During an in person meeting with the Academic Senate on Jan. 30, Interim President of Sonoma State Emily Cutrer said, in response to a question about who was being held accountable for the budget cuts, that she wasn’t.
“Yes, I ultimately had to decide what to do,” said Cutrer, “And no, I guess I won’t be held accountable in terms of my job, because I am interim.”
This response came just a half hour after hundreds had arrived in person to protest the budget cuts during the town hall meeting that Thursday at the Seawolf Plaza. The town hall was originally planned to be in person, but it was announced Monday that it would be a virtual meeting due to the number of attendees, citing in the email that it was “expected to surpass the capacity of any campus facility.” Many who showed up to protest in-person believed the decision was made for other reasons.
“I think the only reason why they don’t want it in person is because they know that everyone is against them,” said Logan Rubalcava, a fourth-year physics major. “By keeping us distant, it’s easier for them to talk over us.”
Students, alumni, faculty, union representatives, politicians and community members gathered in protest at the Seawolf Plaza, carrying posters and flags, showcasing their frustrations and anger at the budget cuts, as well as the decision to make the town hall virtual.
“I’m just outraged at how many people they are letting down,” said SSU student Matilda Bowen. Bowen said it was “cowardly” of the administration to hold the town hall virtually.
The sudden and mass cuts caused outrage among the campus community, leading to the organization of the protest in part by the California Faculty Association, who provided pizza and signs at the protest. Many other groups and departments arrived to protest as well, including the geology department, one of the 6 departments expected to be cut. Students and faculty from the department arrived at the protest carrying signs and banners, and were applauded by others at the event as they arrived.

Many athletes showed up to the protest as well. Among them was assistant men and womens golf coach Jess Stimack, who was there in support of the athletics department.
“You know we’re here for the student athletes and this school will not exist if the student athletes go away,” said Stimack.
Stimack said that the decision to cut athletics didn’t consider how impactful athletics are in creating future leaders.
“You know it’s these kids graduating who become the leaders of this community, or their community back home,” said Stimack, “This is the effect this will take countywide, state-wide is just the tip of the iceberg.”
At the protest, the virtual town hall was projected on the Plaza virtual display. The town hall consisted of Interim President Emily Cutrer, University Provost Karen Moranski, Executive Director of the Green Music Center Jacob Yarrow, Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Ed Mills, Vice President for Advancement Mario Perez, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Finance and Administration Monir Ahmed and Vice President for Student Affairs Gerald Jones.
They were all joined in a Zoom call where people could join a queue to have a chance to speak for a minute to comment or ask questions.
At the start of the town hall meeting, Cutrer said they wished they could have held the town hall meeting in person, but couldn’t due to “capacity” issues. This comment caused attendees on Zoom to react with laughing emojis. The crowd gathered in the Seawolf Plaza laughed and cheered in response. Emoji reactions were turned off for the rest of the meeting.

Public comments on the meeting were restricted to one minute, though some comments were often cut off before finishing. Some public comments were ignored, along with some questions. The protesters responded during the town hall by cheering those commenting, while booing and yelling at the responses given by administration, with many feeling it was nothing new.

“They gave us nothing,” SSU student Allison DeStasio said. “They said they were stating numbers, but yet there’s no receipts [of] where those numbers came from.”
DeStasio said she would most likely be transferring due to the budget cuts.
“The only reason I’m even here in general is for the Hutchins Department and the community that creates,” DeStasio said. “The fact that they’ve cut five of our faculty from our already small departments is hurtful, in the sense that we no longer have the people we love in supporting us here to help support us for the rest of our education.”
Hundreds showed up to the in-person protest, despite the change to a virtual town hall. Tim Wandling, vice president of the Sonoma chapter of CFA and chair of the English department, was proud of the many students who showed up.
“This is unprecedented,” Wandling said, “I’ve been here 28 years, never seen anything like this. This level of energy and outrage, we have hoped that we can overturn these decisions with political pressure, with whatever tools that are at our hand. Because we also want students to come here.”
Wandling said more students should attend Associated Student meetings.
“You should go to those meetings,” Wandling said. “I went on Tuesday to AS. There weren’t that many students there, so it’s great to get some of these students to go there and make sure that everybody is feeling there’s a way that their voices can be expressed.”

One person asked on the Zoom why the administrators didn’t take pay cuts to help with the deficit. Cutrer said that while the vice presidents did volunteer for cut pay, the “repercussions” for the state would be too devastating, and they needed to cut from elsewhere in administration. Many people in the crowd booed and yelled at this response.
“They are not going to take a pay cut. We heard them say it today, right? But they’ll cut athletics, they’ll cut women’s and gender studies, theater, geology, physics,” said Maureen Loughran, CFA field representative who was speaking at the protest. “That’s bad PR. It’s going to keep people from enrolling.”
At the end of the protest, Loughran said to the crowd that this was “only the beginning.” She said the community needs to escalate the pressure.
“These folks have to feel the pressure, and so we’re gonna get alumni, donors, politicians putting pressure on those with the power to meet these demands to do the right thing,” Loughran said.
“Next, we’ll probably march on the president’s office delivering her those petitions. Maybe we’ll sit in her office until she does the right thing. We’ll invite the media again to be a part of that. We need to make this as public as possible so people see what they’re doing, they can’t keep hiding,” Loughran continued.
The town hall was supposed to be an open forum to discuss the recent sudden budget cuts that were made to counter the schools budget deficit. These cuts were made in response to the now estimated $23.9 million budget deficit.
The email sent on Jan. 22 said approximately 46 faculty are expected to receive notice of their contracts not being renewed for 2025-2026. Four management and 12 staff positions will be eliminated. Along with layoffs, 23 degree programs and 6 departments will be eliminated. Beyond eliminations, many degree programs and departments are slated to be merged.
It was announced that the NCAA Division 2 athletics would also be eliminated, which includes all 11 sports programs at Sonoma State.
In the email Cutrer cited “cost of personnel, price increases for supplies and utilities, inflation” as some of the reasons for the cuts. But Cutrer said the main reason is due to decreased enrollment.
“Student tuition and fees, combined with enrollment-based funding from The California State University, are the major sources of revenue in the university budget,” said Cutrer. “Sonoma State’s enrollment has dropped 38% since its peak in 2015.”
According to the CSU system, Sonoma State has faced the worst decline in enrollment since 2015.
Despite efforts already taken that have reduced the deficit by $6.8 million, Cutrer said further actions are needed to reduce the overall deficit.
“The financial options have now narrowed to a small set of actions,” said Cutrer. “Elimination of programs and departments, non-renewal of faculty contracts– both tenured and adjunct– and more layoffs of staff and administration.”
According to Cutrer, the decision to cut specific programs and faculty was approved by the chancellor’s office, and was made to also “reorient the university’s operations and workforce.”
“[The budget cuts] will help us ensure long-term fiscal stability, meet the changing needs of future generations of students, align with the CSU’s career-focused mission of producing graduates ready to contribute to California’s economy, culture, and schools, and continue to be a major force for economic, environmental, and social progress in the North Bay and beyond.”