This story was published in collaboration with The Merced FOCUS.
MERCED, Calif. — Renée Dekker was a week into her new job at Merced College when, she recalled, her boss made a comment to her that she felt was unwelcome and unprofessional.
“You know, Renée, you will need to be careful now not to gain too much weight sitting at a desk all day because it would not be good,” John Albano, the dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences at that time, allegedly told her in August 2022.
“And then you would have to walk around wearing muumuu dresses."
Dekker remembers a professor who overheard Albano ask if she was OK. The professor told Dekker that Albano’s comment was “strange,” but Dekker said she “blew that off” at the time.
Dekker began working for the college in 2018 before being promoted in 2022 as the administrative coordinator for the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The coordinator position ensures the school runs like a well-oiled machine. Dekker’s duties included coordinating classes for students, working with faculty on their contracts, and reporting regularly to Albano, the school’s dean.
The comments from Albano on her body and eating habits continued, Dekker alleged. Despite initially brushing them off, she later claimed that the comments continued for two years, and she wanted them to stop.
In November 2024, Dekker filed a written complaint against Albano with the college’s human resources office. In that complaint, and in statements she gave to an investigator the college hired, Dekker catalogued the alleged comments by Albano about her body and eating habits, claimed she struggled to get time-off requests approved by Albano, and described a slew of disparaging remarks he made – not just about herself, but also about other women and employees of color.
By this time, Dekker wasn’t the only employee submitting complaints about Albano. Documents obtained by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS, along with interviews of sources close to the situation, indicate at least 10 faculty and staff members filed complaints against Albano in fall 2024.
College administrators initiated a human resources investigation into some of the complaints in December 2024. It was conducted by a third-party firm, The Titan Group, and lasted about four months, according to records.
But neither Dekker’s complaint, nor any of the others filed around the same time, resulted in findings of wrongdoing by Albano. Instead, all of the complaints were either procedurally dismissed or denied after the investigator concluded that Albano had either acted appropriately or that there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations.
At the same time, records show Albano volunteered to remove himself from his position. He transferred to a position as dean of another school at the college, and that his move “resulted in mitigated interactions during and after the investigative process.” In January 2025, Albano assumed his new position as dean of the Schools of Business, Economics and Adult Education/Non-Credit. He was in that position for a year before announcing in February his plans to step down into a faculty role for the fall 2026 semester.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS obtained more than 100 pages of documents to understand how the complaints against Albano were investigated and handled. The documents included copies of four complaints made by employees, responses to the complaints written by college administrators, documents detailing the resignations of employees, and correspondences between college administrators during the time of the complaints and investigations.
The news outlets also spoke to more than a dozen sources close to the situation, including faculty members, employees, administrators and students.
The 18-month long investigation by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS found that while Albano moved to a different department and officials took steps to address the complaints against him, some employees who filed complaints were left with doubts about the process, and at least two said they faced retaliation by the college after the fact.
For example, Dekker said someone at the college alleged she made false statements in her complaint and she herself became the subject of a subsequent investigation. She resigned shortly after that complaint was lodged because of pressure she felt on the job. Two others who filed complaints also resigned, with one of them entering into a settlement agreement with the college. Another complainant had all of her scheduled classes canceled.
“It got to a point where I had seen and experienced way too much, and it just felt like the only right thing to do would be to come forward and present what we'd experienced to the administration so that they would be aware of what was happening and hopefully do something about it,” Dekker said in an interview.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS reached out to multiple Merced College administrators and representatives, including John Albano, to request information and interviews for this story. 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 10 written questions and follow-up questions and gave college officials one week to answer them. In response, Cunningham sent a statement to KVPR and The FOCUS on Nov. 21, 2025, which reads in full:
“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.
When workplace concerns are raised, the District follows well-established procedures to ensure that all matters are reviewed thoroughly, impartially, and in accordance with all legal and policy obligations.
Merced College stands firmly behind the integrity of its established processes and the professionalism of its employees, supported by the District’s long-standing use of thorough review procedures and independent oversight mechanisms when appropriate.
The District encourages responsible, fact-based reporting and cautions that any portrayal of our workplace that does not accurately reflect the full context or verified information risks presenting an incomplete and potentially misleading account.
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.”
Cunningham did not respond to follow-up questions.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS also forwarded the 10 questions to Albano along with Cunningham’s response. In an email on Dec. 4, 2025, Albano replied: “There were two independent investigations initiated by the district and all allegations were either exonerated or not sustained by the independent reviewers.”
