Sonoma State Was 1st CSU to Slash Programs. It Likely Won’t Be the Last

The significant cuts announced by Sonoma State University are not likely to be a one-off, interim President Emily Cutrer warned — other California State University campuses in the Bay Area are facing similar budget deficits and might have to take the same drastic steps as enrollment and statewide funding decline.

“We may be the first, but we’re not the last CSU where you are going to see issues,” Cutrer said Thursday morning on KQED’s Forum.

Sonoma State is eliminating 20 degree programs, six departments and all NCAA Division II athletics at the end of the academic year to stave off a $24 million budget shortfall — worsened by a 38% decline in enrollment over the last decade. That shrinking student body affects two of the university’s major funding streams: tuition dollars and CSU funding, which the system announced in 2023 that it would reallocate away from campuses that don’t meet enrollment goals.

Other CSUs in Northern California — including Cal State East Bay and San Francisco State University — have also faced declining enrollment, saddling them with significant deficits as well.

In San Francisco, university President Lynn Mahoney announced a fiscal emergency in December, which she told KQED at the time was “just the language that [she] had to use based on a very old [Academic] Senate policy.”

Still, she said in a message to staff that month that the policy allows programs to “be reduced, phased out, reorganized or discontinued.” She also said the university would cut back on hiring staff and administrators.

SF State’s student body has been decreasing since the fall of 2019, and this year, its first-year class was 20% to 25% smaller than anticipated. A number of faculty lecturers were informed in the fall that they wouldn’t be teaching classes this semester, and next year, sections of some courses, like introductory writing, will be significantly reduced.

University spokesperson Bobby King said the campus is just beginning to budget for next year, but he expects it to have to make $25 million in reductions based on a 5% decrease in enrollment-based funding and dwindling tuition dollars.

“SFSU has been working to align budgets with current enrollment trends for several years. But with the additional cuts that appear to be on the horizon, we — unfortunately — will have a lot more work to do,” King told KQED.

More details will emerge in the coming months, he said.

This week, the university announced that it was beginning to phase out the use of its Romberg Tiburon Campus in Marin County, which has been a research location since 1978. It’s housed the Estuary and Ocean Science Center — which employs three tenure-track faculty members, 11 faculty researchers and nine state-funded employees — since 2017.

Students haven’t taken courses there since a master’s program in estuary science was discontinued last year, but about 40 conduct research onsite.

“The closure of RTC will allow SFSU to redirect critical funding into the main campus during a challenging period for the University, CSU and the state,” Mahoney said in a statement on Tuesday.

SF State faculty roles won’t be cut and will be relocated to the main campus. It’s unclear what will happen to the nine state-funded positions.

Cal State East Bay is also phasing out use of one of its satellite campuses, the Oakland Center, for ongoing “significant savings.” It will terminate its lease at the end of June.

“We are projecting a significant structural deficit,” campus President Cathy Sandeen said in a message to the school community in September. The deficit was around $14 million after enrollment fell further at the start of the fall semester.

A spokesperson said Thursday that the campus has been able to save $10 million throughout this budget year but was still looking at discontinuing low-enrolled programs while prioritizing required courses and ensuring faculty assignments align with enrollment demand.

“We will continue to closely review all degree programs, minors, and concentrations that have consistently low enrollments, and we will recommend a path forward for those programs,” Sandeen said in a budget update last month.

Eleven degree programs were identified for discontinuation at the beginning of the 2024–25 academic year and women’s water polo was cut last spring.

In the last 18 months, 165 lecturers, who taught part-time or up to four classes in a semester, lost their appointments. Jeff Newcomb, the president of Cal State East Bay’s faculty union, said the union was warned that layoffs might still be coming.

“It’s like the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet,” he told KQED.

Sandeen said at the beginning of the year that administrators were working with the faculty union since some represented positions might be eliminated and was forming an Academic Senate Layoff Committee to advise on the job cuts.

All of the CSU system’s 23 campuses will also be hit by a 7.95% state funding cut, based on Gov. Gavin Newson’s proposed budget, released in January.

“The impact of such deep funding cuts will have significant real-world consequences, both in and out of the classroom,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement at the time. “Larger class sizes, fewer course offerings and a reduced workforce will hinder students’ ability to graduate on time and weaken California’s ability to meet its increasing demands for a diverse and highly educated workforce.”

The state cuts would cost SF State $20.7 million and Cal State East Bay $11 million next year.

San José State, which saw a 3.5% increase in its student body this year, will see enrollment-based funding go up instead of being trimmed, but spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald called the state’s financial outlook “challenging” for the university. Between the enrollment-based increase and the overall state funding cut, SJSU expects a net reduction of 2.5% to 4%, McDonald said.

Those cuts won’t be finalized until June, when the California Legislature approves a final budget. All of the universities have expressed hope that the state — which has a $363 million budget surplus — will reinstate school funding.

Don Romesburg, the Sonoma State Women and Gender Studies department chair who is set to be laid off at the end of the year when his department closes, said the state should be stepping up to fund the CSU system, especially as President Trump’s administration targets public institutions and social welfare programs.

“They need to recognize that doing so is a way of pushing back against all of the ways in which we are being besieged by the federal government and its politics right now,” he said on Forum. “Reinvest in a California-style, quality public higher education system that creates the engines of change and social justice and prosperity and purpose for all of us.”