Tom Jackson: the highest paid professor who hasn’t taught a single class
by Mia Costales
Dozens of police officers in riot gear arrived at the scene on night one of Cal Poly Humboldt’s pro-Palestine encampment in April 2024. They moved in on the protestors, threatening them with pepper balls and rubber bullets. Sitting in the university’s highest office was a man many students and faculty held largely responsible for the riot police presence that night — Cal Poly Humboldt’s former president, Tom Jackson Jr.
The summer following the protest, Jackson announced he would be stepping down from his presidency into an instructional faculty position. In a public records request obtained by The Lumberjack, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jenn Capps maintained her support for Jackson’s retreat to tenured professorship.
“This right allows for you to retreat to a solely instructional faculty position, subject to the terms set forth in the attached document,” Capps said via an email sent to Jackson. “Should you choose to exercise your retreat to an instructional faculty voluntarily, or be asked to leave your position as president, your salary would be adjusted to correspond to the maximum salary level for Instructional Faculty — Academic Year (Classification Code 2360) at the rank of Professor in the College of Professional Studies in effect at that time.”
Jackson’s retreat to tenured professorship
As of fall 2025, Jackson is not listed as faculty or staff under the School of Education or the College of Professional Studies website. Jackson is not listed as having ever taught a class at Cal Poly Humboldt despite retreating to his tenured professorship working with the College of Professional Studies and the College of Extended Education & Global Engagement. He is also not listed anywhere on the PeopleSoft database for instructor schedules under Campus Solutions, which tracks all instructors’ courses and assigned time for non-class activity. Every faculty member who has ever taught a class at Cal Poly Humboldt is listed. According to the spring 2026 course catalogue, Jackson is not projected to teach a course next semester either.
Despite his absence on campus during both his presidency and his tenured professorship, Jackson made $479,880.79 in 2024 according to Transparent California, with 2024 being the year he stepped down from his presidency. In 2023, he made $450,360.72 which is considerably less than the following year, even though he was president for the entire year. Jackson’s current instructional faculty compensation is $182,532.00 according to Marketing and Communications Specialist Melissa Hutsell, the highest amount possible that an instructional faculty member can earn per year. This makes him Cal Poly Humboldt’s highest-paid professor.
Hutsell explained that Jackson’s current role on campus is to support the International Service Learning Program in addition to developing coursework for Leadership Studies.
“Jackson transitioned into his faculty appointment after the fall 2025 semester had commenced,” Hutsell said. “His workload includes assigned time for [the International Service Learning Program and Leadership Studies]. Because faculty workload is entered by departments at the beginning of the term, Jackson’s Peoplesoft entry does not accurately reflect the true assigned workload. Because websites are updated manually, departmental sites commonly lag behind personnel changes.”
Faculty and staff call for “immediate removal and termination” of Jackson
On April 29, 2024, over 100 officers in riot gear arrived in vans and buses to the Cal Poly Humboldt campus at around 2:30 a.m., the final night of the pro-Palestine encampment. Ordered by Jackson, police detained protestors with zip ties and arrested about 25 people. Several hours later, a letter signed by 320 faculty and staff was sent to Chancellor Mildred Garcia, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California State University Board of Trustees, calling for the “immediate removal and termination” of Jackson and Chief of Staff Mark Johnson.
“We, the faculty and staff of Cal Poly Humboldt, urgently demand the immediate removal and termination of President Tom Jackson and Chief of Staff Mark A. Johnson from their positions at our institution,” the letter read. “Their repeatedly extreme and reckless actions in response to recent campus protests have systematically endangered students, staff and faculty, undermined the principles of shared governance and shattered any remaining trust in their leadership.”
This letter followed a vote of no confidence in President Jackson on April 25, in which the general faculty of Cal Poly Humboldt stated they had no confidence in the leadership of Jackson or Johnson.
Jackson announces plans to step down
In a letter sent to Chancellor Mildred Garcia on June 10, 2024, Jackson announced his decision to step down from his acting role as president of Cal Poly Humboldt.
“It is now time for me to step away as the president at Cal Poly Humboldt, and it is my request to do so prior to the start of the 2024-2025 Academic Year with my suggested last day being August 11, 2024,” Jackson said via email. “I look forward to speaking with you in the coming days to discuss my participation in the Executive Transition Program II and my transition to my tenured faculty role in the future.”
However, Jackson had plans to step down from his position as president to tenured professorship as early as June, 2023. In a memo of correspondence between Dean of the College of Professional Studies Shawna Young and Co-Chair of the School of Education James Woglom on June 26, 2023, Woglom supported the recommendation of revising Jackson’s retreat rights to a tenured professor in the College of Professional Studies in the School of Education and Leadership Studies. Provost Capps, kinesiology professor Chris Hopper and associate professor Jill Anderson also shared their support for Jackson’s retreat in 2023.
The Lumberjack reached out to Young and Anderson about Jackson’s current role on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus, however they both declined to comment. The Lumberjack also reached out to Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs Kimberly White who also declined to comment on Jackson’s current role.
The future of Jackson’s role on campus
The future of Jackson’s role on campus is something that many faculty, students and community members continue to question. It is uncertain whether Jackson will teach a course in the future, but some faculty remain committed to working with him despite past controversies.
“We started to work with Tom Jackson on a course in the summer of 2025, but those were preliminary, exploratory meetings and nothing has developed since,” Director for Center for Learning and Teaching (CTL) Enoch Hale said. “If Tom Jackson is slated to teach a course sometime in the future and he approaches the CTL, we will work with him as we do any educator at Cal Poly Humboldt.”
Mia is a senior journalism major. She hopes to give a platform to underrepresented communities through her writing and provide the public with thoughtful and informed stories. In her free time she enjoys cooking, reading and playing the violin. Contact her at mdc140@humboldt.edu.
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