“Chop from the top!” chanted more than a hundred students, faculty, and staff as they marched around Salazar Hall on March 6 to protest the budget cuts at Sonoma State. This was ahead of the first closed-door bargaining session between CSU administrators, the California Faculty Association and the California State University Employee Union, regarding the cuts.
“This is the first time that the CSU and the California State University Employee Union have formally met to discuss these cuts,” said Micheal Cullaine, local chapter president of the California State University Employee Union, “Now, I would like to mention that the CSU delayed this quite a ways. The announcement was made at the end of January, and we’re just now getting the chance to sit down with them.”
“We are not clearing our desks,” shouted the marchers ahead of the session, “You are clearing your desks!”
Before the march, organizers handed out flyers linking to a website called “Forever United for Sonoma Excellence.” The website, organized by students, faculty, and staff, proposes an alternative budget cut that focuses on a top down plan, starting by cutting from administrative costs.
At the march, participants carried 144 cardboard banker boxes, each representing the more than 130 staff and faculty members being laid off. The boxes listed the specific positions being eliminated and formed a wall just outside Salazar Hall.
While faculty members are expected to be laid off prior to the start of the fall 2025 semester, staff are projected to be let go just after March 23, according to the California Faculty Association.
Many students and alumni attended the march to show their support, including alumni Gabby Davis, who returned to Sonoma State to earn her teaching credentials and become an elementary school teacher. Davis joined the march to support her fellow professors and friends after learning about the cuts at the town hall on Jan. 30.
“I didn’t realize how good I had it, how good something was until it was like the risk of it, the threat of it getting taken from us,” said Davis, “My sister also wanted to come here for geology and now she can’t come here for geology.”
The march followed the legislative forum on Feb. 21, where state legislators called on the Sonoma State administration to develop a “comeback plan” within 30 to 60 days.
On March 3, Interim President Emily Cutrer sent out an email update about the plan, stating the administration is working with legislators to prevent the proposed reduction in CSU funding by Gov. Newsom.
“Should new funds become available to mitigate the announced budget reductions, the University Budget Advisory Committee – with the addition of an administrator from Athletics – will make recommendations about the use of such funds,” Cutrer said in her email.
On March 4, another email by Sonoma State administrators said a budget and planning forum is planned on March 13 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Ballroom A of the Student Center. The email stated the presentation portion of the forum will be livestreamed.
