On Feb. 13 over a hundred students, faculty, and members of the California Faculty Association gathered in Stevenson Hall to create “broken heart valentines” and to unveil and deliver the petition to Interim President Emily Cutrer’s office.
Before the unveiling, Sonoma State men’s soccer coach Marcus Ziemer said, “We will unveil [the petition] from above, kinda like how our lofty administration unveils everything from above.”
The three lists containing more than 13,000 signatures were dropped to applause from the crowd. The signatures were part of a petition put out by the California Faculty Association to reverse the recent and severe budget cuts that were announced at the beginning of the semester. The cuts were made to address Sonoma State’s $23.9 million budget deficit.
“We’re hoping that students can express how their hearts have been broken and their dreams have been crushed,” said Elaine Newman, a professor in the math and statistics department at Sonoma State who was at the event.
“The administration put these extra barriers to success, and that is just horrific for students who come here wanting to learn women and gender studies, theater arts, dance, economics, and geology. Now those dreams are just being trashed,” Newman said.
Students expressed their feelings and frustrations about the cuts by writing messages in paper “broken heart” valentines. One message read, “The only ‘precedent’ you’re setting is what a selfish leader looks like.”
Emily Bousquet, a theater and music double major at Sonoma State, was at the event to support the petition, having helped put out a separate petition on behalf of the theater department.
“I think that there was a lot of thought about the administration and not very much thought at all about the students and why we come here to university to learn and to grow,” said Bousquet, “I think they could have cut other places that wouldn’t have jeopardized the heart of the university, as much as it did.”
After unveiling the signatures and creating the “broken heart valentines,” the crowd of more than a hundred attendees walked the petition and hearts over to the president’s office in Salazar Hall. When they reached the front desk to her office, they were informed that President Cutrer was not there that day.
The Star reached out to Cutrer for comment about the petition.
“I appreciate the passion these students and so many others have for Sonoma State. It will be a huge asset as we achieve financial stability and embark on a new direction for the university,” Cutrer said in response.
Owen Anfinson, an associate professor in the geology department, hoped the petition would show the president and administration that real people were being impacted.
“I just hope that they see once again that they’re getting rid of a community not just a number,” said Anfinson, “It feels so far that we’ve just been treated as numbers, and I think every effort like this shows that these are real people’s real lives getting impacted.”
Said Noriega, a third-year environmental science major, expressed how he felt the elimination of sports would negatively impact the campus community.
“If you’re looking around at schools and you see a school that doesn’t have any kind of sports community, any form of spirit, it’s kind of hard to want to go to that school,” Noriega said.
