Budget shortfalls and declining enrollment are pushing San Francisco State University to cut some jobs. Marianne Favro reports.
Budget shortfalls and declining enrollment are pushing San Francisco State University to cut some jobs.
At SFSU, the English department is one of the hardest hit. About 19 lecturers were recently told they won’t be returning to teach in the spring.
There were some “missing” posters on campus and it showed the faces and share the stories of 19 adjunct lecturers, who learned their jobs have been cut, including writing teacher David Gill.
“After 17 years of service, my retirement and career are destroyed and now I’m considering substitute teaching in Oakland,” he said.
In the past, the English Department has had 30 faculty lecturers and that number has now been slashed dramatically.
“I only had enough funds to offer classes to 11 lecture faculty. The rest of those classes will now be covered by tenured track,” Maricel Santos, chair of the English Department at SFSU.
The English department chair says other campus departments have also been forced to make cuts.
A university spokesperson said the hiring lecturers is based on student enrollment and they added that “as enrollment has declined unfortunately lecturer faculty are being significantly impacted as there are fewer sections to teach.”
But the university did not disclosed how many total lecturers have been told they wont be returning to teach in the spring. They said an exact number won’t be known until spring enrollment numbers are in.
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Students said they will miss the lecturers they’ve learned so much from. There also concerned they’ll now have fewer class options and larger class sizes.
“It’s very frustrating because they keep canceling the courses we need to get our degrees and what we need for graduation,” said SFSU student Samira Ali.
On Monday, as impacted lecturers meet to learn more about looking for jobs and how to handle losing health insurance, they also have a lot of questions for administration.
