SSU faces a $20 million budget deficit as a function of falling enrollment over the past 6-7 years. However, the estimates were that from here on out, there would be steady though slow growth. Nevertheless, SSU announced on January 22, 2025 that 46 faculty would lose their jobs, and the elimination of six departments, including Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as the WGS major/minor and Queer Studies minor.. We ask you to inundate Administration and political leaders with EMAILS AND LETTERS with your STORIES. Your passion for Women’s and Gender Studies and why it is essential that colleges and universities–and Sonoma State in particular–retain this department, which began as a program back in 1970. Underscore why teaching intersectional feminist perspectives, interdisciplinary methods, relevant topics, critical approaches, and difficult dialogues led with empathy is needed, now more than ever. They need to hear from you all why SSU’s WGS is a unique department and why the elimination is unacceptable. Identify: 1. Who you are (administrator, educator, scholar, community member, advocate) 2. Why this specific WGS Department is important (to you personally, but also more broadly in terms of what and how we teach). 

Explain: 1. Why you think the social and economic cost of losing WGS (for students, the community, society) far outweighs the cost savings. 2. Why you think the elimination of WGS betrays the fundamental mission of the CSU, and the basic values of SSU. 3. The political, social, and/or material consequences to SSU if it eliminates WGS. Ask: For the Department to be reinstated with its tenured faculty intact. *** Five points to consider touching on (you don’t need to hit them all!): 1) Elimination of WGS is a loss to the entire university with regard to inclusion, appreciation for differences, and academic excellence. In addition to our major courses, WGS has served over 15,000 General Education SSU students since its founding as an official Department in 2001. We bring these topics to the SSU students broadly, and they bring that interdisciplinarity, appreciation for diverse perspectives, and justice-focused empathy to all of their communities– locally and nationally. 2) Elimination of the WGS Department creates immediate loss and long-term harm for the retention of marginalized students, including LGBTQ+ students, BIPOC students, survivors of violence and trauma, and many more. We are the department that centers BIPOC and LGBTQ+ curriculum–and this retains those students. We are a department of 2 BIPOC faculty and 2 LGBTQ faculty, all of whom are experts in reaching diverse students with materials and concepts relevant and transformative for them. Representation matters. 3) WGS majors and Queer Studies minors have gone on to have powerful and impactful careers because of their time in WGS. Stripping future students of this opportunity is denying them the tools to create the kinds of change our society needs. 4) If you are part of a community organization or advocacy community especially, underscore how the elimination of the WGS Department creates immediate and long-term harm and loss to the local community. WGS is the only SSU department that has required an Internship since its founding. WGS students have clocked over 30,000 volunteer/internship hours to local Sonoma County organizations. These organizations help the unhoused, survivors of violence, immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ youth, women seeking healthcare, and so much more. Many of these students go on after graduation to work or volunteer for these organizations–or found their own. 5) WGS is exactly what is needed in this political and cultural moment, marked as it by attacks against LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, women’s reproductive rights, and more. 

*** Please direct email to the following people: President Emily Cutrer cutrer@sonoma.edu

Provost Karen Moranski moranski@sonoma.edu

Vice President of Administration and Finance Monir Ahmed mahmed@sonoma.edu

Vice President of Student Affairs Gerald.jones@sonoma.edu

 cc the following (these are important for the letters to have any impact): CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia csu-chancellor@calstate.edu

CSU Board of Trustees Trusteesoffice@sonoma.edu

Governor of California gavin.newsom@gov.ca.gov

State Senate Consultant to the LGBTQ Caucus Chair Jacob.Fraker@sen.ca.gov

State Assembly member and LGBTQ Caucus Vice Chair Natalia.Garcia@asm.ca.gov

And bcc: 

WGS Faculty Chair Don Romesburg romesbur@sonoma.edu

WGS Faculty Charlene Tung tung@sonoma.edu

WGS Faculty Lena McQuade mcquade@sonoma.edu

WGS Faculty Patricia Kim-Rajal kim.rajal@sonoma.edu