The California State University (CSU) system, including Cal Poly Humboldt, is the state’s greatest driver of social mobility. It is a partnership among students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, local communities and the state, and it serves a critical role in inspiring more than 460,000 students from all backgrounds to pursue a college degree and socio-economic prosperity. Gov. Gavin Newsom has praised the CSU as “the nation’s strongest incubator of upward mobility and the nucleus of the California Dream.” Yet the proposed 7.95-percent budget cut to the CSU, amounting to nearly $400 million, puts the “California Dream” at risk for hundreds of thousands of state residents, including those on the North Coast. Humboldt’s share of that reduction would be $7.7 million.
The impact of the budget cuts will be felt well beyond CSU campuses. Californians everywhere will be negatively impacted. CSU’s 23 universities are economic drivers in their regions, creating nearly 210,000 jobs annually and generating nearly $27 billion in industry activity statewide. In fact, the CSU returns $7 for every $1 invested by the state. Here on the North Coast, Cal Poly Humboldt is the region’s largest employer and has been a catalyst for residents who benefit from the large number and variety of alumni-owned businesses across various sectors, including agriculture, engineering and much-needed health services, as well as the arts.
As a graduate of Humboldt State University, now Cal Poly Humboldt, I am proud of the more than 100 alumni-owned businesses and the local residents they employ. I enjoy a healthier environment and more culturally diverse and richer community because of the university’s contributions in people and programs. From my work with the National Park Service, I have also seen the positive impacts of Humboldt students as they navigate their careers and family lives throughout the world.
The overall human cost of the proposed budget cuts for Humboldt students and employees cannot be overstated. Reductions would hurt academic programming. They would affect student academic and support resources and reduce campus services overall. Even though layoffs are not planned for 2025-2026, several current job openings will need to remain vacant, which means fewer of the faculty and staff who are foundational to providing the unique educational experience Humboldt is known for.
As Northern California’s first polytechnic university, Humboldt opens doors for students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to access a strong, affordable education: 37 percent are from historically underrepresented groups; 40 percent are the first in their families to go to college; and about 70 percent rely on some form of financial assistance.
Will Humboldt have the people and programs they need to educate the future teachers, nurses, resource managers, social workers and conservation scientists that our community needs? Will Humboldt have the support to foster California’s next generation of innovators?
When student success is impacted, it weakens California’s socio-economic mobility and, ultimately, diminishes the opportunities that define the California Dream. A lack of important educational resources impacts the morale of both students and faculty. How much can be cut before we reach a tipping point; a point where students cannot excel, and society loses the benefits of their future success?
At a time when California urgently needs a highly skilled and educated talent pool, the governor’s proposed cuts are truly unfortunate. After all that state residents have done to assure we are prepared for our future economic, environmental and human health, will those skills go elsewhere?
Help us urge state leaders to reconsider these budget cuts and ensure the CSU continues its mission of educational access and opportunity, transforming lives for generations to come, and enriching our local community.
Dan Sealy graduated from Humboldt State University in 1975 with a degree in natural resources. He lives in Trinidad.
This article appears in Summer of Fun 2025.
As one whose life was changed by CSU (as a low income person headed nowhere I struggled then flourished at SF State, and eventually went on to grad school and a fulfilling career as a physicist) I’m really heartbroken to see these opportunities closing up for young people. And sorry to politicize this but this seems a clear example of the .1 %’s brutal attack on everyone else, in an attempt to close the gates. In my, certainly biased view, until we can attempt to address this issue the bad news will continue to flow re. budgets for everything that had the US and CA on a path toward greatness.
No surprise for me
Services, classes, programs, hiring freeze, what’s next?
You know what didn’t get cut as usual?
The upper management.
The folks that get paid too damn much money for a job they don’t do well to start with.
I’ve been up here 15 years and I’ve already seen what is it three or four people in charge of this campus and they’ve all screwed up and done a crappy job and made a bunch of people really angry so they still get promoted and paid but the students still get screwed
And the local community is left… What, confused?