In a lawsuit detailing intense infighting at CSU-Monterey Bay, a former administrator alleges he was fired for blowing the whistle on wrongdoing by faculty members and other managers.

Henry Villanueva, the former associate vice president for academic programs and learning support, claims his reputation was ravaged and his career severely damaged by e-mails and anonymous letters sent out across the Seaside campus and to universities where he sought a job after he was fired in 2003.

Included in those letters, according to the lawsuit, was the assertion that Villanueva had been fired after four administrators he supervised filed harassment claims against him and the university. Existence of the claims was confirmed Friday by the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

One defendant in Villanueva's lawsuit, who was also one of those filing harassment claims, suggested Villanueva's departure from the school may have more to do with those claims than any whistle-blowing.

"All I can say is you should call Cal State Hayward and Cal State Long Beach where (Villanueva) had similar tenure, where he stayed two or three years and then left under a shadowy cloud," said Raymond Gonzalez, director of CSUMB's academic skills achievement program. "I would say it's a pattern."

A central figure in Villanueva's lawsuit is his former supervisor, Diane Cordero de Noriega, provost and vice president for academic affairs. The lawsuit accuses Cordero de Noriega of failing to stop the defamation or fire "politically sensitive" faculty members and administrators out of fear for her own career.

Her inaction amounted to an endorsement of malfeasance and prompted the other defendants to launch an attack against him, according to Villanueva's lawsuit in Monterey County Superior Court. By firing him, it alleges, Cordero de Noriega and CSUMB violated state law protecting whistle-blowers.

Also named as defendants are Steven Brown, the former director of academic enhancement services; Carlos Gonzales, director of the migrant student support services program; and Donald Urioste, chairman of the department of world languages and cultures.

Also named in the lawsuit, though not identified as a defendant, is well-known archeology professor Ruben Mendoza, an outspoken critic of the university administration who also had been sued by Villanueva in 2001.

The earlier lawsuit was a response to an e-mail Mendoza sent campuswide accusing Villanueva and his wife of unethical behavior at the campus, an assertion later ruled unfounded. Among Mendoza's assertions were that Villanueva unethically pressured the university to hire his wife as a student counselor and then acted as her supervisor.

Mendoza also alleged that Doreen Villanueva had revealed confidential information regarding a student whom she later reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

All the allegations were determined to be unfounded by an investigator hired by the university.

Villanueva's lawsuit against Mendoza was settled in mediation when Mendoza agreed to write an apology acknowledging the investigator's findings and to pay Villanueva's legal fees.

The new lawsuit alleges that many of Mendoza's false accusations were rehashed in another campuswide e-mail sent out by Urioste.

Urioste's e-mail, titled "Chicano Latino Faculty Student Association of CSUMB Alert," accused Villanueva of "abusive personnel practices," "intimidation" leading to stress-related medical leaves by numerous staff leaders and "physical and racial abuse."

Villanueva, who declined comment for this article, also alleges that he told Cordero de Noriega that Brown was misusing state equipment, resources and money.

"Without disputing the evidence, Cordero de Noriega told Villanueva that the matter involved a 'politically sensitive issue,'" the lawsuit reads. "She said she had been contacted by the NAACP on behalf of (Brown) and told Villanueva that 'We need to handle this situation with caution.'"

The lawsuit also accuses Brown of releasing confidential information from Villanueva's personnel file, including a poor recommendation from CSU-Hayward, and of being complicit in forwarding that information to other universities after Villanueva was fired from CSUMB.

Brown has since left the university and now works for DeVry University in Northern California.

Informed of the lawsuit this week, Brown declined comment but scoffed at Villanueva's allegations.

"That's pretty smart of him being as he got fired," he said.

Villanueva is now the director of first-year programs at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

The lawsuit says Villanueva also reported incompetence and misuse of resources by two other Latino administrators and recommended they be terminated. In both cases, Villanueva alleges, Cordero de Noriega told him discipline was not politically feasible.

Her failure to take action amounted to approval of the behavior, Villanueva alleges, and resulted in his opponents unleashing a "virulent attack on him."

Villanueva's lawsuit states that Cordero de Noriega learned of Urioste's e-mail two hours after he released it but, because she feared a political fight would damage her career, took no action to stop it.

Though Cordero de Noriega had always given him excellent reviews in the past, Villanueva's lawsuit states, she informed him on March 7, 2003, that "this (will) be your last year at CSUMB." He was placed on paid administrative leave and officially left the university on Aug. 1, 2003.

"Cordero de Noriega made the decision to terminate Villanueva because he had reported incompetence, malfeasance, waste, misappropriation of state and federal resources at CSUMB... (and) to avoid a political fight" with the defendants, the suit states.

The lawsuit alleges defamation, wrongful termination and violations of Villanueva's right to privacy. It asks for compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages and that Villanueva be returned to his former position.

University spokeswoman Holly White declined comment on Friday, saying that CSUMB lawyers had not been served with the lawsuit. Urioste and Carlos Gonzales did not return phone calls.

Raymond Gonzalez declined comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, saying he had not seen it and knew nothing about the anonymous communications Villanueva claims were sent out to other universities.

He confirmed that he, Brown, Carlos Gonzales and Ken Howe, the university's former interim writing director, all filed harassment claims against Villanueva and the university with the Fair Employment and Housing Department. He said the department dropped his and Carlos Gonzales' claims when it could not connect the harassment to age discrimination.

Howe's attorney, Michelle Welsh, confirmed her client's case involved physical abuse and said it was settled out of court, but she declined to comment further. Howe is not named as a defendant in Villanueva's lawsuit and could not be reached for comment Friday.

Brown, who is black, claimed harassment based on race and retaliation for protesting. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing authorized him to file suit as well.