Angelo Armenti Jr.’s dismissal last month as president of California University of Pennsylvania was “for cause,” the state higher-education system said in a brief statement issued on Monday, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported, but the statement offered no details on the specific cause for his termination, effective May 16. Mr. Armenti has protested his firing and says he believes he should be paid his $227,000 salary through the end of his contract, which runs through June 2014. But the state system’s statement says he is entitled to be paid his salary and insurance benefits for only six months from his termination date.
The university’s local governing board, a Council of Trustees, has been looking for explanations from the state system’s leaders, and had hoped to hear from them at a council meeting set for Tuesday night. But Monday’s statement said system leaders would not attend. One trustee, State Rep. Peter Daley, criticized the leaders for that decision, calling it “an outrageous display of their arrogance.” Mr. Daley, a Democrat, said he may request a legislative investigation of Mr. Armenti’s firing and the role the system’s chancellor and Board of Governors played in it.