Neither Cunningham nor Albano responded to follow-up questions asking to clarify which two independent investigations Albano referred to, since multiple employees filed complaints. Neither Merced College President Chris Vitelli nor any members of the Merced College Board of Trustees responded to inquiries.
Staff and faculty allege discrimination, intimidation
Albano has worked at Merced College for more than two decades. He started as a full-time faculty member in 2001 as a music instructor. He was promoted in 2011 to dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences, a position he stayed in for 13 years. His wife, Valerie Albano, was formerly a dean and is now an instructor at the college.
Before working in education, Albano, a jazz guitarist, worked as a professional musician in the entertainment industry. He still performs in a local band today.
In his role as a dean, Albano led and developed programs in the subjects of digital media, political science, geography, sociology, economics and ethnic studies.
But source accounts and obtained documents allege that, as dean, Albano led a workplace that was hostile, discriminatory and challenging for many of his employees to endure.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS filed two public records requests asking to obtain, inspect and confirm the number of complaints filed against Albano to try to understand the allegations against him. The district denied both requests and rejected an appeal by the news organizations. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS independently obtained copies of four complaints made against Albano, which allege gender and race discrimination, among other alleged workplace violations.
One part-time faculty member in Albano’s academic school, Andrea, wrote in her complaint she felt intimidated by him. 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’s complaint from November 2024 states the dean treated her in a condescending manner, including by referring to her as a “smart girl” and giving her unsolicited advice about which employees to spend time with.
“There is no instance in my brain where I could see John Albano going up to one of my male colleagues and being like, ‘Well, you're a smart boy,’” Andrea said in an interview. “I know that sometimes ‘girl’ can be an endearing term, but when I'm sitting in my boss's office, and he's already trying to dictate who I can and cannot hang out with – to me, the underlying tone of that is that I, myself, can't decide who is trustworthy or not.”
Other allegations from the complaints detail unfair practices in approving paid time off.
Despite the complaints against Albano, some colleagues described an amicable working relationship with him.
Michael Lorenz, a longtime history professor and faculty lead for six years under Albano until 2024, said in an interview he was mystified to hear about the allegations against Albano. Lorenz said he heard about the complaints from female colleagues, and although he believes them, his professional relationship with Albano has only ever been positive.
“The relationship was cordial,” Lorenz said. “I’d say even friendly…He's dedicated to his job, takes his job seriously, was professional, and, during those six years, there was nothing I saw that alarmed me.”
Previous incidents with Albano surface
Several years before these complaints were submitted, a staff union alleged Albano unlawfully fired a pregnant employee in 2020 and was forced to reinstate her.
According to documents obtained by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS, Katherine Lopez, who worked as a box office clerk, filed a grievance through her union, the California School Employees Association, after Albano terminated her without a required employee evaluation.
“Ms. Lopez’s perception is that Dean Albano’s demeanor toward her changed completely the
moment he found out she was pregnant,” Susan de Leon, a labor relations representative with the union, wrote in a letter to Albano and a human resources representative at the college.
De Leon demanded the college reinstate Lopez to her position immediately and pay her the compensation and benefits she lost due to the termination. Lopez confirmed with KVPR and The Merced FOCUS that she was reinstated, although she has since left the college for unrelated reasons.
At least two of the complaints submitted in 2024 allege Albano discriminated against women, including by not acknowledging them in the room, assigning more tasks than those listed in their job descriptions, and monitoring them more closely than male colleagues.
Experts say workplace discrimination claims face burden of proof
The types of allegations against Albano reflect common workplace issues, said Shemia Fagan, a civil rights attorney for the national employment law firm HKM – including comments about what someone wears or eats.
“These kinds of complaints, in general, are not rare,” Fagan said. “I have these kinds of cases all the time. But 10 of them within a month about the same manager, that's rare.”
Fagan couldn’t comment on specific details in the cases surrounding Albano. But in general, she said proving that comments by a supervisor amount to discrimination or harassment requires providing two pieces of evidence. One of those is to show the misconduct occurred “more likely than not.”
“You don't have to be beyond all reasonable doubt. You can have lots of doubts,” she said.
The second piece of evidence needed to determine discrimination or harassment, Fagan said, considers whether a comment targets a characteristic about someone that’s protected by state and federal laws, such as their race, gender or class.
Kathryn Forbes, the program coordinator for women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Fresno State, agreed these types of allegations are common, and that many go under the radar because they don’t seem as serious as allegations of sexual misconduct. None of the complaints against Albano reviewed by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS included any allegations of sexually-inappropriate statements or conduct.
