In an interview with KSUN radio and the Sonoma State Star, Spagna sat down with Managing Editor Rylan Valdepena and Staff Reporter Isabella Marquez to discuss his first three months at Sonoma State, including updates on the athletics program, the new athletics director, and the university’s budget.
Spagna’s Presidency
Q: You’ve been here for three months…How have things changed since the beginning of the semester? Are you finding a home here at Sonoma State?
Spagna: Yes, absolutely, finding a home here. And, I actually had some exposure in the mid 80s to the Bay Area. It’s where I got a joint doctorate between San Francisco State, yea Gators, and UC Berkeley.
But most of my career has been down in Los Angeles, and I’ve always admired this area of the North Bay. And so when the opportunity arose for me to apply for the presidency here, I couldn’t have been more joyful in applying for it, and I was appointed by the chancellor and the trustees, and I’ve loved everything about it.
Q: You mentioned in a previous interview with The Star that you want to be able to be a part of campus because you care about college students, and they give you hope for the future. Is that kind of how you feel?
Spagna: You said it perfectly, and actually, you know, from my work with the Sonoma State Star when I came in to interview, in my soul, I’m a middle school teacher. And as a middle school teacher, you learn that all students are your responsibility, and you want to make sure that students succeed.
…And so that’s what makes it perfect to be at a university like Sonoma State, where the students care so much. And I have to tell you, I’ve been knocked out by the level with which the faculty and the staff care about students…I actually did a fireside chat with the disability services for students here on campus. And the students that were being interviewed just couldn’t stop talking about how supportive the faculty and staff were…this is a pretty impressive climate to come into as a learning environment.
Q: In the same interview, you mentioned how you previously worked with students with a variety of disabilities and believe in the concept of neurodiversity in academics. How do you plan to bring that same support to Sonoma State?
Spagna: Well, spoiler alert. We’re all neurodiverse… and the quicker we learn that and everybody has strengths, that changes your whole philosophy of how you work together. So yes, I embrace that.
Athletics and Feasibility
Q: And for what you’ve been doing here at Sonoma State, we just broke a story about how you hired a new athletics director, Joan McDermott.
Spagna: She [McDermott] was at the University of San Francisco, and she also had a brief stint at Cal State East Bay. And a long-time athletic director and just an incredible soul, great person. And I appreciate you bringing that up because one of the first things I had to do in coming to the university is getting into the issue of whether or not we could reinstate athletics.
And so, for me, you probably have heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again. Athletics is so important for the university culture and the community culture for student athletes…And I’m taking a very serious effort to see if we can reinstate Division II athletics here at Sonoma State University.
Q: Having an athletics director is a big first step, right?
Spagna: And an excellent one. She’s [McDermott] somebody that has a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. We are completely aligned with our philosophy, which is that we want athletics to succeed at Sonoma State, but it can’t be at the expense of our academic programming, because our academic programming is mission-critical.
…And at the same time, the other thing that we’ve been very aligned with, Joan and myself, is that this can’t be at the expense of students. So we are being very conscious of the cost of attendance, and we do not want to bring back athletics if it’s on the backs of students and increasing their fees…So, the plans we’re working on together are to try and reinstate this for the long haul.
Q: The question that’s probably been on everyone’s mind since then now is, what comes next?
Spagna: I’ve asked for a report to come to my desk on June 15 that will give me the recommendations of this fiscal feasibility team to give me 2 or 3 pathways of how we could reinstate athletics at Sonoma State. And then I have committed to make a decision on reinstating athletics by June 30.
And that’s a second important date because the conference we’re in, the CCAA, they have given us some grace where we have until July 29 to declare our intention to come back to Division II and the NCAA.
Budget Deficit and Fiscal Plan
Q: We recently had the spring 2026 budget and planning forum…one of the particular announcements was that we were gonna have a projected deficit of $6.3 million for 2026-27. What is that going to look like?
Spagna: I knew coming in as the president with the news of canceling athletics and stopping some of our academic programs that there was going to be some impact in terms of enrollment…and that still is projected for next year…The good news is that our reserves are at the healthiest it’s been in like 5-7 years.
So I wanted to communicate two things. One is, we have the financial wherewithal…The other thing I said at that forum that I want to reiterate here is that we are not in the mode of cutting. We are not going to be going into this year cutting programs instead, this is going to be the year of strategic investment, rejuvenation, buffering this kind of dip in enrollment, and then coming out the other side where we’re in a healthy place, starting to balance our books, and getting enrollment coming back.
Q: Besides the challenge of enrollment, are you anticipating any other challenges, and what would mean success?
Spagna: Ultimately, the big goal here is to attract students to the North Bay, have them love their experience at Sonoma State, and then live and work here and raise another generation of students here in this region. There’s no reason why we can’t revitalize the North Bay and have that. Recently, you’ve seen headlines of Santa Rosa school district, and they’re having difficulty with enrollment. Again, if you have a thriving university, with students coming here and living here and working here, you rejuvenate the entire North Bay.
Student Life, Liberal Arts, and Campus Renovations
Q: There have been some concerns about Sonoma State devesting in the liberal arts, but as you just mentioned, you seem to want to support them. Do you believe that they are valuable to our campus?
Spagna: Well not just are they valuable – but I’ll go even further. I can’t imagine an education experience without the liberal arts. I will tell you, I was a former K-12 teacher. and some people remember we had a whole initiative called no child left behind, where we really privileged math and reading scores, but what we did is we stripped out all of the music, art, and humanities out of our school system. We even stripped out civics, which I used to teach in middle school.
You don’t want to go through a school system where you don’t have the liberal arts, where you don’t have civics, where you don’t have dance, where you don’t have the theater or music. That’s what connects us all. So no, I can’t imagine a world with an education system where liberal arts isn’t foundational.
Q: I know we’ve gotten a lot of investment into renovations here on campus, including renovating Nicholas Hall and the Seawolf Plaza. Do you have anything you want to add about that?
Spagna: Well I have to say, I’m very excited about this, and it started before I ever came to campus. Their key people that were already in this space were talking about a vitality and vibrancy project. It was really nice to hear when I came here that this initiative was started and this campus will be transformed over the next six months.
You need to see the vibrancy of students being outside doing a whole bunch of things. Around deck chairs, having a beach volleyball, having a rock climbing wall. We’re gonna be putting large metal SSU steel structures out so you know you’re at Sonoma State, Seawolf paws on the sidewalks. When you see this campus, you’re not wondering what this is. You’ll know this is Sonoma State.
