Sacramento State replaces provost after 15 months following telework pushback
After only 15 months in the job, Erika Cameron has been replaced as the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sacramento State. Effective June 1, longtime faculty member and academic leader Mary Maguire has assumed that role.
The provost leads the university’s academic affairs division, which includes the seven academic colleges, university library and the College of Continuing Education.
“Academic affairs is in strong hands with Dr. Maguire,” President Luke Wood wrote in a message to the campus community Monday. “She knows this university, its people, and its mission as well as anyone, and we are confident the work of the division will continue with purpose and momentum.”
Maguire joined Sacramento State in 2005 as an assistant professor in the Division of Criminal Justice. Most recently, she served as dean of the College of Health and Human Services, which serves more than 8,000 students each year. In that role, she established the Center for Health Practice, Policy, and Research and launched initiatives to serve people transitioning from incarceration to higher education. Maguire is a graduate of Harvard’s Management Development Program and has a Ph.D. from Portland State University.
Robert Pieretti, a tenured professor, will take over as interim dean of the College of Health and Human Services, Wood said.
On being asked what led to the change in academic leadership at Sacramento State, spokesperson Michelle Willard said the university does not comment on items related to personnel. She declined to comment on next steps for the former provost Cameron and the plan for recruitment of a permanent replacement for the position.
Faculty pushback on telework
Cameron came to Sacramento State to take over as provost in March 2025 after serving in that role for three years at Palo Alto University, a private institution focusing on behavioral health disciplines including counseling, psychology and social work. She succeeded Carlos Nevarez, who was interim provost from 2022 to 2025.
In January, Cameron faced pushback from staff after her office informed Division of Academic Affairs employees that telework agreements would be discontinued for all except those with accommodations. She told workers they would be expected to be working in person, five days a week by Feb. 2.
While the university said the aim was to bolster staff’s on-campus presence and improve student and faculty services, university workers and their labor representatives said the change was misguided and had damaged staff morale.
Following the criticism, the provost pushed back the schedule for rolling out the policy. Per the new timeline, academic affairs staff were to be in offices four days a week beginning March 15 and fully in person by July 1.
Maguire sent a message to academic affairs staff on her second day in the position. She acknowledged that the decision to end telecommuting was “difficult” and had “created uncertainty.” The policy had been updated, she said, and employees wishing to continue working from home one day a week beyond July 1 could submit a request for approval for an additional year.
With no deadline to return to full on-campus schedules, the academic affairs leadership will conduct a review of telecommute and staffing this fall that will shape the campus’ future, she said.
“The work you do is indispensable to this university,” she said. “You have navigated an enormous amount of systemic change in recent years, and you have done it with grace. I am grateful for that, and I do not take it for granted.”
In another message to the campus, Maguire said Sacramento State was planning a targeted expansion of course sections for the summer and fall semester in an attempt to solve the problem of inadequate space in classes that students need to graduate. New sections will be distributed across mornings, evenings and weekends, will include online delivery and larger campus venues, and will be grounded in enrollment trends and waitlist data, per Maguire’s message.
