Fresno State is set to receive a $16.3 million budget cut as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $375 million cut to the California State University (CSU) system. Faculty say this cut will likely lead to courses being cut, increased class sizes and staff layoffs.
“The recent proposed cuts are not a new element,” said Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval. “Our system of universities is consistently underfunded.”
California currently faces a $68 billion deficit, which means that the state government’s spending is exceeding its revenues. In January, Newsom released the annual California budget proposal, which included the CSU’s $375 million cut. The Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) predicts that the budget proposal will result in a $2 billion deficit, which closes the current gap by $66 billion.
However, these cuts continue an exponential trend of state cuts to the system. The incoming cut is nearly triple compared to the $128
million cut seen in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Although the deficit is expected to decrease, the effects of the $375 million budget cuts to the CSU have already begun.
CSU campuses reel
Chris McCarthy, an astronomy professor at San Francisco State University (SFSU), explains how the budget cuts have affected SFSU staff.
“We’ve lost hundreds of professors already,” McCarthy said. “The impact on students is that the class sizes are much larger, students don’t get individual attention like they did before and student fees have gone up.”
Fresno State has already seen this effect, with the athletics department eliminating three positions within strategic communications. The positions included Director of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) Aaron Mitchell; Senior Director of Broadcast Strategies, Stephen Trembley; and Assistant Director of Strategic Communications, Josh Mitchell.
The Collegian reached out to Trembley for comment but he declined.
Andrew Jones, the California Faculty Association (CFA) Fresno chapter president, explained the rippling effects of the budget cuts on Fresno State.
“Lecturer faculty will bear the brunt of state budget cuts,” Jones said. “Departments will have to cut class sections to address budget shortfalls, which means some lecturers will lose employment as a result of ‘lack of work.’”
Some Fresno State students have already encountered some of the shortfalls of these accumulated cuts.
Prynaaz Dhillon, an information systems major at Fresno State, was pursuing an internship with the Fresno State Digital Transformation Hub, where she was offered a job that was later rescinded.
“I now find myself racing to catch up in applying for summer internships…and reaching out to recruiters,” she said. “All while preparing for final exams.”
Dhillon says her search for a job in the already competitive tech industry has been only more complicated.
“I literally found out today [April 23] that my position ends in May,” Dhillon said.
Along with internship opportunities being stripped, various courses and sections have already been eliminated across departments.
Jeffrey Cummins, a political science professor at Fresno State, explains these eliminations.
“In [the political science department] too, we’ve reduced the number of sections,” Cummins said. “In terms of our campus, we will look for ways to save money as we’ve done in the past.”
CSU students are facing significant consequences as well, with many courses increasing in size.
Lynda Macareno, a second-year cinema student at SFSU, shared how the budget cuts are affecting her.
“I’m a cinema major so in that aspect, a lot of required classes have been cut short,” Macareno said. “I’m actually taking my required classes in the summer because I’m scared that in the fall, they won’t be available.”
Fresno State feels the heat
For the upcoming school year, Jiménez-Sandoval says the university is relying on $13.8 million from one-time benefit reserves, as well as an allocated $1 million from one-time carryforward funds to Academic Affairs, to close the deficit gap.
The combined $14.8 million in safety closes the impending $19 million deficit to one of $4.2 million, something Jiménez-Sandoval says is more manageable.
The CSU system does not have annual guaranteed funding, forcing its budget to go through reevaluations and reassessments annually.
“These cuts undermine the CSU’s role in providing upward social mobility and preparing skilled graduates who fuel the state’s economy and communities,” Jiménez-Sandoval said.
According to the College Futures Foundation, the CSU system has recently been rated No. 1 in the nation for improving economic mobility and produces around 130,000 degrees per year, which is double that of the University of California (UC) system.
With the walls closing in, other CSUs are also resorting to drastic measures.
In February, Sonoma State made plans to close a $24 million budget deficit by eliminating six academic departments, 22 degree programs and all 11 of their NCAA sports programs.
While some protests have reverberated throughout CSU campuses, Newsom’s budget cuts show no signs of slowing down.
