In an interview on March 11, Emily Acosta Lewis answered questions from the Sonoma State Star about the CSU AI initiative, budget cuts, sports, and DEI.
Lewis was able to offer perspective on the leadership of SSU and how the budget cuts are affecting faculty.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Public Relations Insight
STAR: What advice, in terms of PR, would you give Sonoma State given everything we’re seeing right now and how would you suggest we get out of this mess?
Acosta Lewis: The last few years in my PR classes, we will dissect the emails from the president. And so we did that with the budget email. That email was very much faculty and staff-focused. There should have been a more student-friendly version that didn’t dig into all the details of it, but told you how it’s going to impact you all.
The ChatGPT rollout email from the chancellor, I think, completely buried the lead about equity. The whole reason they’re doing this ChatGPT rollout is to help with equity because you already have wealthy students who are paying for ChatGPT and getting a better version. If everybody is on the same page, it will help with that digital divide issue.
STAR: Do you think there’s a disconnect with the administration and effective communication, particularly in terms of PR, as these changes are being rolled out?
Lewis: It’s faculty focused versus student focused. I think the initial ChatGPT rollout email from the chancellor completely buried the equity piece, and to me that should have been highlighted. It was very odd language. The faculty [email] was very much focused on what the faculty concerns are– academic freedom, cheating, and plagiarism–while the student email was much more exciting and enthusiastic, which is part of the problem.
You all are going into these different classes and one professor says ‘yes, use it all you want,’ and the second says ‘if you use it, you’re failing the class.’ It is causing whiplash for you all.
There’s AI guidelines coming down from governance now that they’re trying to figure out what kind of guidelines can we give faculty so students don’t have that whiplash.
We’re seeing cases in the dispute resolution board where faculty are taking students up through that level of like a great appeal because they think they’re using some sort of AI, but the detectors are so terrible. This technology is just going to get better and better, it’s going to get smarter and smarter, it’s going to be harder and harder to detect. I feel like we’re fighting against the Internet. It isn’t going anywhere. Learn to use it.
ChatGPT Initiative
STAR: What are your thoughts on students who were previously punished for using AI, but are now being told it will be allowed next year? Do you think the rules will change?
Lewis: I don’t think it’s going to change for individual faculty. We’re trying to explain to faculty how students are using it and how you can teach students to use it in an ethical way.
I think that faculty are going to slowly get on board with this. But within any given department there are people on one side of the spectrum, others on the other side, and then there are people who don’t care and are in the middle. It’s up to the students to check the policies in their classes, and if you’re not allowed to use it then part of that is on the faculty member to come up with an assessment that doesn’t let you use it.
It’s unfair for students to go from my class, where I encourage AI use, to another class that thinks using it to brainstorm is still considered cheating. It’s difficult for you all to navigate. You’re going to use it in your career. So why not learn how to use it now?
Budget Cuts and Sports
STAR: How do you think the communications department will be impacted by the cuts to athletics as many [student athletes majoring in communications] are likely to leave as a result?
Lewis: We talked about this at a department meeting but none of us have the full list of athletes. It might be higher than your average number per major.
I think some of those students will be graduating and it won’t impact them at all. Others will have to stay because their graduation is coming within this next year or they might even prefer that their sport will possibly become a club sport next year. And then obviously, there are people who are going to leave. That’s something that the university is factoring into their numbers. Out of those 218 [total student athletes], I’d like to know how many are graduating.
We can’t do anything in terms of bringing athletics back.
STAR: We have sports broadcasting classes, but with no sports next semester, how do you think this will play out?
Lewis: I think we would have those courses even if we had no sports, but I do think that the majority of our sports are going to be converted to club sports. I think that many of our sports can convert to club sports and do pretty well while still getting good attendance.
There would still be opportunities within club sports, but it sucks that sports are gone. I still have a sliver of hope for their survival.
It sucks for the campus culture because it doesn’t look great for incoming students who may be concerned about the implications of cutting NCAA sports. However, after the initial shock, I don’t think people are going to think about it unless they are specifically pursuing an NCAA sport.
STAR: I noticed in the budget cuts email that communications will be merging with Studio Art, and I wanted to ask if you know anything about how that might affect both departments?
