Cal State Fullerton faculty and staff gathered Thursday, April 17 to push back against what they described as a coordinated assault on higher education and looming budget cuts brought by the state and federal governments to the university, joining a national day of action held at college campuses throughout the U.S.
Cal State Fullerton student Brittany Pless hangs a hand-written message for the school administration during the “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” sponsored by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Freddi Bruschke, a faculty member in the Department of Geological Sciences at Cal State Fullerton hangs a hand-written message for the school adminstration during the “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” sponsored by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Students write messages to the school administration during the National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” hosted by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Cal State Fullerton student Hannah McElroy hangs a hand-written message for the school administration during the “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” sponsored by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Messages on paper fish for the school administration are attached to aboard during the, “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” sponsored by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Students gather for the “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” hosted by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 6Cal State Fullerton student Brittany Pless hangs a hand-written message for the school administration during the “National Day of Action for Higher Ed,” sponsored by the local California Faculty Association chapter in the quad at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) ExpandIn the center of campus, the California Faculty Association’s Fullerton Chapter set up informational booths for the school’s community to learn more about the university’s budget situation and express their frustration over the state of higher education.
Those who stopped by wrote messages with suggestions of how the school should set its budget priorities, and books that are often on banned lists were displayed to showcase the attacks on education, organizers said.
Representatives of the school’s union for faculty and some staff said they fear potential cuts facing the university, should a proposed $375 million budget cut to the system from the governor’s office come to fruition.
But they said they are also worried about issues stemming from the federal government, such as reduced federal funding for research programs and Pell Grants and international students’ visas being revoked.
“None of these things are happening in isolation,” said Christina Ceisel, an associate professor in communications.
The California Faculty Association — which represents more than 29,000 faculty, including tenure-track professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches across the system — in a January letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom said a nearly 8% budget reduction for the system his office proposed would be “devastating.”
“A reduction of this magnitude would require the CSU to continue reducing the number of faculty and staff, and continue to reduce the number of courses offered, all of which contribute to impeding student progress toward degree,” the union said. “The impact on our students and communities is very real.”
Ceisel said the potential cuts would increase class sizes with fewer faculty and make college education less valuable, with fewer service for students.
Ceisel blamed the system for mismanaging the budget over the years. “Claims of poverty” from university officials, Ceisel said, weren’t backed up by how the university is investing in places other than faculty, including creating new senior positions and recently approving a multimillion-dollar artificial intelligence contract.
“Our biology department has lost millions of dollars, student workers aren’t getting paid for work they’ve already done because of how the federal government is handling things, and so we are in a real crisis moment,” Ceisel said.
CSUF officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Fullerton was the only university in Orange County listed to participate in the National Day of Action for Higher Education.
Other colleges in Southern California that participated in various ways included UCLA, UC Riverside and Cal State Long Beach, where more than 200 faculty staff and students gathered for a march and rally
The National Day of Action for Higher Education was organized nationally by the Coalition of Action in Higher Education.
Michaela Bettez, a senior associate librarian at CSUF, said the group wanted to make people aware of the disruptions facing higher education so that they are prepared to push back should departments or programs be cut.
The Trump administration has cut collectively billions in funding for federal grants and contracts for elite universities, including Harvard and Columbia. That’s been paired with the broader promise of the Trump administration to drastically slash spending, much of it affecting money universities use for research and other programs.
Funding from federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy for research and support has also been cut in recent days.
“We’re a big campus. We have a high enrollment, so that makes a lot of people think that Fullerton is probably safe, but that’s not a guarantee,” Bettez said. “There’s no reason to think that if funding at the very top fell apart, that we’d be able to survive that. We just want to be cautious and aware.”
Bettez works as a liaison for the school’s Gender and Sexuality Studies department. Bettez began work this semester to archive materials from the department’s two decades of history; the department is worried it might be a potential target for elimination, she said.
Nearly half of CSUF’s over 36,000 undergraduate students were Pell Grant recipients in 2024, according to a news release last year from the university.
Bettez said there’s fear at the school of cutting Pell Grant funding and other services for students, and the union wanted to raise awareness now.
“To say we are afraid feels like an understatement,” Bettez said.
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