Resolution Opposing the Proposed Cuts at Sonoma State University
Resolved, that the Academic Senate of Sonoma State University (SSU) reject the proposed cuts to our academic departments and programs, athletics, faculty, and staff; and be it
Resolved, that the Academic Senate of SSU calls for new leadership of Sonoma State University–leadership that is willing to work collaboratively and transparently with faculty, staff, students, community members, and politicians to develop a sustainable financial model for SSU that respects its history and mission to provide the quality education our students deserve and have planned for without these proposed, capricious budget cuts; and be it
Resolved, that Sonoma State University and the California State University (CSU) system provide the level of financial transparency that would enable faculty, staff, students, and community to genuinely participate in discussions about Sonoma State finances and any requisite problem-solving, with respect to the same; and be it
Resolved, that Interim President Emily Cutrer immediately cease all threats, cuts, mergers, and terminations of departments, faculty, staff, and athletics and that she be held to account for her actions; and be it
Resolved, that Chancellor Mildred Garcia immediately hold accountable Interim President Cutrer or herself be held to account; and also be it
Resolved, that any future SSU President, interim or otherwise, who are tasked with replacing Interim President Emily Cutrer be held to the same standards, with the highest expectations possible for a University President, for the future sustainability and welfare of SSU to reinvent and preserve SSU’s mission and all else that is good about the University–in a sustainable manner, without invoking budget cuts, attacking tenure, or refusing to engage with the community; and finally be it
Resolved, that this resolution be distributed to the following for serious consideration and even wider distribution:
–Governor Gavin Newsom
–Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis
–Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire
–Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry
–State Senator Christopher Cabaldon
–State Senator John Laird
–Assemblymember Chris Rogers
–Assemblymember Damon Connolly
–Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas
–Senate Education Committee Chair Al Muratsuchi
– Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee 1 Chair John Laird
– Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Mike Fong
– Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel
– Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 Chair David Alvarez
– CSU Board of Trustees
– Chancellor Mildred Garcia
– Interim President Emily Cutrer
– California Faculty Association
– California State University Employees Union
– Teamsters Local 2010
– UAW – Academic Student Employees
– Academic Senate of the CSU Chair Elizabeth Boyd
– American Association of University Professors
Rationale: On Wednesday, January 22, 2025, just one day after the term began, Sonoma State University (SSU) Interim President Emily Cutrer and Chancellor Mildred Garcia cut 130+ faculty, 23 academic programs, 6 departments, merged 7 other departments, and cut the entire athletics department, representing 25% of all faculty. These cuts were announced that day by email, without prior notification or consultation, leaving SSU faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and other stakeholders such as area businesses and local lawmakers in a state of shock, bewilderment, grief, and turmoil.1
As a consequence of the January 22nd proposal, an entirely predictable and avoidable exodus of students occurred within days–and a new and administration-caused enrollment crisis now looms. Community support for SSU’s future has been widespread: news media has reported nationally on the extreme situation, mass campus protests have ensued, lawsuits have been filed, and California lawmakers have written a joint letter expressing “an overarching goal of holding the (California State University) system accountable” while “committed to strengthening SSU and disappointed in the university’s inadequate consultation, transparency, and vision,” a situation which leads to their urgent visit to the SSU campus as well as a legislative hearing.2
By any metric, SSU’s future has been hurt by mismanagement due to a revolving door of short-lived presidents with ineffective, if not catastrophic, budgetary plans over years during a global pandemic and multiple disastrous wildfires.
Interim President Emily Cutrer has proven no exception to SSU’s history of mismanagement. Cutrer claims that her drastic actions are requisite to resolve a sudden budgetary crisis–when most programs on the campus slated to be cut are profitable. In addition, other funds are available to buy time to resolve current problems strategically and effectively: in 2022, the CSU system had over $6.5 billion in unrestricted net assets and ran a $2.1 billion budget surplus; in June 2024, over $775 million was set aside for “Reserves for Economic Uncertainty.”3 Additionally, the 2022 compact between the CSU Chancellor and Governor Gavin Newsom specifically indicates the use of reserves and other existent funds during a predicted two-year period of State revenue reduction. The CSU has not honored this request and has seemingly selected SSU as a test case for violation of previous agreements and understandings.
Therefore it is of broad and acute concern that SSU will be used as a model for imposing self-destructive fiscal austerity at other CSU campuses, as Interim President Cutrer disclosed to KQED that “We may be the first, but we’re not the last CSU where you are going to see issues.”4 The austerity now imposed at SSU is the culmination of decades of failure by CSU Administrators to aggressively advocate for funding the “people’s university” from the California State Legislature, resulting in systematic and long-standing inadequate support for an increasingly diverse and representative CSU system.5
But appropriate management means that you do not balance your budget on the backs of California’s faculty, staff, students, athletes, and future community members and leaders.
Additionally, a return to normal consultation, processes, and procedures, transparency, and a commitment to the mission statement of both the CSU and SSU matter deeply to better lives, educations, and futures. All are past due.
For context: SSU holds a special role within the greater CSU system, yet it now faces an existential crisis. The CSU is composed of 22 individual, unique campuses, each with their own educational history and culture, employing over 53,000 faculty and staff, serving almost a half million students, and standing as the “nation’s largest four-year public university.”6 The CSU’s mission is to provide access to exemplary education for the greater public of California who wish to pursue this through the University System, which benefits both individuals as well as the State. As a system, the CSU endeavors to meet this mission by:7
– offering “opportunities for individuals to develop intellectually, personally and professionally”
– “to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction leading to bachelor’s and higher degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, the applied fields, and the professions”
– while promoting “an understanding and appreciation of the peoples, natural environments, cultures, economies, and diversity of the world”
– and providing “an environment in which scholarship, research, creative, artistic, and professional activity are valued and supported”
– so as to serve communities as “educational, public service, cultural, and artistic centers”
– which also “recognizes and values the distinctive history, culture, and mission of each campus.”
Within the CSU, SSU is unique for being a California Public Liberal Arts University (COPLAC) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), whose specific mission states “a commitment to the liberal arts and sciences” to furthermore “prepare students for meaningful citizenship in a complex world.”8 SSU has historically contributed to the individuals who live in the region and to the region as a whole, through specific, invaluable, unique, and irreplaceable educational degrees and programs. It additionally holds the 3rd highest graduation rate within the CSU system for first-time students and transfer students and has long maintained an exceptionally strong community drawn from both traditional majors and backgrounds as well as from more marginalized communities and fields of study. Due to Interim President Emily Cutrer’s mismanagement, SSU, as an exceptional institution is now facing vast and needless cuts which will have, and have already had, life-altering, long-lasting, negative, material consequences for large numbers of people.
SSU has long needed capable leadership to guide its own strategic planning in response to recent enrollment reductions and budgetary shortfalls, but instead of providing constructive leadership now at this most exigent moment, Interim President Emily Cutrer, following other past Presidents of SSU, has been allowed to deliver incompetence at the expense of the people of California State one too many times. To sum it up: SSU deserves better.
Approved by the Senate 2/27/2025