Stanislaus State is faced with slashing $8.1 million from its 2025-26 budget, as the entire California State University system has been hit with a projected $375 million reduction in state funding.
Sonoma State University, with a student population a little more than half the size of Stanislaus State’s after a 40 percent dip in enrollment, is facing a $24 million deficit.
Sonoma State has already announced the elimination of six academic departments, layoffs for dozens of faculty members, and the elimination of intercollegiate athletics.
The proposed cuts, part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal, aren’t nearly as dire for Stan State, but they will be painful, nonetheless.
“These cuts would be severe,” said Dr. Dave Colnic, professor and department chair of political science at Stan State, and the chapter president of the California Faculty Association. “I wish I had a soundbite for you, but I don’t. It’s not an easy story to tell.”
Some campuses began laying off workers last year.
Meghan O’Donnell, a lecturer at Cal State Monterey Bay and a senior officer in the systemwide faculty union, told CalMatters that the jobs of hundreds of lecturers have been totally slashed or reduced because campuses are cutting the overall number of classes they offer.
Lecturers have fewer job protections than faculty with tenure or who are on the tenure track.
The lecturer job cuts have occurred at the campuses of Chico, East Bay, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Monterey Bay, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Sonoma, and now at Stanislaus.
Colnic said the state legislature has yet to weigh in on the governor’s spending plan, meaning there’s still hope for revision.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that there will be an alternative that avoids much of these cuts,” said Colnic. “I was more optimistic on Jan. 10, when the budget was released. But I trust that our legislature and the governor’s office will recognize just how severe the impacts of these cuts are. I think they’ll find ways to mitigate.”
Enrollment climbed to 485,000 throughout the CSU system in 2020, but dipped each year since as it has struggled to reset following the COVID-19 pandemic. Cal State universities enrolled about 450,000 students last fall.
While Stan State surpassed their goal of 2% new enrollment for both undergraduate and graduate students last school year, numbers remain low. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment was hovering around 11,000 students, according to institutional data. At the start of the fall 2024 academic year, there were 9,291 students enrolled.
The nearly $400 million in proposed cuts is equal to the amount the system spends to educate 36,000 students, about one-eighth of its total enrollment, according to the Associated Press.
