Larger Class Sizes, Fewer Teachers Greet SSU Students in New School Year

When Sonoma State University students return to campus this Wednesday, they will find a school trying to adjust to the impact of $8.9 million in budget cuts that have already have eliminated classes, frozen faculty pay and increased class sizes.

On Monday, faculty and administrators gathered for an annual fall state of the university address that focused largely on the state’s dismal economic situation and its impact on funding for the school.

“Sonoma State University has had its share of economic difficulties created mostly by the enormous volatility in support it receives from the state of California,” University President Ruben Arminaña told the crowd. “But this year’s are much more serious and injurious. Simply put, the consequences of neglect of higher education in California is having a highly detrimental effect for the present and future of the state and its people.”

The 23-campus California State University system lost $650 million in state funding this year, according to Arminaña, forcing a tuition increase of about 22 percent across the board. Students were already bracing for a 10 percent increase in tuition, when the trustees passed another 12 percent in July, prompting protests across the state.

Tuition for an in-state student at Sonoma State University this year averages about $2,500 per semester. This does not include costs living expenses such as housing and food.

This year, Sonoma State University celebrates its 50th anniversary with some 8400 students enrolled. But funding has slipped to new lows, totaling what it was in 1999, according to Arminaña.

The school president criticized the recently passed state budget as “full of gimmicks and shaky assumptions” including relying on funding from cities to keep its redevelopment agencies, fees on rural homeowners for firefighting, efforts to tax Internet sales, all of which are being challenged.

The university is bracing for further cuts—$2.3 million— due to lower than expected sales and property taxes, expected to come in December.

Other speakers on Monday included President of Associated Students Alex Boyar who said that the university was failing in its mission of providing a quality education for all students.

“We see, semester and after semester, fewer classes being offered, we see our most impactful lecturers not coming back, we see a huge problem in academic advising and that it’s becoming nearly impossible to graduate in four years,” Boyar said.

Prior to the start of the event, faculty with signs stood outside the auditorium to call attention to the plight of teachers in the ongoing budget cuts. Teachers are represented by the California Faculty Association, which has been in negotiations with CSU trustees for a year over salary increases.

“We are demanding a fair contract that recognizes the professionalism of the faculty, that the long-term viability of the system is at stake and that the corporate model doesn’t work for universities,” said Andy Merrifield, a political science professor at Sonoma State and president of the local chapter of the CFA.

The union is calling for 1 percent increases in faculty salaries over the next three years, pay step increases as well as increases for the previous year they say they were promised, but never received. Merrifield criticized the new president of San Diego State University, Elliot Hirshman, for receiving a $400,000 salary, while students and teachers shoulder additional cuts.

“He’s getting a new car and all sorts of allowances, while professors get nothing,” Merrifield said.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom on Monday. Arminaña told the crowd the university has been receiving numerous grants including a $1million grant to train the next generation of scientists and a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to purchase a spectrometer, a device that measures light, for the school’s physics department. He also introduced 14 new faculty in economics, business, engineering and other departments.