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Sonoma State Coaches Call for Federal Investigation Into Elimination of Athletics

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The Sonoma State baseball team practices at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park on Jan. 23, 2025. Sonoma State is cutting their entire athletic department to address a budget deficit. Coaches filed a second civil rights complaint against the university, alleging that cutting NCAA sports teams will disproportionately hurt people of color and women. (Gina Castro/KQED)

Sonoma State University coaches filed a civil rights complaint against the university on Wednesday, alleging that its decision to eliminate its NCAA sports teams will disproportionately hurt students and faculty from historically marginalized communities.

The complaint, filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, is the second lodged by a movement of student-athletes, alumni and athletic staff to try to stop Sonoma State from cutting its 11 NCAA Division II teams at the end of the academic year.

According to Save Seawolves Athletics spokesperson Benjamin Ziemer, it expands on last week’s initial complaint, calling for an investigation into the potential “disparate impact” of the sports program eliminations, to include the effect on coaches and staff in addition to athletes.

The complaint says that 65% of Sonoma State’s coaching staff are members of federally recognized protected classes, which include racial minorities and women.

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“These coaches are disproportionately affected by the university’s decision to cut the athletic program,” the complaint reads. “Evidence suggests that protected class coaches are more likely to be displaced or laid off, given their overrepresentation in lower-paid or part-time coaching positions. Moreover, the lack of job retraining or placement assistance for these individuals in comparable positions raises additional concerns.”

The decision to cut athletics took the campus by surprise last Wednesday, when an email detailing wider cuts — including the elimination of more than 20 degree programs and layoffs of 60 employees — was sent to the entire school community, just days into the spring semester. Sonoma State is facing a nearly $24 million budget deficit, interim President Emily Cutrer said in that message.

Abbey Healy, left, and Carson Warfield, right, practice soccer at the soccer fields at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park on Jan. 23, 2025. Warfield, a junior, and Healy, a freshman, just transferred this semester to the university. (Gina Castro/KQED)

“The harm caused by these cuts is not theoretical — it is real, and it is already affecting students and faculty,” said Ziemer, an assistant soccer coach at the university. “One of our student-athletes, of Hispanic and Native American descent, had no choice but to withdraw from school and return home because of the financial and educational burdens created by the loss of his sport.”

Head women’s soccer coach Emiria Salzmann, who is referenced in the complaint, told KQED last week that she was unsure where she would find a similar job since she is divorced and has a son who lives in Santa Rosa.

“I’m tied to this area simply because of my son,” she said Friday. “His dad lives in Santa Rosa, where I live, and so I wouldn’t be moving away from my son. There may be other coaches that are more able to move, but we all are going to have our own situations.”

The complaint requests that the Office for Civil Rights conduct a review of the decision to eliminate athletic programs. It also asks that the university reconsider the cuts and, if it does decide to carry them out, provide programs to assist coaching staff from protected classes with severance pay, career transition services and retraining opportunities to prepare them for similar roles elsewhere.

The group has also put calls out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Faculty Association, the union that represents Sonoma State coaches, to seek temporary injunctions that would stop the university from taking actions to initiate the cuts “until a full investigation into the discriminatory impact is completed.”

Save Seawolves Athletics is also considering filing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of coaches and athletes.

According to Ziemer, multiple student-athletes have already withdrawn from Sonoma State since Save Seawolves Athletics filed its first complaint on Saturday, requesting a civil rights investigation from the Department of Education into how the elimination of athletic programs will disproportionately affect student-athletes of minority backgrounds.

Members of Sonoma State’s athletics community — along with academic departments, including theater and many liberal arts degree programs — have been speaking out at the California State University’s Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach this week, which ends Wednesday. Save Seawolves Athletics also plans to rally before a school-sponsored town hall discussing the campus cuts on Thursday afternoon.

“The coalition will continue to push for an immediate injunction to stop all further actions by Sonoma State University until these discriminatory cuts are fully investigated and any harm to students and faculty is addressed,” Save Seawolves Athletics said in its statement.

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