Sacramento State cuts courses across all colleges amid budget shortfall
All colleges across Sacramento State must reduce course offerings to accommodate funding cuts and cost increases, according to the university.
The state has proposed $375 million in California State University funding cuts, according to Sacramento State. University officials said inflationary pressures and high benefits squeezed its budget, which faces a $31.2 million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year which begins July 1. Layoffs struck more than a dozen management positions, President Luke Wood has said previously.
The university does not have exact number of classes it has cut, said Lanaya Lewis, a university spokesperson. She said the university is working with faculty to implement “these changes in a way that minimizes the disruption to the progress toward students’ degrees.”
Students staged a walk out Thursday in response to proposed course cuts, fee increases and more potential layoffs.
“Austerity and layoffs are not inevitable — the CSU has the money, they are just choosing to spend it on anything but instruction and faculty,” the California Faulty Association, a statewide union for professors, lecturers and others in the CSU system, wrote in a message to its colleagues. “We can and will fight back together.”
Salaries and benefits represented the largest chunk of the CSU’s budget, or about 75%, for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the CSU.
“The reality is the CSU has been experiencing rising and unavoidable operational costs in recent years that have outstripped funding increases, and now we face a potential $375 million budget cut from the state,” CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith wrote in an email. “Even with limited resources, student services and instruction are prioritized and invested in to ensure our students, faculty and staff have the resources they need to succeed.”
Erika Cameron, Sacramento State’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, wrote in an email to staff last week that “all colleges must reduce current course sections to meet the reality of a reduction” in state allocation and one-time funding used to support additional classes.
“We understand this news is difficult,” Cameron wrote in a letter also published on the university website.
Students, faculty, staff and others are encouraged to advocate for the state to restore the CSU’s full funding, Lewis said.
The California Faulty Association said it was notified by the CSU “that they may, at some point in the near future, initiate the layoff procedures of the contract at Sac State.”
“This notice of potential layoffs does not specify who or what departments will be affected,” the message said.
For the fiscal year 2025-26 and beyond, salaries and benefits are “projected to increase substantially,” according to Sacramento State. More than 85% of Sacramento State’s $431.6 million baseline operating budget is earmarked for salaries and benefits, the university said.
In total, 28 management positions, which includes 15 layoffs, were eliminated. Thirteen more positions were either merged with other roles or cut due to attrition.
Wood has also proposed a new student fee used by 12 CSU campuses, but not Sacramento State. He froze hiring and cut the travel or professional development budget by at least 50%.
The new fee, if approved by a students, will go into effect in fall 2026.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 4:27 PM.