Lewis: Yes, previously art history and studio art were one department. Art history was set to merge with history but didn’t. Studio art still exists, [but they did cut the BFA due to harder graduation requirements and presumed higher costs, leaving only the BA.]
I don’t think it will impact COMS very much. Many departments on campus offer multiple programs and majors, for example, anthropology now runs both anthropology and the human development degree. I think we will come up with a new name [meaning] the department will change but your degree will not, you will still have a communication studies or a cinematic arts degree. There are some opportunities to have collaboration across the two areas. For example, photography or graphic design. We’re hoping that there will be some sort of natural synergy between us like cross-list some courses or counting some of their electives.
STAR: How do you think the budget cuts and everything we’ve been seeing are going to impact first-generation students?
Lewis: I honestly think more of the national political climate around DEI is going to affect our first-gen students more. We are going to have to be more careful about the wording and grants for first-gen programming. I don’t think these cuts will directly impact first-gen students but they will impact the national political climate. Summer Bridge and EOP are still going to be there.
The Hub will be receiving extra money and a new space on the bottom floor of the library, replacing the old 24-hour lab.
STAR: [As faculty chair of the Academic Senate], were you aware of the budget cut process?
Lewis: I have a role in sitting on the university budget advisory committee; this is my fourth year on that committee. I feel pretty well-versed in the campus budget. We’ve been talking about how bad the budget is for 11 years and we’ve been carrying over a structural deficit of roughly seven to eight million dollars every year that I’ve been here. It’s all sort of hitting at once. We’ve got this structural deficit that we keep rolling over, plus we’re getting the cut from the state, along with getting a reallocation cut. We’re essentially getting kicked while we’re down.
On the flip side, somebody should have addressed the structural deficit for the last decade because that could’ve saved millions. The Chancellor’s Office is cutting everybody the same percentage, splitting that cut up among everybody. They don’t have to do that, you could say that San Diego State, being successful, will take a bigger cut which will ultimately help Sonoma State.
The Chancellor’s Office could do that strategically and instead, they’re doing it by percentage, which to me is not strategic in this climate. San Diego State is way over-enrolled and it’s [understandable], but what’s the point of being part of a system if we’re not going to help each other out? It’s exactly how athletics is run. It’s frustrating that we’ve rolled over a deficit for many years that nobody has fixed and we’re getting kicked while we’re down by both the governor and the chancellor. I feel like we’re this political pawn for everybody right now.
The other CSU’s are watching us because we’re the first ones to cut programs. They see us as a canary in the coal mine, looking to us to see how things go down. Is that to stop the bleeding and are they going to be able to sustain that or are they going to end up cutting all athletics in two or three years? During COVID-19, we cut women’s tennis and water polo before we got to this point. You have to wonder if the other CSUs are going to be in the same boat in a few years.
Academic Senate Involvement
STAR: I’m just curious about what exactly you do as the faculty chair of the academic senate and if you had any involvement in the planning process of the budget cuts.
Lewis: I was involved in the Academic Master planning process, which was not budget-related. The Academic Master Plan was a two-year process that we did on this campus in which we were working from academic and student support services, strategic scheduling, current and new programs, and two other groups. We basically did this giant strategic planning process, but specifically for academic affairs.
This budget process is separate and primarily with the cabinet. I was not involved in faculty governance. We do have the program discontinuation coming through faculty governance. Our Senate meeting was on Feb. 13 for the second reading. Previous levels have put together 1900 pages of documentation and the previous level before us basically said we’re not discontinuing these. My guess is the Senate is going to do the same exact thing.
I’m not involved with the budget, that’s through the Senate. The program discontinuation is coming through the Senate as well. We’ve had many resolutions come through the Senate. We had one saying why WGS needs to be considered. Another came through for arts and humanities and one came through objecting to all of the cuts. People are bringing those resolutions forward to make their voices heard.
STAR: Do you think there’s enough happening as far as recruitment and marketing the school?
