An alarm was sounded yesterday during the University Budget Committee’s monthly meeting, with San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney warning faculty in attendance that tough decisions need to be made to address the college’s increasing deficit amid declining enrollment.

“I’m not gonna sugarcoat this,” Mahoney said. “It’s awful. It’s horrible. Since I first saw it, I have actually not slept all that well.”

Facing a 9.8% decline in enrollment from first-year students, budget cuts from the state and the Chancellor’s Office and an unaddressed budget deficit well in the millions, the university must course correct. Dependent on the state for funding, the UBC made plans for an expected 5% cut to university funds. In the meeting, Mahoney alluded to cutting programs that aren’t bringing students to the campus. 

“At the end of 2030, if we don’t do something dramatic, we will be half the size we once were,” Mahoney said. “It is not just about recruiting new students. That’s just not gonna do it.”

Jeff Wilson, vice president of administration and finance and chief financial officer at SFSU, said the college’s best-case scenario is an $8 million deficit. Assuming steeper cuts, the worst case is just under $20 million.

But other than plans to increase enrollment, specifically what it is that needs to be done to address the university’s budget woes wasn’t addressed directly — an issue that members of the committee expressed during the meeting.

“People aren’t saying what really needs to happen,” said Dr. Genie Stowers, a member of the UBC and professor of public administration. “Nobody’s actually crossing the line to say it.”

With a majority of SFSU’s budget going to salaries of university employees, and the Huron Consulting Group’s report to the university advocating for similar departments within the college to be combined, further cuts to faculty seem imminent. 

The university has reserves which it can pull from to avoid cutting programs and faculty in the midst of a budget crisis. But Wilson and other committee members were hesitant to rely on those funds.

“The question is, do we just keep doing that?” Wilson said. “Or do we address the deficit and move forward? Both viable options, but certainly one more painful than the other.”

Regardless of what the university decides, changes will be made soon.

“We have an aggressive timeline to finish the plan by the end of the calendar year because we don’t want to waste any more time putting some of these things together,” said Katie Lynch, senior associate vice president for enrollment management at SFSU.

Mahoney stressed the need for faculty to get on the same page about a path forward that would lead to major changes at the university.

“We need to align our academic programming with enrollment demand,” Mahoney said. “I met with student groups, several student groups… They’re telling me that their faculty are telling them that I am personally responsible for ruining the quality of education at San Francisco State.”

Mari Hulick, director of SFSU’s School of Design and member of the UBC, agreed with Mahoney.

“I’m a department chair. You don’t think I’m getting similar messages all the time?” Hulick said. “And yet, I have never been as hopeful as I am in these last few days because I’m seeing things come together. It’s fragile, it is new, because quite frankly, the faculty have been marginalized.”

Christine Hintermann, travel procurement grant coordinator at SFSU and UBC member, took issue with Hulick’s use of the word “marginalized” when referring to dissenting faculty members, stating that she feels faculty’s perspectives are being overlooked by the committee.

“It’s stressful right now, especially when there’s class loads, class schedules, as well as procurement,” Hintermann said. “There is a lot of changes happening, and I am sorry if I am raising my voice, but I am raising the voices of those who you decide to silence when you say [faculty is] being marginalized.”

Hulick advocated for faculty to attend an upcoming “Let’s Connect” meeting, where staff at the university can express their concerns with and ideas for the university’s upcoming budget on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the J. Paul Leonard Library.

Mahoney left the committee meeting early to attend the San Francisco Promise Initiative conference, one of the measures the university is taking to increase enrollment.

“The partnership with SFUSD and City College will allow us to exchange information with those school districts so that we are admitting more students before they apply,” Lynch said.

Another tool the university is using to bring in students is artificial intelligence. With San Francisco’s booming tech industry and proximity to Silicon Valley, SFSU is looking towards AI as a means to bring in more students. Part of their enrollment action plan is to expand Alli Chat, SFSU’s generative AI chatbot.

“This will allow us to engage, through the yield season, more deliberately and effectively with prospective students,” Lynch said.

The California State University system spent roughly $17 million to provide students at its 23 campuses access to AI tools earlier this year.

According to Lynch, further methods to expand enrollment include working with Motimatic, a company that helps universities bring in students by targeting those who have stopped pursuing college on social media. With the second-highest population of veterans in the CSU, SFSU is also looking to CollegeRecon, a service that brings in previous service members looking to pursue higher education.

But, as Mahoney has driven home, tougher decisions need to be made soon.

“I need us to do the impossible,” Mahoney said. “And I know I’m asking for the impossible. But if we don’t, we will just become smaller and this will just get harder.”

Editor’s Note: The story was updated to correct the spelling of Hulick’s last name and to correct Hintermann’s title.

Editor’s Note 2: The story was updated to correct the 3% cut to university funds to 5%.