photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB

Hundreds of people turned out at the center of Sonoma State's campus Thursday, January 30th, taking in a virtual town hall meeting on proposed budget cuts at the university.

Boos and chants from the angry crowd frequently drowned out the discussion as it was broadcast to the rally goers in the quad.

So what was being discussed in the virtual meeting?

One of the first things Sonoma State's interim President Emily Cutrer did in Thursday's virtual town hall was read a message from the Chancellor of the California State University system, Mildred Garcia.

"She writes," Cutrer read. "Dear Sonoma State University Community, over the past week, I've heard from hundreds of members of the extended Sonoma State Community. Students faculty, staff, alumni, friends and supporters, expressing their disappointment over the recently announced actions the university is taking to address its nearly $24 million budget deficit. Indeed, disappointment is an understatement."

In her letter, Garcia wrote, as has become frequent, the executive leadership and CSU system hear and empathize with the pain of SSU community members, but Garcia wrote that despite the difficulty and pain, the cuts must happen.

Cutrer picked up with the letter again.

"[The cuts] reflect the severity and un-sustainability of the university's fiscal challenges," Cutrer read.

"Challenges that will be greatly and unavoidably exacerbated by the governors proposed 8% budget cut to the CSU, $375 million, if that is approved in '25-26."

According to the latest estimate from CSU, the system brought in $626 million dollars in new gift commitments to the university system over the past year, up from $557 million in 2022-23.

In her letter as read by Cutrer, Chancellor Garcia argued the cuts are not signals of ultimate demise for school, but are needed to preserve SSU's long term future.

.Bt the pledges of empathy from CSU and SSU leadership are doing little to quiet widespread outrage; feelings SSU student Dino Ortega channeled during Thursday's town hall.

"I am absolutely appalled at the fact that you made these decisions, these draconian decisions to cut athletics, to cut entire academic departments to destroy the mature careers of tenure professors and the emerging and blossoming careers of young students without any democratic decision-making," Ortega said. "Without any community outreach, you hung us all out to dry with an email. How dare you?"

SSU Interim President Cutrer said she intends to speak face to face with SSU community members about the proposed cuts in the weeks to come.