San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney has warned of a financial emergency as the school cuts courses to account for plummeting enrollment rates, according to internal emails seen by The Standard.
The chair of the university’s Academic Senate, Jackson Wilson, emailed faculty Nov. 8 that “President Mahoney has declared we are in a financial emergency.”
The email states that despite slashing courses and laying off staff in recent years, the university faces a potential 7.95% budget cut in the next fiscal year, threatening more programs. The school is encouraging staff members to preemptively recommend which courses should be cut.
“I can understand if you are exhausted,” the email reads. “My smartwatch has told me, ‘You have had a very stressful day’ every day this week. I didn’t even know it had that feature until this week.”
In a subsequent email provided to The Standard, Mahoney disputed that the school is in a financial emergency. She said SFSU is continuing with its budget as planned but is preparing for potential cuts next year.
“Our local policy uses the language of financial emergency,” Mahoney wrote. “This language is just local and has no meaning beyond triggering the Senate to move forward with a shared governance policy.”
Still, she acknowledged that the proposed budget cut would trigger an emergency if approved.
“A cut of this magnitude will impact our ability to meet students’ needs,” she wrote. “But we have many months to advocate against such a cut, and I remain hopeful that our advocacy will work.”
The school aims to allow current students to finish their degrees, even if their programs are reduced.
The California State University Office of the Chancellor, which determines SFSU’s funding, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
SFSU enrollment dropped to 22,357 students in the fall 2024 semester — down from 29,586 in 2018.
