San Francisco State University is planning to shut down its Romberg Tiburon Campus for marine research.
The university is facing a $13.9 million structural deficit. Closing the satellite campus will save some money, but it will have consequences for research at the Estuary and Ocean Science Center, especially on eelgrass restoration and sea-level adaptation.
“Of course we were very surprised and kind of shocked,” said Katharyn Boyer, director of the center. “Our feelings, my feelings about it, is that it’s just a terrible mistake.”
Bobby King, director of communications for the university, said the deficit is compounded by the system’s reallocation plan requiring a budget reduction of about $25 million. Additionally, it will likely face cuts of $20.7 million if the state approves plans to reduce California State University’s budget.
King said the decision to phase out the satellite campus stems from the high costs of operation. The site runs a large deficit every year, and King said the move will save about $1 million next year, redirecting funds into the main campus.
The Tiburon campus has shoreline, tide lots and beaches that make it an ideal setting for a marine lab. King specified that the center is being relocated to the main campus rather than closing.
Still, he said some activities at the center will be impacted by the relocation and that the university is working with researchers at the center on a plan for finishing or relocating projects “where possible.”
“The work that happens at RTC is extremely important,” King said. “The fact that we are not able to maintain the location is not a reflection on the importance of the research and the work.”
The university has not announced its plans for the 53-acre bayfront property along Paradise Drive.
King said the number of people who work and study at the campus is small. It has three tenure-track faculty members, 11 associated faculty researchers, nine state-funded staff and eight grant-funded staff, according to a statement from the university. No students are taking courses at the campus in the spring semester, but about 40 students participate in activities there.
The university discontinued an interdisciplinary master’s program in estuary science at the site in 2023-24 because of low enrollment. Instead, the program was integrated into a graduate program in biology.
Questions about the center’s financial sustainability are not new, and the university formed a committee to analyze the issue in 2022.
The campus used to be a maritime commerce hub and a naval defense station. In 1958, it was transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior for oceanic and fisheries research. About two decades later it was declared excess federal property, and the university signed a 30-year lease for a majority of the campus. The university acquired the entire property in 2008.
“I am very hopeful that the Romberg Tiburon Center will find the funds necessary to remain open,” said Holli Thier, the mayor of Tiburon. “We all need to do everything we can to preserve the only marine science lab on San Francisco Bay and the critical research performed there.”
Boyer said that while it is not news that the center’s costs were under review or that the university is struggling financially, the decision felt sudden. She said she thinks the center would need to raise about $5 million for the next four years for the university to feel like the costs are covered.
Downsizing is not an option, as the center already only uses a small portion of the property, Boyer said.
“I understand that there’s a strong need to cover costs on main campus and that there’s a severe budget shortfall there,” Boyer said. “That’s not anything that we’re not aware of, but just for such a small savings, honestly it doesn’t seem like the right decision considering the value of the place.”
Boyer said the marine lab, the only one in the area, is situated on the largest estuary in the state. She said closing the singular lab raises the question of how work that has been done for years there can continue.
Eelgrass restoration has been one of the projects championed at the center. The center is the only place on the bay where eelgrass can be brought in and transplanted using the bay water.
“The state has big goals for eelgrass restoration and I’m just wondering how those goals are going to be met now,” said Boyer, adding that in Richardson Bay alone, 75 acres of restoration are planned.
Boyer said examples of work that can’t happen without the center include research on acidification in the bay, as well as efforts to develop nature-based shoreline protection and sea-level rise adaptation methods. The lab uses the center’s mile of shoreline to test techniques.
“It’s a wonderful resource for our scientists and our students to be able to actually work with some of these techniques that we need to test and then hopefully can be scaled up for shoreline protection and habitat around the bay,” Boyer said.
Amy Hutzel, the executive officer of the California State Coastal Conservancy, said sea-level rise adaptation work, specifically research on nature-based strategies, is a relatively new field that requires innovation, science and data — things the center contributes.
Other research projects that will cease include a program that recycles oyster shells from restaurants for use in restoring oyster beds. The project was supported through $5 million in grant funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy and conducted in collaboration with Hog Island Oyster Co. and Conservation Corps North Bay.
Hutzel said the organization is “highly concerned” about losing the only marine science lab on the bay. The end of research on a living sea wall and eelgrass restoration would be a “big loss,” she said.
“They’ve got a long body of work and research and expertise and it’s really advanced the restoration science and allowed a lot of restoration work to move forward in San Francisco Bay,” Hutzel said.
Boyer said students mentored at the center are valued by regulatory and resource agencies. The wide range of research and work that the center has done to inform management of the bay’s resources will largely end.
“It’s like a pipeline, to the state agencies in particular, of talent and really well trained students who, if we shut down, there won’t be that possibility anymore,” Boyer said. “It’s a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge that has been developed in the research labs within the EOS center, and the idea that those will just close, it will be a real loss in the region.”
