Cal State East Bay students and faculty members from the Incoming Student Program for Inclusion, Retention, and Excellence (INSPIRE) said goodbye to the program last Tuesday afternoon with “RIP INSPIRE” — a mock funeral demonstration and protest. 

The program, designed to help first-year students become acclimated to college, will be shutting down after the current semester due to lack of funding. 

“RIP INSPIRE” began with a rally outside the South University Union. Demonstrators then moved to the Multipurpose Room where students delivered speeches and performed taiko drumming. 

After a lunch break, INSPIRE students presented their final research projects focused on financial aid, campus resources, and the consequences of INSPIRE’s closure. 

The event concluded with a march to University President Cathy Sandeen’s office, where students laid their picket signs outside her doors. Sandeen and Provost Anthony Muscat were not present at “RIP INSPIRE.”

Students expressed disappointment over the program’s loss and concern for future students who may miss out on the same support.

“It was obviously heartbreaking knowing that my siblings or my family in the future won’t have the opportunity to have such a great program,” said INSPIRE student Gabriel Valencia.

According to Valencia, INSPIRE’s shutdown means losing an important opportunity for students to build community with one another and with their mentors.

“It [INSPIRE] was a very good way to build community with a lot of folks. They have all the support you need in order for you to succeed,” Valencia said.

He added, “East Bay is really known as a commuter school. A lot of people just go in and out. But I feel like once you start building more of a community, you stay more on campus.”

INSPIRE faculty alleged that the program’s closure was partly driven by shifting university priorities, with administrators focusing more on career readiness than on social justice and community building. 

During a speech at “RIP INSPIRE,” Program Strategist and political science professor Danvy Le said, “While the university may frame equity as a goal or outcome for us, equity is not a project. It is lived. It is our lives. It’s not something we set aside when priorities change.”

Staff also expressed sadness in seeing the program shut down.

“Its [INSPIRE’s] impact will continue to live on in every student it touched, every connection it created, and every life that it helped shape,” said Student Equity and Success Coordinator Erika Diaz-Apodaca during the event.  

According to faculty, Muscat and other administrators are developing a new first-year student experience to replace INSPIRE, though the initiative has not yet been fully explained. 

Though the INSPIRE program is ending, faculty reassured students that their support would not end with it. 

While delivering his remarks at the event, ethnic studies professor Nicholas Baham stated, “We created a family here, a community. We don’t need funding from anybody to be a family.” 

He added, “In theory, we don’t have the program. [But] we’re still here.”