Sonoma State Plans to Cut All Athletics. Coaches and Athletes Are Fighting Back

Members of Sonoma State’s athletics community have filed a federal civil rights complaint as they fight back against the university’s plans to cut all NCAA sports next fall.

The Save Seawolves Athletics movement sprung into action after Sonoma State announced last Wednesday, through an all-school email, that it would eliminate over 20 degree programs, lay off more than 60 employees and cut all 11 of the campus’ NCAA Division II teams at the end of the 2024–25 academic year.

The message from interim President Emily Cutrer said the cuts were necessary to cure a nearly $24 million budget deficit brought on by declining enrollment at the campus, a trend seen across the California State University system.

“We gathered with alumni and current coaches, and we had a beer,” said Benjamin Ziemer, an assistant soccer coach who helped form the Save Seawolves Athletics movement. “We were just shocked and outraged, and that fell way to a determination. The next day, a group of us got together and said, ‘We’re going to fight this and at least make sure there’s transparency to everything.’”

The group announced Saturday that it had filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging that eliminating athletics would have a disproportionate effect on underrepresented students and students of color.

“Our athletic student body is a majority-minority student population,” Ziemer told KQED.”It is clear to us that this has a disparate impact on that population. The university touts its commitment to diversity, to social justice, and so we believe that where they fall short in honoring that and in treating students with the language and the mission that they espouse, we’re going to call them out on it.”

Ziemer said one soccer player, who is the first in his family to attend college, transferred to Sonoma State from Sacramento State for financial reasons. He also needed to be closer to home.

“There are students that have come in, already paid their deposit for a year for their apartment, they paid their tuition, they passed up on other opportunities,” Ziemer said. “They’ve been harmed by this sudden and abrupt decision, not only financially, emotionally, but also their academics.”

The movement has also joined a call by Sonoma State educators for the California Faculty Association, the union representing its teachers and coaches, to request an injunction to temporarily block the university from carrying out the cuts.

Ziemer said the group’s goal is to “stop any further action on all the cuts across campus until meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders can occur — something that we do not believe has happened.”

Save Seawolves Athletics is also prepared to file a second complaint with the Department of Education on behalf of faculty of color, he said and is looking at the possibility of a class-action lawsuit.

Ziemer said he was waiting until a town hall meeting on Thursday to explore these options further, as the academic departments also face cuts.

Until then, the group will be focused on advocating against the cuts at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting, which runs Monday through Wednesday in Long Beach.

“We decided to have a massive movement through every sport to get any Southern California alumni to show up in person. We have some athletic faculty members who are planning on going down,” Ziemer said.

Athletes, staff and alumni are also registering to speak via Zoom beginning Tuesday.

“We’ve got a lot of alumni, we’ve got a lot of people, we’re going to fight,” said Marcus Ziemer, who has coached men’s soccer at Sonoma State since 1989. “At the very least, we want transparency — how they arrived at this decision, when did they arrive at this decision? But we want to fight to keep athletics because I don’t think it makes sense for the university to do that.”