Sonoma State University announced on January 22, 2025 that 46 faculty would lose their jobs, and the elimination of six departments, including Women’s and Gender Studies. SSU currently faces a $20+ million budget deficit as a function of falling enrollment over the past 6-7 years. However, we stabilized this year and the estimates were that from here on out, there would be steady though slow growth. 

We are asking for full transparency from SSU/CSU about this decision and a full restoration of the WGS department. The social and economic cost of losing WGS for students, alumni, and the community far outweighs any cost savings. We hope that you'll join us.

Here is why we, faculty, current students, and alumni of SSU's Women's and Gender Studies department believes that this loss would be detrimental to the campus and overall community:

• 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 a 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. 
• Elimination of the WGS Department creates immediate and long-term harm and loss to the local community. WGS is the only 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.
• 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.  
• 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.
• 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. Now, more than ever.