Embattled NorCal university president heads for exit as students vanish

San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney said Tuesday she will step down as the campus battles a disastrous drop in enrollment under her tenure — losing a third of its students over seven years.

Mahoney said she will retire from the $520,000-per-year role next summer after eight years leading the struggling college and 18 working for the California State University system.

“Working with the best colleagues anywhere in service to our deeply engaged and talented student body has been a joy, but supporting my growing family, especially my beautiful granddaughters, calls,” she said in a statement.

She referenced the enrollment decline as one of many challenges she had faced, including the COVID-19 pandemic and declining financial support.

“Our journey together has been profound but not easy,” she said. “We were among the first CSUs to experience demographic decline and the enrollment cliff.”

When she began her position in 2019, the school had about 30,000 students. This year, there are just 20,563 undergraduate students.

Still, Mahoney highlighted the successes, such as new academic buildings and residence halls. She noted as well that this fall, new student enrollment increased 10%, the result of intense statewide marketing efforts.

“As I look across campus this fall, I see abundant evidence of our success at navigating these unprecedented moments,” Mahoney said.

The CSU system said it will soon launch a national search for Mahoney’s successor while she serves out the last year of her presidency.

San Francisco State’s declining numbers have become a sore spot over the past years. Nearly 600 courses and more than 2,000 programs have gone under her tenure, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

There’s also been a loss of faculty, around 200 part-time lecturers gone over the past decade. Tenure-track faculty also dipped, with 86 fewer professors.

Professor Michael Bar, who chairs the economics department, told the Chronicle he pins the blame on Mahoney for canceling and consolidating classes.

“The savings from canceling a handful of lecturer sections are pennies relative to the university’s overall budget, but the damage to morale, trust, student experience, retention, and reputation can be substantial,” he said.

But others have praised Mahoney.

“Student success measures have continued to climb under President Mahoney’s leadership, particularly the four-year graduation rate for first-time students, the two-year graduation rate for transfer students and the first-year retention rate,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement.

“Thanks in large part to President Mahoney’s extraordinary service, the future of San Francisco State is indeed bright.”

Nationwide, more and more colleges have also faced enrollment challenges.

The number of high school grads enrolling in traditional colleges could decline 13% over the next 15 years, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education predicted, as more young people opt for vocational schools and trade jobs.