Sonoma State’s plan to cut more than a dozen majors is on pause

This has to be the dumbest court decision ever.  The judges are demanding Sonoma State continue to finance majors and sports.  But the school does not have the money.  Will the judges finance this—or will the school collapse under the weight of lazy judges who do not live in the real world, where work has to be paid for?

“Sonoma State faces a $24 million budget shortfall after a steep drop in enrollment. The school has already shed almost $26 million in expenses.

A judge in Sonoma County has temporarily blocked California State University leaders from cutting academic programs at Sonoma State, for now pausing a plan that was supposed to save the cash-strapped campus tens of millions of dollars.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Kenneth English issued the temporary restraining order today and set a new hearing for May 1.”

Judges can make any decision they want—this one proves the judicial system is broke and should not be obeyed.

Sonoma State’s plan to cut more than a dozen majors is on pause

by Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters,  4/15/25   https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/04/sonoma-state/

In summary

Sonoma State faces a $24 million budget shortfall after a steep drop in enrollment. The school has already shed almost $26 million in expenses.

A judge in Sonoma County has temporarily blocked California State University leaders from cutting academic programs at Sonoma State, for now pausing a plan that was supposed to save the cash-strapped campus tens of millions of dollars.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Kenneth English issued the temporary restraining order today and set a new hearing for May 1.

This is a victory for the seven student-athletes who sued Sonoma State’s interim president and the system chancellor over the campus leadership’s decision in January to terminate more than a dozen majors for the 2025-26 academic year, including philosophy, economics, modern languages and physics. The campus also planned to eliminate the school’s National Collegiate Athletic Association sports teams.

Lawyers for the students argued that Sonoma State didn’t follow system procedures for terminating academic programs. They say the school should have conferred with the Academic Senate, a body of full-time professors that shares governance duties with school administrators on academic matters.

“There’s just supposed to be a process of proposing a plan, getting feedback, getting a recommendation from the Academic Senate, in addition to other steps that were not followed,” said Ross Middlemiss, a lawyer for the student-athletes and himself an alumni of Sonoma State and a former soccer player for the school.

Sonoma State’s Academic Senate didn’t learn of the proposed cuts until Jan. 22, the day Interim President Emily F. Cutrer publicized her administration’s plans. The suit also argues that Sonoma State leaders didn’t follow its own rules for informing students about changes to their majors. The student body president of the campus only learned 10 minutes before the decision was made public. 

“The lack of consultation with any enrolled students or student leadership not only violated the regulations but also left the student body president without any ability to address the myriad of questions and concerns from confused and angry students,” the suit, which was filed March 7, states. 

Cal State wants cuts to fight budget shortfall

The judge’s ruling today blocked Cal State from ending only academic programs; Middlemiss and the other lawyers wanted the judge to also halt cuts to the sports teams. They’ll make their case at the May 1 hearing and hope to win an injunction, which would further prevent Cal State from going through with its cuts. 

Middlemiss said Cutrer has already asked the sports conference Sonoma State teams are in to drop the teams from future programming. That’s one reason the lawyers are rushing to reverse the cuts. “If they’re removed from the NCAA, the process to get back in is costly and uncertain and time consuming,” Middlemiss said.

Sonoma State faces a $24 million budget shortfall after a steep drop in enrollment — from around 9,000 students in 2018 to 5,800 now. The school has shed almost $26 million in expenses, from not rehiring faculty to employing fewer management positions.

The proposed cuts are meant to stabilize the school’s budget. Middemiss said he and the other lawyers for the plaintiffs doubt the system’s claims that cutting the sports programs would save the campus nearly $4 million. He said athletics at Sonoma State are budget-neutral and may even generate money. The school’s moves would lead to dozens of layoffs, including professors.

Sonoma State is an extreme example of Cal State’s escalating budget crisis. The 23-campus system has battled several years of budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It may also lose $375 million in state support — a decline of 8% — if a plan by Gov. Gavin Newsom that state lawmakers signed off on last year goes through this summer. But now legislators are advocating to lessen or completely reverse those planned budget cuts.

“I will say, as a Sonoma State alum, as now a fourth-generation Sonoma County resident, it’s not only frustrating, it’s simply unacceptable,” said Sen. Mike McGuire, the leader of the state Senate, at a forum yesterday discussing the future of Sonoma State. He faulted Cal State system leadership for having an inadequate plan to help Sonoma State. “I am done being taken advantage of,” he said yesterday. “It feels like you are trying to run out the clock.”

A spokesperson for Cal State’s chancellor’s office didn’t reply to questions about the court ruling by press time.