San Francisco State University plans to cut 655 classes this spring as the California State University contends with a financial crisis due to declining enrollment and rising labor costs.
Students and faculty noticed spring class options shrank at SF State and responded in protest, with the latter group set for a one-day strike next week amid stalled negotiations with the university system.
“I am bombarded by emails from colleagues, they have no classes,” said SF State Philosophy Lecturer Ali Kashani. “Over 300 lecturer faculty are about to lose their jobs and health care because of the cuts at SF State.”
Students said the sudden loss of classes will make graduating on time difficult.
SF State senior Adrian Jose Fernandez told the bilingual student newspaper Golden Gate Express that he is unsure whether he can attend graduate school at the university.
“I would love to go to graduate school here, but I’m only going to go if my favorite professors are here,” Fernandez told the outlet. “If they’re not here, I don’t see any reason to come back.”
Earlier this year, SF State’s budget committee suggested cutting 125 full-time faculty positions, meaning hundreds of classes are on the chopping block next semester.
The committee pointed to enrollment declines and union negotiations as “additional labor costs” that would necessitate the university to cut corners.
Brad Erickson, president of California Faculty Association, the union representing SF State faculty, called this is a direct attack on union organizing. “(University) management cites a 20% fall in enrollment to justify laying off 40% of lecturer faculty. These cuts seem far out of scale and appear to be retaliatory for our union organizing,” he said in a statement.
Faculty aren’t the only employees who feel hostility from management.
SF State plumbers, electricians, carpenters and other skilled workers, represented by the Teamsters 2010 union, went on strike earlier this month demanding fair wages after reaching an impasse in salary negotiations. CSU officials called the strike “unlawful,” and Jason Rabinowitz, the Teamsters’ secretary-treasurer, said the university system threatened retaliation towards union members who participated in the strike.
The CFA charged CSU with unfair labor practices on Thursday for barring unionized faculty from joining the Teamsters on the picket line.
“CSU shamelessly interfered with our members’ rights to engage in union activities, including by unilaterally changing work rules, (and) removing Teamster signage and materials from break rooms,” he said.
The CFA also said Thursday that members at Cal Poly Pomona, SF State, CSU Los Angeles and Sacramento State will each hold one-day strikes from Dec. 4-7. A third-party mediator made a series of recommendations to the union and university system, many of which CSU officials said they were prepared to accept.
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But CSU and the CFA still differ over the pace of pay raises, faculty salary floors and course workloads, among other areas.
In addition to faculty cuts, San Francisco State University also announced a tuition hike.
The CSU Board of Trustees approved the hike in September, which will increase tuition by six percent per year for five years — or roughly $342 per student each academic year, beginning in 2024.
CSU Chief Financial Officer Steve Relyea said that the revenue from the tuition increase is essential and will ensure financial stability in the long run.
"Coupled with an expanded financial aid structure that will look more holistically at the total cost of attendance, the CSU is committed to keeping costs as low as possible and providing support for students with the greatest financial need," Relyea said in a statement.
University officials said tuition had not been increased to keep pace with growing inflation, making it an outlier among other private and public universities. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, college tuition inflation averaged 12% annually from 2010 to 2022. The University of California also implemented tuition hikes in 2021.
Jacob Jackson, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that although CSU and UC schools are increasing tuition rates, students can also expect more financial aid opportunities.
“Both CSU and UC are planning to dedicate a portion of the new revenue from tuition increases for additional institutional financial aid, (which will) offset the cost increases for students from lower and middle-income families,” he said.
Jackson added that more than half of UC and CSU students don’t pay any tuition due to grants and scholarships — “but that still leaves many students on the hook for the mandatory campus fees and other costs like room, board, and transportation.”
SF State students come from diverse economic backgrounds, and half received an income-based Federal Pell Grant for low-income students.
“A lot of the people here are first-generation people of color and we are oftentimes having to fight harder to gain more opportunities and attend higher institutions of education,” SF State student Elsy Hernandez-Monroy told Golden Gate Express earlier this year.
She added that this tuition increase — no matter the size — poses issues for those already struggling financially.
“To see it become even more difficult for people like us is really just indicative of how little we are valued in society.”
