Patrick Maloney, a junior at Sonoma State University, woke up Wednesday morning to a pleasant surprise.
California voters had approved Proposition 30, the statewide tax measure backed by Gov. Jerry Brown to raise about $6 billion a year for education.
For thousands of state university students, it meant money in the bank: specifically a $249 refund of a tuition fee increase they paid this fall.
For Maloney, a 20-year-old political science major from Sacramento, it also was a payoff for a successful campaign to register more than 1,000 SSU students to vote in Tuesday’s election.

The pavilion will enable the music center to host large-scale performances — including jazz, reggae and other international genres, as well as ballet — that draw a sizable audience, said Erik Greeny, interim vice president for university development.

Sonoma State University president Ruben Armiñana on Tuesday defended his decision to award former Citigroup chief Sanford ‘Sandy’ Weill an honorary degree at this Saturday’s commencement ceremony.

A group of Sonoma State University faculty and students announced Sunday they will protest an honorary degree the school plans to give to a major donor to the Green Music Center at Saturday’s graduation ceremony.

Sonoma State University administrators and faculty leaders met Thursday in what has become a routinely grim process: reviewing the university’s fiscal situation in the face of continued budget cuts. The school now is wrestling with a $4.6 million deficit after temporary state funding cuts of $2.3 million were made permanent in January, officials said.