Here’s what’s happened since Sonoma State University announced sweeping budget cuts

Sonoma State University unveiled a dramatic plan to confront its $23.9 million budget deficit Jan. 22, announcing faculty layoffs, the elimination of academic departments and degree programs, and the elimination of its entire intercollegiate athletics program.

In the days since Interim President Emily Cutrer’s message to the Rohnert Park campus, there’s been outcry from students, faculty and the community at large, as well as the beginnings of legal action to halt the budget cuts.

Here’s a timeline of Press Democrat coverage of the developing story:

Jan. 22

• Cutrer announces major budget cuts including a $1.3 million cut from university-wide budget lines, $8 million in reduced instructional costs and $3.7 million from discontinuing NCAA athletics. The announcement is met with immediate backlash. “You have a community that woke up this morning and its world was turned upside down,” SSU Political Science Professor David McCuan told The Press Democrat.

• Student athletes are informed of the decision to cut all sports programs first by their coaches, and then later at a town hall-style meeting with university administrators, including SSU Interim President Emily F. Cutrer. The move seemed to come out of nowhere, coaches and players said.

Jan. 23

• “In Your Corner” columnist Marisa Endicott breaks down in detail what we know about the cuts’ impact on students and faculty, how the cuts were made, and the next steps.

Impacted are: nearly 60 faculty and staff positions will be eliminated next year, six academic departments will close while more than 20 major degree programs,13 minors and four extended education programs will be eliminated. Sonoma State fields 11 teams with a total of 227 athletes, all sports will be cut.

Jan. 24

• Dozens of student athletes and coaches gather in the outdoor quad of the athletic building on Sonoma State’s campus to say they plan to fight the school’s decision to eliminate its athletic department through a class action lawsuit against the university as well as lobbying efforts with local and state government. “We’re organized and we’re ready to go to battle,” said Ben Ziemer, longtime assistant men’s soccer coach.

Jan. 25

• A second legal effort to stop the planned cancellation of the school’s athletics program takes shape when newly formed Save Seawolves Athletics group, spearheaded by SSU coaches, announces that it has filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging that the planned elimination of the athletics department will disproportionately affect minority students.

Jan. 26

• The announced budget cuts mark the starkest chapter in an evolving crisis that reflects challenges within the larger California State University system and a compounding series of obstacles and missteps at the 65-year-old SSU campus. Marisa Endicott, Martin Espinoza and Emma Murphy trace the university’s “contant chaos” of leadership scandals, disasters, and enrollment decline.

• Jaylen Wells, SSU’s first — and possibly last — NBA player, is looking to get involved in saving the school’s athletic programs, and could be employing the help of one of his star teammates.

Jan. 27

• Given that Sonoma State University is one of Rohnert Park’s largest employers, city leaders were concerned when the school’s administration announced that some $20 million in programs would be slashed to help balance a budget drained by declining enrollment and other financial problems. They’re now sending the SSU community a message: “We’re here to help.”

• Sonoma State University students, staff and faculty are planning to take their objections over an uprecedented set of faculty layoffs, academic cuts and the elimination of all intercollegiate athletics to the California State University Board of Trustees Tuesday during its meeting in Long Beach. Here’s how to watch.

Jan. 28

• At the CSU board’s regularly scheduled meeting in Long Beach, 75 faculty, staff, students, graduates and parents filled the public comment period. For more than two hours, the speakers touted the value of SSU’s sports and academic programs and criticize local and state leaders for what they called a lack of transparency and vision dealing with SSU’s chronic fiscal crisis. At the end of the public comment session, CSU Chancellor Mildred García thanked the speakers for taking the time to weigh in and tried to dispel any concern that the 65-year-old university could be shuttered.

Jan. 29

• Sonoma State University’s decision to ax its athletic department shocked and angered current players, coaches, alumni and community members, but it is not the first time SSU has cut athletics, and the story of how they were able to return half a century ago could offer a road map for the effort to save them this time around. Sports reporter Gus Morris tells the story of how SSU brought sports back in 1979 after a four-year absence.

Jan. 30

• The announcement of planned budget cuts that would slash academic and athletic programs unleashed an outpouring of shock, grief and anger in the Seawolf community, both on campus and beyond. But, there has also been a rapid rally to action, as faculty, students, staff, alumni and others scramble to persuade the university and the broader California State University system to reverse course. Marisa Endicott reports on how the SSU community has revolted in the last eight days.

• Student athletes, staff and alumni of Sonoma State University have launched an online petition to urge university leaders to reverse course on a plan to eliminate all intercollegiate athletics at SSU as part of a proposal to slash $20 million in spending.

• Hundreds of SSU students and faculty packed into the school’s Seawolf Plaza Thursday afternoon to protest $20 million in budget cuts that would lay off dozens of faculty and eliminate academic departments and degree programs and axe all intercollegiate athletics. The rally was held ahead of a 1:30 p.m. virtual town hall where university administrators are expected to discuss the cuts. The meeting was originally planned as an in-person discussion, but Sonoma State interim president Emily Cutrer said Monday it would be online due to space concerns. Protesters blasted the administration for not meeting with them in person.

• Sonoma State University students and alumni criticized university officials during a virtual town hall Thursday afternoon, with one participant calling Interim President Emily Cutrer a “hired gun” brought in to gut the university in a manner that lacked transparency. After Cutrer answered “everything” to a question about what alternative scenarios were considered, people listening repeatedly demanded a better response until Cutrer said, “there is not a Plan B.”

• The hundreds who packed the quad for Thursday’s hour-and-a-half town hall, held over Zoom, repeatedly shouted, booed and broke into chants over the course of the meeting, which was the first time that administrators addressed the cuts directly with the SSU community at large. Similar to last week’s meeting between interim President Emily F. Cutrer and the school’s student athletes, many walked away frustrated by the lack of answers they were getting.

Feb. 1

• In her first media interview since announcing deep and wide-ranging cuts at Sonoma State University, Interim President Emily Cutrer sat down with The Press Democrat to discuss faculty and staff layoffs, the demise of academic departments and the elimination of intercollegiate athletics in the face of a $24 million deficit.

Feb. 2

• In a “Close to Home”opinion article, retired Sonoma State University geography professor William Crowley writes that “If Sonoma State’s administration goes through with decimation of faculty, academic programs and athletics, a year from now we (Sonoma State faculty) believe they will be announcing closure of the campus, regardless of assertions by California State University’s chancellor that the campus will be funded.” Here’s why.

Feb. 4

• Joining the outcry over Sonoma State University’s deep budget cuts, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors raised concerns about how those moves will impact students and the broader community in a letter to Mildred García, chancellor of the California State University system.

Feb. 6