CSU hires more police officers despite lack of funding

California State Universities have begun hiring more police officers as of the beginning of March, with Sonoma State hiring two new officers, one full-time and the other part-time. The salary of the full-time officer is, at minimum, $6,686 per month, coming out to over $80,000 a year. The part-time officer will be receiving a salary, at minimum, of $3,576 per month, which is over $40,000 a year. 

These new hirings are gratuitous. The pandemic continues to keep students from returning to campus, with Fall 2021 already being confirmed to not have a complete repopulation of students. The amount of money being allocated to officers, during a global pandemic, to supervise an empty campus is unnecessary. The CSU has now allocated over $1.9 million to hire more police officers as of July 2020, yet many faculty members have been laid off and classes have been cut due to a “budget crisis.”

Residential advisors (RAs) have been the first responders to almost every situation on campus, not the campus police. Any parties or other disturbances tend to be handled by the RAs, while the police have no involvement. The RA budget was cut drastically, leaving more than half the former RAs without jobs this past year. But, instead of hiring back more RAs with this newfound budget of almost $2 million, the CSUs have decided to spend it on hiring more police officers. This money could be spent on restoring the jobs of former faculty members and students, or on restoring the funding that was recently cut in half for a lot of programs at SSU. 

“I pay thousands of dollars a semester to receive an education and they’ve been totally lacking in giving me a good one, specifically because we’re underfunded...To hire more police on an already small campus with barely any students living there and low crime is ridiculous,” said Lauren Slotsve, a senior art major at Sonoma State. 

Many students studying art have become increasingly frustrated with the little amount of classes Sonoma State offers. Only one photography class is being offered next semester, causing a delayed graduation for some students. On top of that, the small amount of faculty available in the arts program, due to limited funding, has led to many classes being abandoned. Some art students end up staying more than four years due to this, placing them even further into student debt.

The “budget crisis” the CSU has reported led to IRA’s, or Instructionally Related Activities, receiving massive cuts. IRA funds go towards many programs on campus, including the STAR, KSUN, music, dance, and more. Why can’t the money that is being given to these new police hirings be used to refund the IRA programs that were just cut?

Another area of the CSU that deserves more attention than the police is the mental health needs of students. Many counselors have been laid off due to the “budget crisis,” but during such a stressful time for all students across the world, those counselors are needed more than ever for students to talk to. According to the American Psychological Association, “95% of college counseling center directors surveyed said the number of students with significant psychological problems is a growing concern in their center or on campus...70% of directors believe that the number of students with severe psychological problems on their campus has increased in the past year.” A mental health crisis in college students, during a global pandemic, warrants funding more than the campus police. 

When the SSU campus police were questioned about this issue, they had no comment. 

It is absurd that so many other programs and schools on campus experienced massive budgets cut, but the police continue to receive more funding. With less students on campus, there is no need to hire more police officers. The almost $2 million spent on these hirings could have been spent on programs that sorely need it, or to rehire faculty and students who lost their jobs due to a lack of funding.