SAN JOSE — Less than a month after completing his review of San Jose State’s embattled administration, the CSU chancellor is again investigating possible problems at the campus — this time, auditing allegations of fiscal impropriety in a department. 

More than a year ago, an internal San Jose State review found “no indication of fiscal improprieties” — even as it reported that the former head of its justice studies department spent $6,868 from a Department of Justice Studies bank account on “inadvertent charges” for himself, including parking tickets and an iPad. 

But President Mo Qayoumi has reopened the case, asking CSU Chancellor Timothy White on May 15 to audit the whole justice department.  The move came shortly after NBC aired a segment about the questionable expenditures and the internal audit. 

“I think the timing looks suspicious,” said justice studies professor Sang Hea Kil, who said her own two complaints alleging mismanagement and fraud in the department went nowhere. “ I tried my best and nothing came of my multiple requests.” 

The department head, Mark Correia, repaid the money before he left San Jose State last summer; in April, Indiana University of Pennsylvania announced he had been hired as dean of its College of Health and Human Services. 

Shortly after Correia’s departure was announced, an internal controller’s report documented the inappropriate spending but deemed it inadvertent. 

“Even though those expenses appear to be not following university procedures when incurred, they are now refunded and resolved,” wrote Ninh Phambi, San Jose State’s director of internal control. “ Therefore I do not believe that they constitute reportable improprieties.” 

The chancellor’s office launched its second probe as the ink was still drying on another intervention.  Its review of campus governance, requested by frustrated members of the campus’s Academic Senate who complained of poor communication and low morale, last month resulted in Qayoumi apologizing and vowing to consult more closely with faculty and other campus leaders. 

But the fragile peace between the president and his faculty has been shaken by the sudden resignation of Charles Bullock, dean of The College of Applied Sciences and Arts, who oversaw the justice studies department and five others, in addition to four schools. 

Bullock’s unexpected resignation — announced this week by Provost Andy Feinstein in an email thanking the dean for his contributions — has upset and puzzled some faculty members, including one member of a review committee that gave Bullock good ratings this spring as part of a regularly scheduled five-year evaluation. 

“We were very disappointed, because our review was very positive, and we’re looking for a reason for why this happened,” said Shirley Reekie, head of the kinesiology department. 

Student activists, meanwhile, are seeking answers of their own, demanding an independent audit of all San Jose State’s departments.  The Student Coalition for SJSU Accountability has been requesting and scrutinizing public records on campus expenditures since it formed last fall, said one of its organizers, Michelle Pujol, a justice studies major who graduated last month. 

Pujol says students and the public deserve to know some fundamental questions about the university: “Where’s the money?  Where’s the power?  Who’s making the decisions and who is it serving?” 

Follow Katy Murphy at Twitter.com/katymurphy.