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Angry Sonoma State students protest budget cuts at campus town hall

Outraged Sonoma State students protest recently announced program cuts
Outraged Sonoma State students protest recently announced program cuts 03:38

Emotions flared Thursday afternoon as students and faculty gathered outside Sonoma State's student center to watch the town hall meeting set up by administrators to answer questions about the university's recently announced budget cuts.

"You made these decisions, these draconian decisions to cut athletics, to cut entire academic departments, to destroy the mature careers of tenured professors," said one speaker. 

Last week, the university announced it would be laying off dozens of professors, cutting close to two dozen majors and shutting down the school's entire athletics program to try and balance what they say is a close to $24 million budget deficit.

During the town hall, administrators said that these cuts are excruciating but necessary for the university's health moving forward.

Still, many students said they felt blindsided by the cuts and feel like the university's administrators were dodging their questions and concerns.

"It's kind of the same answers we've been getting, which is no answers. I mean a lot of the questions they just didn't answer," said one student.

CBS News Bay Area spoke with Eloira Smith last week right after they learned their major would be one of the ones cut. They came to the town hall to voice their displeasure, but said the whole thing seemed like a waste of time.

"Honesty it's kind of a joke. So many peoples voices were not heard and so many questions were not answered and so many people were cut off. it's ridiculous, I'm angry," said Smith.

John Sullins is a member of the Philosophy Department. He said he was informed he'd be out of a job after this semester. He also told CBS News Bay Area he was displeased with the fact the town hall was virtual.

"The people that need to hear it were not listening to it. They were just pictures on a wall and they even had the sound turned off and the emojis turned off. So it felt like talking to a brick wall," said Sullins.

The administration has promised it will hold additional in-person meetings with students and staff going forward. 

Eloira said they'll believe it when they see it. For now, they plan on continuing to fight these cuts every way they can.

"We are not going to go down without fighting. And there are websites. Please go, there is a petition that we have," said Smith.

There is one to petition online to save the women and gender studies department. There's also another one looking to save the athletics program. Thousands of people have already signed those petitions.

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