UPDATE: Three Bay Area Cal State campuses pitch plan to combine finance, administrative services

News Brief

Thursday, March 27, 2025 — 9:35 am

Three financially stressed California State University campuses in the San Francisco Bay Area announced a proposal to form a “singular administrative network” across functions like finance and human resources to save money.

San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University and California State University, East Bay said the proposed arrangement is part of efforts to reduce costs. Declining enrollment on all three campuses has prompted the universities’ leaders in recent years to cut academic offerings, staff and faculty.

Cal State officials emphasized that the plan, which they called the San Francisco Bay Region Network, is not a merger, but would leave each institution to continue as an independently accredited university with separate academic senates and campus leadership. A spokesperson did not know how much money the change would save and said it will be discussed in further detail in May.

The network would likely cover all administrative and financial services across the three campuses, such as audit, payroll and information technology. The universities will also explore whether to include additional areas like networked library services and back-office functions related to admissions and financial aid in the initiative. Cal State officials said they are not planning any immediate reductions in staffing related to the network.

Cal State officials are seeking to share more of the functions previously housed separately across their campuses.

The university system’s board of trustees in November approved the merger of two campuses — the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and California State University Maritime Academy — as a way to save the financially strapped Maritime following falling enrollment.

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