Send Us Your Stories!
We want to hear about how budget cuts affect you, your students, your family, your campus and your community.
Send us your story today so we can spread the word about the need to adequately fund the California State University system.
Write us at: cutshaveconsequences@calfac.org
Budget cuts don’t affect just academic departments.
I am a Student Services Professional working in the Admissions Office at the Sonoma State campus. We typically have six or seven Student Assistants on our staff, but as a result of the budget cuts we could hire back only two.
Student Assistants do a great job for us and provide invaluable services to the Campus Community. Over half of the permanent staff in our office once
worked for us as Student Assistants or in Outreach and Student Recruitment, or in the Registrar’s Office.
They acquired knowledge of the processes and procedures in the various offices and gained valuable work experience in an academic environment while they completed their SSU degrees. And they provided
good public relations for us by educating their fellow students on our policies and procedures and curbed the temptation for students to blame A&R for all their red-tape woes.
It saddens me that we are no longer able to provide those opportunities for students. They not only help us with the work, they bring energy and vitality to our office. They keep me young and in touch with the things students care about. I see first-hand their trials and triumphs and each time one of them steps up to receive their degree at Commencement it
gives me goosebumps.
And the reality is without our Student Assistants the work they do must fall back on our shoulders because we have no money to hire even temporary help. Many campuses have never fully recovered from budget cuts in years past and SSU is no exception. Our staff are already cut to the bone and bleeding out marrow.
Lillian Lee
December 5, 2008 at 7:58 pm