An unknown number of lecturers at San Francisco State University are being let go as the college faces a “financial emergency,” The Standard has learned.
SFSU spokesperson Bobby King confirmed that the university has decided not to rehire lecturers for the spring 2025 semester in an effort to adapt to decreasing enrollment, which fell to 22,357 students this fall from 29,586 in 2018. King said he did not know how many staff members are being laid off.
“It’s terrible, it’s tragic that people are losing course assignments, but you can’t offer sections when there aren’t students,” King said. He blamed the lower enrollment in part on the 2008 financial crisis and its effects on birth rates.
Jennifer Beach, who has been a lecturer in the English department for two decades, is among the cuts. She said she’ll have to find another job to support her two disabled adult children.
“I’m 58 years old. It’s a rough moment,” she said. “I have to relaunch my career at the end of my working life.”
English chair Maricel Santos said 19 lecturers are being laid off in that department alone. King confirmed this.
“I don’t think my department will even exist in seven years,” said Sean Connelly, a lecturer in the Humanities and Comparative World Literature department. “It’s seen as some sort of weird legacy of another time. It doesn’t slot neatly into the kind of program that employers or the market seem to be demanding.”
He estimated that thousands of staff cuts have been made this year across the California State University system. A CSU spokesperson said she could not confirm this, and “it would be speculating to say how many lecturer appointments there will be for spring.”
Lecturers dispute that a drop in enrollment is to blame. Multiple adjuncts said their classes are still full, even after the administration increased capacity, and students are struggling to get the courses they need.
Beach pointed out that despite the “financial emergency” announced by SFSU President Lynn Mahoney in an internal email, Mahoney’s annual base pay remains close to $500,000. “Her housing allowance alone is more than my annual salary,” Beach said.
Jolie Goorjian, a lecturer on English and Humanities and Comparative World Literature, doesn’t know if she’ll have a job next semester. She said she suspects mismanagement played a role in the budget problems, and her classes were at maximum capacity even after they were enlarged.
“It’s mainly to make more money, I guess,” Goorjian said of the cuts. She said she has been teaching at SFSU for 23 years, and the administration has not contacted her or other adjuncts.
“They act like it’s not even happening,” she said. King said the administration encouraged lecturers to apply to other teaching positions on campus.
“We’re not allowed to say we’re being fired, and we’re not allowed to say we’re being laid off,” Goorjian said. “It’s a terrible way to end a career.”