How SFSU’s colleges are adapting
Each college is responding in a different way to the challenges presented by budget cuts and declining enrollment.
College of Science & Engineering
According to Dr. Carmen Domingo, dean of the college, “We have made a commitment to our students and we want to make sure that they have the classes they need to graduate. They may not see the exact elective that they want, but they will still have terrific classes to choose from. We try as much as possible to provide students with a range of course offerings that meet their interests and needs.”
Dr. Domingo said the courses chosen to be offered, or not, depend on each department and their programs. She emphasized the need for funding.
“We need to work collectively with our CA State representatives to request a higher budget allocation to the CSU system — they are not providing enough funds to the CSU system to meet our needs,” said Dr. Domingo.
College of Liberal & Creative Arts
“The course schedule is planned to facilitate student progress to degree,” said Dr. Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo, dean of the college. “Chairs and directors have worked tirelessly in partnership with faculty members and with college leadership to ensure students can enroll in the courses they need to graduate, by raising course maximums, developing pedagogy suited to large lecture classes, and strategically planning course rotations to cover breadth requirements.”
Dr. Nwankwo stressed that students who are worried about graduating by the semester they want to graduate should talk to advisers.
“The department leader would be the best person to advise students about when a particular course of interest might be offered,” Dr. Nwankwo said.
College of Health & Social Sciences
“We have planned very carefully so students’ progress toward their degrees is not impeded,” said Dr. Andreanna Clay, the interim dean of the college.
Clay said that the college works closely with department chairs and school directors to ensure that students get the courses they need to graduate.
“If specific courses get canceled or are not offered, accommodations are made for students so that they can complete their major or minor fields of study, and finish their degree,” Dr. Clay said. “The associate dean, Dr. John Elia, and I are working with the chairs and directors to identify and implement methods so that students will not be adversely affected. Specifically, we are working on streamlining the curriculum, reducing roadblocks, eliminating bottleneck courses, and coming up with other ways to help students progress as smoothly as possible through their academic programs.”
College of Ethnic Studies
“We are experiencing approximately a 10% reduction in course offerings in Spring 2025 from Spring 2024,” said Dr. Grace Yoo.
However, students will continue to be able to complete their programs though.
“The College of Ethnic Studies department chairs have done an outstanding job with scheduling the essential courses,” Dr. Yoo said. “I commend them for their efforts.”
According to prior reporting by Golden Gate Xpress, the college has faced funding challenges before, leading to a hunger strike in 2016.
Lam Family College of Business
This college is offering about 50 more sections in Spring 2025 compared to Spring 2024, according to Dr. Yim-Yu Wong, associate dean.
“We try to meet students’ needs by adding sections if there is enough demand for them,” said Dr. Wong. “Early registration tends to help determine the need to add new sections.”
For any students who need required courses that aren’t being offered, departments may offer course substitutions, Dr. Wong said.
Graduate College of Education
According to Dean Cynthia Grutzik, only one undergraduate major is offered by the college — the Bachelor of Science in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.
“Currently, we have about 99 students in this major,” Dr. Grutzik said. “Because this is a very structured major leading to careers in audiology, speech-language pathology, and other health fields, we are careful to offer the courses that our students need to graduate, even if they are more full than usual.”
Dr. Grutzik noted that since the college offers mostly graduate and credential programs, it hasn’t faced the same undergraduate enrollment decline and has seen a rise in graduate enrollment.
“We also have two doctoral programs, eight master’s programs, and 11 credential programs leading to licensure for teaching, leadership, or specialist services,” Dr. Grutzik said. “In these programs, since there are no electives and all courses are needed for graduation or credential completion, we plan ahead to offer sections for the number of students who are enrolled, to make sure that all our students can complete their course of study.”
Dr. Grutzik said the college is still offering fewer courses where it can and filling them up to capacity.
