NEW BRITAIN, September 10 — Central Connecticut State University President Zulma Toro is under investigation following a written complaint filed August 18 by Lisa Bigelow, the university’s Director of Institutional Advancement and president of the union representing administrative employees. The complaint alleges a workplace culture of “fear, oppressive control, intimidation, humiliation, and bullying” and details 14 incidents it says demonstrate violations of university policies during Toro’s tenure. Toro has served as CCSU president since 2017.
Bigelow has worked at Central for 40 years.
The Allegations
The complaint describes a series of confrontations. On August 11, Toro allegedly yelled at an employee and reduced them to tears at a two-day off-site retreat at the Delamar Hotel, then cancelled the remainder of the retreat after a second tirade accusing cabinet members of not supporting her initiatives. Toro allegedly expected employees to perform personal services including scheduling medical appointments, cutting her food, and dog-sitting in the office.
The complaint says Toro asked an African American woman to prepare and serve her daily coffee, and when the woman refused, she was transferred out of the President’s office. Toro allegedly screamed at an employee during a donor engagement event in the Basketball Suite in front of donors, and contacted the campus physician asking them to send an APRN to the President’s Office to change a wound bandage on her dog.
The complaint also reaches back through Toro’s tenure. It says Toro targeted employees related to the Admissions telephone system in 2017, with several employees filing complaints at the time; verbally berated Bigelow on two separate occasions in 2019, with Bigelow saying she filed a complaint at the time; and directed repeated, prolonged outbursts toward the faculty senate president.
In early spring 2018, after an open student forum about Toro’s decision to cancel the golf program, Toro allegedly screamed at athletics staff saying, “My father taught me that when people disrespect you, they either pay with their money or pay with their blood. Someone is going to pay with their blood!” The complaint further alleges Toro directed repeated, severe, angry and threatening verbal tirades at an employee before terminating her; at an employee who resigned after approximately one week on the job; and at a different employee.
It also says Toro pressured an employee to “fudge institutional numbers” in regard to a report on plans to turn Central into a polytechnic institution, specifically to “produce institutional numbers that present a more favorable picture than the underlying data support,” and withheld a report containing data showing that the polytechnic institution plan would cost more than it would generate for some period of time, objecting to the findings.
What Bigelow Is Asking For
Bigelow told the I-Team she does not understand why Toro has not been put on paid administrative leave. “I am not asking for them to rush the investigation. I understand we are talking about very serious allegations with very serious consequences.
They can take all the time they need to do a full, thorough investigation,” she said. “What I’m asking for is they remove her from the position of power that she is in.
Remove her from the environment where she can continue to intimidate.” The broader stakes for CCSU are institutional as much as personal. A sitting president under investigation, facing allegations that span her entire tenure, leaves the university navigating a leadership question with no announced timeline. What this signals to faculty, staff and donors will depend on how the investigation is handled — and whether the university moves to separate Toro from her office while it proceeds.
That decision, not the complaint itself, is the one to watch.
