California University Grapples with Deficit: Staff Reductions, Program Cuts, and Sports Discontinuation Ensue

January 24, 2025 TruthUSA

Sonoma State, which has experienced a consistent decline in enrollment over the years, will suspend its participation in NCAA Division II athletics.

A growing budget deficit has compelled Sonoma State University, located in Northern California, to consolidate departments, reduce faculty and staff, and cease its engagement in NCAA Division II athletics.

This decision follows the university’s announcement that its budget deficit, initially estimated at $21 million, has increased to approximately $23.9 million. Interim President Emily Cutrer indicated that the university has taken steps to mitigate the deficit by $6.8 million in a statement sent to the campus community on January 22.

The institution, which serves about 6,000 students on its Sonoma County campus, which is an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, has been grappling with budget shortfalls for several years.

“Various factors have contributed—personnel costs, yearly increases in supplies and utility expenses, inflation—but the primary cause is enrollment,” Cutrer explained. “Tuition and fees, along with enrollment-dependent funding from the California State University [system], constitute the main revenue sources for the university’s budget.”

Since its peak in 2015, enrollment has decreased by 38 percent.

In an attempt to bridge the budget gap, the university has implemented voluntary employee separations, reduced staff numbers, streamlined academic programs, and instituted a hiring freeze, as noted in Cutrer’s statement.

“As a result, approximately 46 faculty members—both tenured and adjunct—will be notified today that their contracts will not be renewed for the 2025-26 academic year,” Cutrer stated. “Additional lecturers will also be informed that there will be no available work in the fall of 2025. Additionally, four management roles and 12 staff positions will be eliminated.”

In a budget plan released on January 21, the university anticipates saving $6 million by discontinuing several bachelor’s and master’s programs, and entirely closing departments including art history, economics, geology, philosophy, theater/dance, and women’s and gender studies.

Some departments will be merged.

For instance, “the departments of American multicultural studies, Chicano and Latino studies, and Native American studies will be integrated into a single ethnic studies department,” the plan indicates. Electrical engineering and computer science will also be combined into one department with a unified chair.

Among the positions to be eliminated is that of dean of the library. In addition to the hiring freeze on faculty, all tenure-track faculty members will now be required to teach a full course load of 23-24 units annually, as stated in the plan. The university will reduce faculty in ethnic studies, modern languages, history, political science, and physics/astronomy.

The university also expects to save an additional $3.7 million by ending its athletics program. The NCAA Division II teams will complete their current seasons, and competitions will continue as scheduled through the spring 2025 semester, according to a student-athlete fact sheet. Athletic scholarships will be honored for their duration, as long as the student remains enrolled.

Sonoma State also cites enrollment declines as being influenced by two significant wildfires in the region during 2018 and 2019. “These drops were further intensified during the pandemic, as most students opted to remain local,” according to a memo regarding the enrollment decrease issued in 2024.

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