Budget Cuts at SSU: An Interview with Dr. Ashley Hall, NAMS
Written by Liam Teuber
After almost a decade of declining enrollment rates, Sonoma State University is preparing for significant budget cuts as part of a larger financial restructuring within the California State University system. This financial restructuring is leading to significant budget reductions across twenty-three university campuses, including SSU. Many of these budget reductions are set to take effect in the upcoming school year and will severely affect elements of campus life, including academic programs, faculty positions, and student resources. This has understandably been creating concern and uncertainty throughout the SSU campus community, who do not know what the future holds for them. While the CSU system may view these budget cuts as necessary to keep SSU afloat, the impact of the cuts raises important questions and concerns for both students and faculty, who will actually bear the negative effects of these budget cuts.
The Scope of the Budget Cuts
The budget cuts at Sonoma State University are expected to impact multiple areas, including many academic programs, faculty positions, student services, and campus resources, including student athletics.
Impact on Students and Faculty
For students at SSU, these budget cuts are a sudden cause for concern. The potential loss of academic programs means some students may be forced to adjust their academic plans, transfer to other schools, or face uncertainty about their future career paths at SSU. Reduced faculty and fewer resources could also lead to less personalized attention and fewer opportunities for meaningful academic growth. Moreover, the loss of student services would likely create additional barriers to success. With fewer resources available to support students, particularly those who are already facing challenges, students may find it more difficult to thrive academically and personally.
The budget cuts would likely have a noticeable impact on campus life in the near future, with fewer sports, clubs, activities, and events. The budget cuts would overall result in a less vibrant and lively campus. With far fewer opportunities for students to engage in, many students might find their morale and school spirit to be affected, making it much more difficult to find community and engagement outside of academics.
Faculty members, specifically those in academic departments affected by the cuts, are understandably quite anxious about the near future. Job insecurity is a major concern, with teachers and staff fearing layoffs, or being notified that this will be their last semester teaching with SSU. This causes increased stress for faculty and could also affect the quality of instruction, as well as faculty morale. Furthermore, faculty members who are forced to leave may face difficulty securing similar teaching positions elsewhere due to the competitive nature of the education job market, and the timing of the announcements.
I had the opportunity to interview one of my current professors in the Native American studies department, Dr. Ashley Hall, to learn more about how the recent budget cuts are affecting faculty, students, and academic programs.
Q: How have the recent budget cuts at SSU directly impacted your department or role?
Professor Hall: I received a layoff notice, as did the other lecturer in the Native American Studies Department. This leaves just our illustrious and severely overworked chair to somehow sustain Native American Studies by herself. These cuts will severely compromise our department's ability to provide our students with exposure to Indigenous knowledge, to maintain relationships with Tribal communities locally and nationally, and to respond to the growing demand for diversity and equity in education.
Q: What do you think the biggest impact will be on students and their academic experience?
Professor Hall: Many students across campus are suffering terrible uncertainty about how to finish their degrees. In NAMS, we have minors who need classes we will be unable to offer unless the lecturers are rehired or new hires are made. This is not fair to our students; it might not be legal. What's more, any students who might attend SSU after these cuts will have profoundly diminished academic experiences compared to their predecessors, since the cuts targeted Ethnic Studies, Modern Languages, and other fields that are crucial in terms of human interest and that are proven to improve student outcomes in studies like the one conducted by researchers at Stanford.
Q: How have these financial challenges affected faculty and staff morale?
Professor Hall: Based on my limited observations and judging by my own reaction, these cuts have been catastrophic for our sense of institutional identity, continuity, and outlook for the future. On the other hand, I take seriously the suggestion by people like Vine Deloria, Jr. and Daniel Wildcat, that we identify these days too completely with our professional roles, or at least that we need to achieve perspective and balance, so that if our professional role is threatened or ends due to technological, economic, political, or other reasons, it is not experienced as total depersonalization. As a lecturer, I have always been acutely aware that I have no guarantee of future work--it is always contingent on funding, so I guess the shock has been mitigated a little for me. Still, it feels very dismissive. I have been at SSU since 2007, and I have not only taught my classes, but also accepted responsibility for G.E. revisions for several of our NAMS courses (unpaid), and I have worked hard to bring Indigenous speakers like David Swallow, Jr., Molly McGlennan, and many others to SSU, so to be peremptorily dismissed does sting a bit. From what I have heard from my colleagues in various departments, morale is at an all-time low across the campus, especially because the cuts at SSU parallel and coincide with anti-university sentiments uttered by the President of the United States. I can only hope for the sake of SSU that they are able to reassemble a strong faculty with sufficient disciplinary expertise to provide our students with the best education. Otherwise, I worry what the future will hold for SSU as an institution of higher learning.
Conclusion
As a student who has attended SSU for almost four years now, these sudden changes are quite concerning. In my eyes, these budget cuts are fundamentally altering, and take away from academic and social experiences for both students and faculty on campus. Fewer opportunities for engagement through the loss of academic programs, faculty layoffs, and reduced student resources creates an uncertain future for not only those currently enrolled, but also for incoming students who are looking to call SSU their academic home.
While the CSU system may argue these cuts are necessary for financial stability, the long-term consequences of these budget cuts could be catastrophic to Sonoma State’s reputation, students’ success and happiness, and faculty retention.
NOTE: This article was written prior to the Governor's May revise of the California budget, and the cuts will now be around 3% of the CSU budget, rather than close to 8%. How this will affect programs and departments at SSU is to be determined.