“Our attention to workplace discrimination and harassment has really focused on what we can call the ‘sexual dominance paradigm,’ meaning that we focus on the sexual part of harassment,” Forbes said. “It's like lascivious texts, actual physical touching that's meant in a sexual way and stuff. And that has crowded out our understanding and our abilities to perceive other forms of harassment that are based on gender.”
Those other forms of harassment are “classic things many women have experienced,” Forbes said, including ignoring a woman’s input during a discussion, having to perform more menial tasks compared to their male counterparts, or being frowned upon for leaving work to take care of a sick child.
“There's a real bias in these kinds of activities, and I think that they can be very subtle,” Forbes said.
Complainants say process mired in red tape
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS learned college officials did respond substantively to at least some of the complaints made about Albano. But initial feedback from college officials was to inform faculty and staff that they hadn’t followed all filing policies and to request they resubmit the complaints. If they did not resubmit, the complaints were labeled as “informal.”
Documents show that Kelly Avila, the vice president of human resources, informed at least some of the complainants they needed to resubmit the complaints according to rules about how recently the incidents occurred.
For instance, one of the rules was to make sure the incidents described occurred within 180 days of the complaint submission. This time constraint is a standard policy set by the California Community Colleges system.
Caitlin Serpa, a tenured economics professor, said in an interview that in the end, the complaint filing process discouraged her from formally resubmitting her complaint – even though one of the incidents in her complaint occurred within the allowed 180-day timeframe.
“I thought everyone else's complaints were substantial enough, it shouldn't have been an issue,” Serpa said. “Those would go forward, they would stand on their own legs, and things would be dealt with.”
Ultimately, Dekker said only five people resubmitted their complaints officially. Documents show those complaints sparked investigations by at least one third-party investigator, Shawn Hare of The Titan Group.
The college did not disclose the investigation documents. However, two determination letters sent by the district following the investigations – and obtained independently by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS – said the claims in the complaints were not sustained.
Dekker’s original complaint alone was 21 pages long and listed roughly 40 alleged incidents. However, the determination letter showed the district only responded to two of her specific allegations: Albano’s alleged discriminatory responses to time off requests, and the muumuu dress comment.
College officials did not respond to a question about why they didn’t address all of Dekker’s allegations. The college’s letter informing Dekker of the results of the investigation implied that the rest of the alleged incidents occurred outside the 180-day limit.
Ultimately, the district found in its investigation of Dekker’s claims that Albano was “exonerated” of the allegations related to time-off requests because emails showed “immediate approval” of requests from Dekker and other female employees.
The investigator concluded that the second allegation about the dress was “not sustained” because, while Albano “possibly made statements” to Dekker cautioning her about her body or what she ate, the alleged statements were made more than 180 days before Dekker submitted her complaint.
The investigator also concluded, according to the determination letter, that Dekker’s recollection of the comment was not truthful because a witness allegedly recalled the incident differently, saying they instead recalled Albano’s statement as “Don’t eat donuts or you could get fat.”
Avila’s letter also claimed, without elaborating, that the investigator believed that Dekker provided “false and misleading statements” and engaged in “untruthfulness” that “significantly affected [her] credibility.”
Avila wrote that 16 staff were interviewed by the investigator in response to Dekker’s and other complaints.
Even though some of the other complaints were never resubmitted and were deemed “informal,” the college did respond to them. At least two employees who submitted initial complaints received an informal resolution letter, in which college officials outlined steps taken to try to resolve the tension.
For instance, college officials said Albano chose to remove himself from his role and transfer to another school within the campus, “which resulted in mitigated interactions during and after the investigative process.” College officials did not reply to a reporter’s question about whether Albano’s transfer was indeed directly related to the complaints.
College officials also outlined several steps the employees could take informally to resolve their concerns, including participating in a facilitated conversation with a “neutral third-party,” informal oversight, and department training on workplace conflict.
A faculty complainant who spoke to KVPR and The Merced FOCUS, and who asked to remain anonymous because they feared retaliation from the college, said the timing of the informal resolution letter made it difficult for them to follow through with the suggested resolutions. The school sent the letter in late May 2025, while classes were out of session for the summer.
“I wasn't going to respond when I was off-contract. And then, by the time the new semester came around…I didn't want to deal with it anymore,” the faculty member said. “I don't feel like I'll ever have closure because I didn't feel like any of the options were things that I wanted to reopen.”
Three employees, including Dekker and Andrea, appealed the investigation determinations to the Board of Trustees.
In Dekker’s appeal, she disputed the district’s determination, including the testimony by her colleague. She also said the statements casting doubt on her credibility suggested the investigation may not have been impartial.
