The CSU’s budget shortfalls, on individual campuses and systemwide, were the main points of discussion at today’s Academic Senate meeting, with the recent cuts to 26 degree programs at Sonoma State (SSU) alongside its entire athletics department being strongly condemned by the body as both counterproductive and as the CSU administration overstepping the expectations of shared governance with faculty, staff, and the local community.
CSU Stanislaus’ own budget shortfall was of immediate concern, with Faculty Budget Advisory Committee (FBAC) Chair Dave Colnic reporting that talks with Stan State’s administration making promises they would find “creative” means of finding finances.
Colnic noted a discrepancy between how faculty and administration view the financial situation, and called for regular audits conducted by faculty representatives as a solution, allowing them to know just how much money the CSU has and how said money is being appropriated.
Colnic also noted that the CSU’s financial situation appears to be much more dire than last semester’s projections showed.
“There is certainly some room for disagreement, or investigation,” Colnic said, “On why the budget shortfall seems to be increasing, really, off such a rapid cliff.”
Senator Dave Colnic also spoke in his capacity as California Faculty Association (CFA) Chapter President, addressing how the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump’s second term is already beginning to affect specific groups of people and is acting against the university’s “shared values.”
Colnic spoke to these groups, listing immigrants, people perceived to be immigrants, women, and LGBTQ people as affected populations, and said the CFA will do everything in its power to support all of its members.
“I wish I could tell everyone here that it’s going to be alright,” he said. “I don’t think I can. But what I can promise is that CFA will continue to vigorously support all of us.”
Returning to the topic of the budget, he addressed the governor’s unveiling of this year’s state budget was “not ideal,” but also about what the CFA expected in terms of the amount of money appropriated to the CSU.
However, CSU administration’s sudden cuts to Sonoma State’s programs and its faculty are a sign, according to Colnic, that CSU has “lost sight of education as a public good,” and shows their unwillingness to share governance and treat individual campuses as part of the system.
The financial reserves that the CSU touts, Colnic says, are supposed to be used to handle these emergency cases. Instead, Sonoma State is being forced to take on counterproductive measures to enrollment recovery by removing athletics, dance, theatre, the arts, and many other programs.
Colnic says that press announcements haven’t covered the scale of the cost-cutting measures saying the figure of 46 laid off faculty were what was announced, but that the CFA estimates 130 faculty have lost their jobs if the number includes faculty whose contract expired but were not rehired, leading to the release of over 25% of their entire faculty.
Senator Steven Filling introduced a resolution to the Senate floor which would allow Stan State’s faculty to voice their support for Sonoma State and condemn the cuts made by the CSU administration.
According to Filling, Sonoma State’s cuts were not made with those in the profession or with coaches in mind, and this will send Sonoma State into a “death spiral,” where their enrollment will continue to plummet due to a lack of attractive opportunities for students.
This resolution, therefore, expresses the opinion that, “SSU and its community should not capriciously be punished for the revolving door of bad management, sexual harassment scandals, devastating fires, the COVID pandemic and significant expenses associated with those events.”
Senator Koni Stone reported on the additional information she received from listening in on this morning’s Board of Trustees meeting.
She says that no shareholders, constituents, or faculty were consulted in the elimination of athletics and 26 degree programs, and expressed the sentiment that CSU administration’s willingness to engage in unilateral decision making of this type presents a real threat to other campuses.
The resolution was successfully voted to be moved from a first to a second reading item, where it was then voted on again and passed.
The resolution, in compliance with the instructions in its text, will be shared widely with members of the state government, such as the governor’s cabinet and the state senate, and with a number of bodies related to the CSU.
