gharibian and Cruz called the meeting to discuss creating an ethnic studies major. Dekker was in attendance, in order to record meeting minutes, as were Andrea, Albano and other history and social science faculty members.
The meeting became concerning, Andrea said in an interview, when a heated discussion escalated between Gharibian and another history professor. She alleges they both raised their voices at each other, then Gharibian and Cruz walked out of the meeting, followed by the professor. She also said Cruz was in tears.
Albano reportedly didn’t intervene during the confrontation, but Andrea and Dekker believe he should have.
“Him being a dean, he oversees our disciplines,” Andrea said. “He's supposed to help keep that cordial, like a very cooperative coworking environment.”
Months later, Dekker alleged that Albano asked her to revise the meeting minutes, so she did. Specifically, Albano instructed her to add the heated discussion, which she missed because she left the meeting early. However, she felt the edits seemed biased.
According to the original and revised minutes obtained by KVPR and the Merced FOCUS, Albano’s edits included adding impassioned quotes by Gharibian and noting Cruz’s emotions, but he did not add any quotes from the history professor also involved in the discussion.
“This situation is not only highly problematic, but also morally concerning,” Dekker wrote in her complaint. “It is evident that Mr. Albano aimed to alter the narrative to suit his agenda, to portray Mehra [Gharibian] and Lili [Cruz] as uncooperative and aggressive.”
College officials, including Albano, did not respond to questions related to the meeting or the revised meeting minutes.
Employees and students close to the situation said Gharibian was placed on administrative leave in October 2024. Shortly thereafter, a group of concerned students met with UC Merced faculty members to try to reinstate Gharibian. They considered passing out flyers and gathering signatures for a petition.
Gharibian resigned in December 2024 as part of a settlement with the college district. In exchange for agreeing not to disparage the district or any of its employees and to release all claims he may have had against the district, Gharibian was promised “neutral references to assist with future employment” and remained on paid administrative leave through May 2025.
Shemia Fagan, a civil rights attorney for the national employment law firm HKM, said non-disparagement clauses are not unheard of in resignation agreements – but they’re not as common as they once were, thanks to social justice efforts in the wake of the MeToo movement and the murder of George Floyd.
“With that greater awareness, there were some movements in some states… entering into these new laws that said, ‘No, you can't silence people just because you settle with them,’” Fagan said.
Existing law in California allows non-disparagement clauses in resignation or settlement agreements, as long as they contain language that allows the employee to speak up about situations they believe are illegal.
Still, Fagan said the mere presence of the clause can discourage someone from speaking at all.
“They're still going to have that chilling effect, which is exactly what the law is designed to prevent, because they have no idea that it's not enforceable,” Fagan said. “They just got a settlement for however much money. They're terrified to lose it by violating this provision in the agreement, and so they won't say anything.”
Gharibian declined to comment for this story.
Cruz handed in her resignation notice the same month, documents show. She did not sign a resignation agreement or a non-disparagement clause. She could not be reached for comment.
Students deal with the aftermath
When the California Community Colleges Board of Governors in 2021 approved an ethnic studies course requirement for graduation, the policy was part of a broader effort to increase “racial justice and equity gains” for the student population.
According to the board’s website, the push came from multiple resolutions passed in 2020 by a couple of groups, including the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.
“All students benefit academically when they are reflected in the curriculum as well as socially from taking ethnic studies courses, and students learn to deconstruct internalized ideas of unworthiness or deconstruct internalized racism and oppression and become empowered,” the senate cited in its resolution.
More ethnic studies courses at Merced College could also potentially make up for the lack of demographic representation in the college’s employees. According to employee data, almost half the college’s employees are white, and about 30% are Hispanic or Latino. In contrast, a 2024 report by The Campaign for College Opportunity showed 19% of the college’s students are white, and 61% are Hispanic or Latino.
“Ethnic studies has the ability to connect people because I think that it allows a lot of people to feel sort of seen and understood,” said Christina Baker, an associate professor of critical race and ethnic studies at UC Merced. “It also just overall allows or provides the opportunity for all of us in our society to be more aware and more knowledgeable about our history.”
When Gharibian and Cruz resigned in December 2024, Dekker said approximately 300 students were left without the initial ethnic studies courses in which they already registered for the following semester. This left Dekker, as the coordinator, scrambling to find replacement professors and classes just days before the new semester started.
“At that point in time, a lot of classes were full because we were pretty close to the start of the spring semester, and registration happens months prior,” Dekker said. “There's a lot of repercussions and a domino effect that happens from that.”
According to documents, as well as Dekker’s account, two of the nine affected courses were reassigned to another professor. From there, Dekker and Albano notified students of new courses they could take — mostly history courses — that would also fulfill their ethnic studies course requirement. Dekker said she was able to help about 75 students enroll in alternative courses, but she couldn’t be certain of what the remaining students did.
The situation was further exacerbated when another professor, who was listed as a replacement professor for four ethnic studies courses, abruptly pulled out just days before classes began.
As a result, Dekker said many students emailed her asking about what to do because the classes they signed up for were missing or full.
“Some of them were graduating, or they were athletes, and they had to have those units in order to stay eligible,” Dekker said.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS identified several students affected by the course cancellations. Five responded that they were able to register for a history class or similar course, with mixed results.
The students who were interviewed were not aware why the classes were canceled, and several students assumed it was related to the national political climate.
Hannah Guttenfelder, a second-year student, said in an interview she ended up in an online course meant to introduce her to ethnic studies, but she said it felt “rushed” and she didn’t really care for it.
“I think it's important to know where we came from, and to know what we still go through and what is still wrong, and what can be fixed, and things like that,” Guttenfelder said about ethnic studies. But in regards to this specific class, she said, “I could take it or leave it, honestly.”
Another student, Reilly Lee, said the history class she ended up taking on Asian American communities broadened her worldview.
“The course was extremely enlightening,” Lee wrote in an email. “Not just how numerous Asian-American communities across the country gained a foothold, but also how deeply-rooted systemic racism continues to be in American society and how it still influences our culture and our body politic.”
Lee said she wasn’t aware of what caused the shuffle of ethnic studies classes at the time, but she said it was not surprising “in light of the Trump administration’s increased scrutiny over diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.”
In February 2025, the administration sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to educational institutions calling for the end of race-conscious programs under threat of cancelling federal funding. In April 2025, a federal court granted an injunction that stopped the enforcement of the letter until further notice.
“We are truly in for dark times ahead,” Lee said.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS asked college officials to comment on these reflections from students, but the college did not respond.
Melissa Magana-Flores is among those still left with concerns. After her class was canceled, she wasn’t able to register for a new one during the spring semester, even though she said she needed it to graduate.
“I think that it’s very suspicious in light of the times that we're in,” Magana-Flores said about the class cancellation. “It’s a great disservice to the community because there are a lot of people that want to learn about it, even if it's not just because it's a requirement, but for people that are curious about what is going on in the world.”