Lewis: I don’t think there’s ever enough recruitment or marketing anywhere. I think there’s always more that could be done. However, we did just get a two-and-a-half million dollar grant from the Chancellor’s Office that’s specifically for marketing. I’ve heard Ed Mills, our VP of Strategic Enrollment Management, say in some meetings that we weren’t doing a lot of recruiting before. We were showing up to college fairs and putting things on a table and calling that recruiting but that’s not really recruiting.
If you want to actually recruit, you’ve got to find ways to get people to campus. You’ve got to go out into the classrooms. You’ve got to make connections with local high schools, which is what our prior president, Mike Lee, started to do; make those connections with Petaluma and Napa and different schools.
We’re also doing this program through Riverside, where students get direct admission to these few CSUs and we’re one of them. It’s expensive to go to college, and we live in a very expensive area. You could go to Bakersfield or Sac and your cost of living is going to be significantly less, and your tuition is pretty much the same. It’s hard to compete with that. We’ve got a high cost of living here on top of low enrollment and all that. It’s not a great combination. It’s part of the reason we lose faculty and staff too. We lost a lot of faculty and staff to Sac State.
STAR: As a follow-up, I’m curious if you’ve heard any discussions over the years between the CFA and the administration regarding the CSU reserves. The CFA claims there are a couple billion in reserves, but the administration argues differently, stating that if they were to take a pay cut in their salaries, that would set a precedent for all the CSUs. However, it seems the cuts are already starting to set a precedent across the CSU system.
Lewis: Are you talking about our administration?
STAR: Yes, specifically the chancellor’s office.
Lewis: I don’t know the exact numbers although I’ve heard that our reserves have gone from five hundred million to seven hundred million in the last few years. Most of our reserves are actually lower than what they recommend. These pots of money are very specific [meaning] I couldn’t take the housing reserve, for example, and save WGS. That housing money is for if something goes wrong and one of those buildings costs two million dollars to fix.
I don’t know how the CSU reserves work. I think a lot of people feel like they could bail us out fairly easily if they wanted to.
Could the chancellor’s office bail us out overnight? Absolutely. Do I think they will? Probably not.
Women Gender Studies
STAR: From a PR standpoint, what do you think the optics are? Given that Sonoma State was the first of the CSUs to introduce the Women’s and Gender Studies program, and now it’s being cut.
Lewis: I think the timing is really awful. This work is being criticized nationally and cutting it on campus is terrible. Do I also think it’s coincidental? Yes. Do I think that our administration is anti-DEI? No, absolutely not. All of the programs that were cut have value, they all contribute to us being a liberal arts institution.
I have heard WGS get singled out a lot in these conversations, but I would argue the same for econ or theater. They’re all really valuable, and it’s going to suck to have any of them not be here, and particularly those people. Our campus is going to look very, very different. Our physics faculty still get to keep their jobs because they’re going to be teaching intro-level courses, but we’re not going to have physics. Geology, I think, has had the most convincing case because you need a geologist to do any kind of construction project.
There’s going to be a mourning period on this campus for these programs that are lost. These are our friends and colleagues. We’re a pretty tight-knit crew on this campus. There’s going to be a lot of feelings felt over the next few years as we figure out what we look like as a campus.
There is some hope that either the legislature or the chancellor’s office will come in with some sort of relief, maybe not $24 million worth, but something that could save a program. That is why they have this proposal of a comeback. If there’s money, there will be some sort of democratic process to decide which program can return. [The timeline is unclear but at least that’s something].
SSU’s Leadership
STAR: You mentioned at the beginning of the conversation we’re talking about some of the PR issues with the recent presidents. There’s been some controversy. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and what you’ve seen?
Lewis: I want a permanent president on this campus. We’ve had Judy, Mike Lee, Nathan Evans, and now Emily. Cutrer is doing exactly what she was hired to do.
But, we need some stability and we deserve a good president who can then lead us forward. Will we be a smaller campus? Sure. We’ll have fewer majors and probably fewer students but we need somebody who has a vision for how to bring us out of that.
We were supposed to get somebody over the summer, but now I guess that’s being pushed out. We need a timeline for a president.
In the short term, there’s going to be a lot of anger, but I’m hopeful that we will turn this whole thing around. I want to end my career here as a grumpy old lady professor in 20 years and I’m hoping that I get to do that. I don’t want to leave this place, I love this place.