“I believe there was a systemic failure, not only to protect employees, but to uphold the integrity of the complaint process itself based on serious deficiencies in my (and other's) investigations and administrative determinations,” Dekker wrote in her appeal letter. “You should know that this issue extends far beyond me or a single complaint. The allegations within my complaint represent a persistent and troubling pattern within the institution.”
The Board of Trustees denied all three appeals in May 2025.
Merced College seems to have followed standard practice in its handling of the complaints, according to Fagan, the civil rights lawyer.
She also said hiring a third party investigator to look into complaints is not common.
Fallout on campus
In the months following the complaints and investigations, three employees who filed complaints eventually resigned, and one part-time faculty member had all of her classes abruptly canceled. Dekker and Andrea allege the resignations and class cancellation are results of retaliation by the college.
Dekker also received a letter from the human resources office on April 29, 2025 informing her she was being investigated for misconduct.
The letter obtained by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS does not give any details into the allegation. However, Dekker said in an interview that she was told college officials filed a complaint against her claiming she made false allegations in her original complaint.
Dekker suspects this was an attempt to discredit her witness testimony about Albano.
“I think that if they could undermine that credibility, then it sort of would wash out anything that I had brought forward because I was interviewed as a witness for one other person’s complaint,” Dekker said.
Fagan, the employment attorney, said complaint processes also bring scrutiny on the person who files the complaint – which can sometimes feel like retaliation. But she said there is also a burden of proof to meet in order to determine retaliation.
“If you complain, and you're less than honest – or throughout the course of whatever investigation, they also discover misconduct by you – you're not somehow immune from that,” she said.
Dekker resigned from Merced College immediately after receiving notice of the complaint against her. Since leaving, she said she feels free to speak out.
“It's like leaving a cult…” she said. “I felt like I'd finally broken free from this control that had been weighing me down for so long.”
Andrea, the part-time faculty member who also submitted a formal complaint, also claims she was retaliated against. A few months after submitting her complaint, she received an email that all of her classes scheduled for the next two semesters were canceled.
Documents show college officials said the decision was based on “district needs.”
Indeed, Andrea and other faculty told KVPR and The Merced FOCUS that at least one other faculty who did not file complaints also had their classes canceled around the same time. Still, Andrea said she suspects this was targeted.
“I do feel like it's a form of retaliation, not only for me making the complaint, but I also think it could be a way of [the administration] just getting rid of me because [they] saw me as someone who was being involved within our union,” Andrea said.
Andrea wasn’t the only one feeling this way following her class cancellations. Lorenz, the history professor, voiced concern about the college’s treatment of Andrea. Documents show he emailed administrators warning that the class cancellations could be viewed as retaliation against Andrea, even if that wasn’t true.
“I would think the District would do all within its power to avoid even the perception that it takes steps to remove whistleblowers,” he wrote.
He told KVPR and the Merced FOCUS that administrators responded by refuting any claims of retribution, and maintaining that Andrea’s courses had been canceled for financial reasons.
Like Dekker, two others who filed complaints against Albano in late 2024 resigned a month later.
Both were professors in the ethnic studies department, which is part of the School of Arts and Social Sciences and was created under Albano’s oversight in 2022.
The professors’ complaints reportedly alleged racial and gender discrimination, according to Dekker, who spoke to both professors. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS were unable to interview either professor for comment on this story.
Merced College officials did not provide answers to any follow-up questions related to these four employees’ situations.
At least six employees who made initial complaints are still employed at Merced College. However, according to public records, almost all are tenured faculty — positions generally provided more permanence and protection from dismissal.
Questions linger on campus
Some sources who spoke with KVPR and The Merced FOCUS believe the whole ordeal points to a larger problem within the workplace culture at Merced College.
Serpa, who submitted an informal complaint, said she wasn’t looking for Albano to face severe penalties. Instead, she simply wanted someone to acknowledge what multiple people at the college were experiencing.
“I'm not the type of person that's out there for blood. I don't believe in canceling people and ruining their lives,” Serpa said. “I personally would have hoped it would have been just a wake-up call for the culture of the campus. I personally think a lot of this was happening from farther up than just at the dean level.”
After the investigations, word got around about the employees who left the college.
“These people don't feel heard because they don't seem to have been heard,” said Megan Igo, president of the Merced College Faculty Association.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS asked Merced College officials how they work to maintain a positive workplace culture in general, but college officials did not respond to the specific question and instead sent the statement.
Dekker believes this situation isn’t unique to Merced College. The issue feels larger than that, she said.
“People sort of roll their eyes about throwing around the words ‘systemic racism’ and things like that,” Dekker said. “But this type of thing that happens in a small college in California, I think happens in a bigger pattern across higher educational institutions in the country.”
