Layoff of longtime on-campus physician raises questions about compliance, continuation of care.
By Carlos Merlo, Staff Reporter
For two decades, Dr. Sophia Momand served as the on-campus physician at the CSUDH Student Health Center. Since joining the university in 2005, Momand became a trusted member of the campus community, providing care to hundreds of students and earning a strong reputation.
In July, while updating patient records, two Human Resources staff members entered Momand’s office to hand her a letter of termination. She was instructed to leave the clinic immediately, but could return later to collect her personal belongings.
“For someone who has worked there for 20 years … No credit and no recognition, then abruptly, so disrespectfully, let go,” said Momand, a board-certified family physician with over 30 years of experience.
The termination, Momand said she was told by campus administrators, was not related to her performance but resulted from budget shortfalls affecting CSUDH and the broader California State University system.
CSUDH is preparing to launch a partnership with Cal State Fullerton’s TitanHEALTH program, which will introduce a different model of student health care. Under the plan, consulting physicians from Fullerton will rotate through CSUDH to provide on-campus medical services.
University administrators say the collaboration will provide CSUDH students with access to health services already offered at other CSU campuses, including Long Beach, Northridge, and Fullerton.
“I don’t think [university administrators] really know the workings of the Student Health Center system,” Momand said “I was competent enough to solve the problems myself.”
“Difficult” decisions but no service changes, administrators say
CSUDH is wrestling with a $12 million reduction to its 2025–26 operating budget. Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom revised his spending plan to address a statewide deficit, forcing CSU to absorb an additional $143.8 million cut.
Already under pressure to balance its books, CSUDH has moved to reevaluate campus operations across the board, including some staff positions. In January, CSUDH President Thomas. A. Parham said the university had “made the painful decision” to lay off at least 30 employees.
Momand’s layoff, university officials explained to The Bulletin, was another hard decision in light of the shortfall.
Tiffany Herbert, CSUDH associate vice president of health and well being, is currently director of Student Health Services. Herbert oversees several campus agencies, including Toro CARE and Student DisAbility Resource Center.
Herbert said service agreements between CSU campuses are common, noting that the clinic provides X-rays for CSULA students. She said the primary goal of the university’s partnership with TitanHEALTH is to ensure Toros receive “great access and quality of services” wherever they are.
“We still have same-day appointments. We still have nurse visits—a sore throat isn’t something you need a provider, a nurse can help with that,” said Herbert. “This really is the reduction of one provider … Our nurse practitioners write prescriptions, they are qualified to do what students need for quality care.”
The Student Health Center currently has two nurse practitioners on staff. According to Herbert, the partnership allows the clinic to offer students a range of rotating specialty services, including dermatology, dentistry, and optometry.
She added that “everything will happen” at CSUDH.
“Anything that puts a barrier in place is something I am trying to reduce,” Herbert said.
Herbert briefs ASI, but questions remain
Herbert met with Associated Students, Inc. on Oct. 24 to provide an update on Student Health Services for the 2025–26 academic year. Information provided by CSUDH to The Bulletin showed that salaries and benefits for the clinic’s 10 health employees totaled about $2 million last year.
Herbert told ASI that eliminating Momand’s position allowed the university to reallocate resources and expand access to specialty services at the clinic.
“Looking at the numbers, the elimination of the role allowed for 10% of the [Student Health Services] budget to be put back to the students,” recalled Edgar Mejia-Alezano, ASI president. “No one wants services cut over salary constraints.”
Momand’s 2023 base salary was listed as $206,000 on OpenPayrolls, an online database that tracks compensation for public employees. The site notes, however, that it “cannot make any guarantee that it is 100% accurate or complete.”
At press time, The Bulletin was unable to verify Momand’s official salary as of July 2025 or how it related to the overall Student Health Services budget.
Herbert said her job was to be “a good steward of the student health money.” She said the previous $142 health services fee could not sustain both medical and psychological services on campus. The fee is currently $147.
“It’s a very difficult decision to say that someone is not going to have a job,” Herbert said. “It’s also a difficult thing to say that we’re taking your student money and not giving it to you anymore.”
Herbert emphasized there would be “no change in service delivery.”
Mejia-Alezano said some ASI members were aware of Momand’s layoff and the university’s service agreement with Fullerton, while others only learned of it during the meeting. He said ASI questioned who would replace Momand as the clinic’s supervising physician, a role required under California law.
According to Mejia-Alezano, Herbert told the group there was still an on-campus MD overseeing the clinic but she did not specify who that individual was.
A review of the Student Health Services website shows Dr. Joseph Ortega, a psychiatrist, as the only staff member listed with an MD.
The Bulletin asked both Herbert and the university spokesperson to confirm whether Ortega now serves as the supervising physician for the Student Health Center but did not receive a response as of press time.
“I don’t expect campus to make a press release, since we still technically have working MDs, even though it’s not that one person,” Mejia-Alezano said. “On a personal level, I would also think that Dr. Momand wouldn’t want that disclosed.”
Momand: Layoff was personal, CSUF partnership “makes no sense”
Momand was an active member of the campus community. She served as faculty adviser to the Muslim Student Union and founded Homeless Outreach Promoting Empathy (HOPE), a student organization that assembled care packages for unhoused individuals in Carson.
She also routinely briefed university administrators and city officials on public health issues.
“Whenever a mayor came to campus, they brought them to me,” recalled Momand. “You take the medical problems to the person who knows medicine the best—I was there for them, without question.”
Momand said her layoff was not about funding but stemmed from longstanding tension between her and Herbert. Momand said she and Herbert had not communicated face-to-face in several years.
“If there’s no bad blood, why didn’t [Herbert] come up to me and negotiate other terms—a collaboration where I could work from home, or be on campus a few times a week?” Momand wondered.
Momand emphasized that continuity of care—seeing the same physician for follow-up—helps ensure accurate diagnoses and timely detection of serious conditions.
“How’s [Herbert] going to rationalize getting rid of me?” Momand asked. “I was not only innocent of any wrongdoing, but I had no issue with anybody there … It makes no sense.”
When asked, Herbert confirmed Momand’s strong record at the Student Health Center. However, a university spokesperson told The Bulletin that neither they nor Herbert could comment on issues related to personnel matters.
Momand believes she targeted, but her greater concern is the future of the clinic. She said she “loved” providing care to students but now questions how the partnership with Fullerton will affect their access to services. Momand also noted that CSUDH has been without a full-time health services director since Susan Flaming Yeats departed earlier this year.
Herbert said the director role was left vacant as a cost-saving measure.
“Can you imagine three rotating, collaborating doctors? I don’t know how they’re going to save money doing that…the continuity of care, of patient care, is lost … it’s poor medicine, poor quality for their buck” Momand said.
The partnership with Fullerton may also raise questions about statutory compliance, according to Patricia Castillo, a representative of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. Castillo questioned whether the clinic’s staff meet state requirements for oversight.
“I mean, it just doesn’t add up to me,” Castillo said, adding that CSUDH may now be the only CSU campus without a staff physician. “It’s like, if I don’t know who your provider is, or if the clinic is your provider, there’s at least one [specialized] physician—and under AB 890, there should be.”
When asked whether the two practitioners on staff at the clinic complied with AB 890, the university spokesperson said “Yes.”
Despite the abrupt end to her tenure at CSUDH, Momand said her frustration is rooted less in losing a job than in losing the chance to continue caring for students.
“I love what I do, I don’t care about the money. I care about quality,” Momand said. “I care about helping each student as they come across my path. That’s why it’s so disappointing and that’s why it was hurtful.”