In the Fight to Save Sonoma State University from Layoffs and Department Closures

On January 22, Sonoma State administrators delivered a shocking and devastating blow to its community, announcing the layoff of 46 faculty, 12 staff, and four management positions. An additional 55 lecturers are expected to lose their appointments as well. The announcement also included the abrupt discontinuation of all 11 intercollegiate athletics programs, which will result in the elimination of 27 coaches and 227 student athletes at the close of the academic year.

We encourage you to sign our petition to save the Sonoma State campus. Impacted faculty should reach out to their chapter leaders for support.

A virtual townhall hosted by Sonoma State Interim President Emily F. Cutrer will take place today, January 30, at 1:30pm. You can find the link here.

Sonoma State has the money to prevent any and all cuts. While CSU management has claimed that its decision to slash more than 25 percent of Sonoma State faculty jobs is to fill a $24 million budget deficit, Sonoma State’s own audited financial statements show that it has $50.5 million in surplus (meaning revenue in excess of expenses) from fiscal year 2022-23. Student housing and dining operations alone generated $15 million – twice the amount it cost to operate them. These high costs drive students away, but are extremely profitable for management.

Equally concerning is Chancellor García’s reliance on outside consulting organizations, one of which she previously served as president and CEO, and for which the current Sonoma State Interim President is now a consultant. These consulting groups are paid exorbitant amounts of money to work on “campus efficiency initiatives,” which prioritize immediate cost-saving measures. These measures undermine the university’s mission to provide an equitable and accessible education, weaken shared governance, and lead to administrative bloat as the university shifts toward a corporate model.

As a result of these consultations, six departments and nearly two dozen degree programs are set to close at Sonoma State. Among the departments to be slashed are Women and Gender Studies, Philosophy, Theatre Arts & Dance, and Art History. American Multicultural Studies, Chicano and Latino Studies, and Native American studies will all be consolidated into a single Ethnic Studies Department.

While students who are within 60 units of graduating will be allowed to finish their degrees, all other students will be required to change their majors due to the cuts.

“What we are seeing is an erosion of the liberal arts and a threat to quality public higher education in the CSU,” said Meghan O’Donnell, CFA Associate Vice President of Lecturers, North, and CSU Monterey Bay lecturer. “The system gets its funding to serve students and provide quality higher education, not so it can make a profit playing games on Wall Street or in building cozy and costly relationships with a revolving door of corporate consultants.”

The decline of liberal arts is being observed throughout the country. This trend is particularly evident at the University of Puerto Rico, where 64 programs are at the risk of closure. The rising cost of tuition and lack of student housing have created significant financial barriers for students and have led to a steady decline in enrollment.

As public higher education moves toward greater privatization, the future of liberal arts education hangs in the balance. Rising costs and a growing emphasis on non-academic priorities threatens accessibility to a quality education.

Under Chancellor García and the CSU Board of Trustees’ leadership, the restructuring of the CSU has been catastrophic. Student tuition and fees have soared, placing a further burden on low-income students who are already struggling to attend public higher education. Faculty have been subjected to wave after wave of layoffs on varying campuses, while the Chancellor and the CSU Board of Trustee have deliberately diluted the CSU General Education requirements and deprived students of the critical education they need to thrive in an increasingly challenging landscape.

The recent integration of CSU Maritime with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, done without any meaningful planning or consultation with faculty and students, is another example of the Chancellor’s mismanagement that will negatively impact the lives of thousands of faculty, students, and staff. Meanwhile, resources have been diverted to fund high-paying administrative salaries, capital projects, and – most significantly – hundreds of millions of dollars in debt service, while crucial instruction and essential student services are viewed as a mere afterthought.

From fiscal years 2018-19 to 2022-23, investments in management personnel salaries have gone up by 19.4 percent, cash in investments has gone up by 69.2 percent, and capital spending has gone up by 81.3 percent. Instructional spending, however, has gone down by 11.5 percent.

“This is just a real slash and burn on top of what’s already been a slow loss in instruction and in faculty,” said Law, a Sonoma State professor at the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies. I think we have to be really clear that this isn’t the first or last cut. We’ve already lost a lot of lecturers in the last few years, and we cannot teach our curriculum with the number of faculty that we’re going to be left with in a program with one of the highest graduate rates in the CSU. If the language is around supporting students, this is not the way to support students.”

Alejandro Zarate, a Sonoma State liberal arts major in the Hutchins program and an athlete on the men’s soccer team, spoke to the tragedy of the cuts. “I love the school and it sucks that I have to leave because of something I can’t control because of poor management,” said Zarate. “Some of my friends and teammates uprooted themselves and turned down opportunities to be here. To be treated like this is never something that anyone wants to see anyone go through. It just causes a lot of hurt and confusion.”

While Sonoma State administrators appear to have given up on finding solutions that don’t hurt faculty, students, and staff, CFA members have been working in coalition with members from Teamsters, CSUEU, and UAW to strongly challenge these administrative decisions.

Sonoma State coaches and sport supporters have already filed a federal civil rights complaint against the university and threatened further legal action if the university administrators go through with their decision to close the intercollegiate athletics programs.

“It is not inevitable,” emphasized Charles Toombs, CFA President and San Diego State professor. “These decisions are not permanent, and we can change them. It will take all of us on every campus putting pressure on the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees to reverse the actions taken at Sonoma State. We must also reach out to our legislators, alumni, community leaders, and community members for their help in saving Sonoma State. We must continue to safeguard our campuses from further ill-advised decisions that would negatively impact our faculty, students, and staff.”