From picket lines and teach-ins to performances and proms, the photography staff at City on a Hill Press documented various moments throughout the 2024-25 academic year.
Through our lenses, we visually captured our community in times of dissent, celebration and solidarity.
In commemoration of our community and the dedication of our staff, current and former CHP staff photographers have assembled a short collection of our work from the 2024-25 academic year.
Nidhi Bhat
At the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery’s spring exhibit opening celebration on April 18, 2025, an attendee gazes up in intrigue at one of 46 black and white portraits. Created by Michael Nye, the exhibit “About Hunger & Resilience” showcases the faces of people around the United States who have undergone periods of hunger. The event provided food from the Cowell Coffee Shop, one of many basic needs resource centers on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Cowell Coffee Shop works to ensure students have access to food, free of charge. 
Upon marching from the base of campus to the Santa Cruz clocktower during a May Day rally, a marcher sits exhausted with a sign in hand. The sign reads “Free Palestine, Stop Bombing Yemen,” advocating for peace internationally and encapsulating core issues for marchers at the rally.
Arzu Azeem
A protester holds signs during the Hands Off! Rally on April 5, 2025 in support of their transgender daughter, while also calling out Donald Trump’s “cruel” decisions. Alongside thousands of other protesters, they gathered in front of Santa Cruz County Superior Courthouse to protest the actions of the Trump administration.
PHOTO: A flyer with the words “NO RENT HIKE” sits in a stroller in front of the Family Student Housing (FSH) Office. FSH residents protested against incoming rent hikes for units in the East Meadow FSH complex by demanding alternatives to the increased rent burden. The event was organized by the FSH Tenant Association.
Malia Peris
Members of NorCal Carpenters Union led a march of about 100 people to Kerr Hall during the [UC workers rally]. The crowd arrived at the locked doors and participated in chants for 15 minutes before returning to the Quarry Plaza to disperse.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors met with the general public during a board meeting on February 25 to discuss a plan to further support the undocumented immigrant and LGBTQIA+ communities in the county. Among the speakers during public comment was a member from Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, a local community organization based in civil service and advocacy for racial equality.
Kyle James Allemand
During Ramadan, in partnership with grassroots Muslim non-profit Manara West, UCSC’s Muslim Student Association hosted its annual Iftar in the Quarry Amphitheater. The event provided food, community and group prayer for students from across the Bay Area to break their fasts once the sun had set. 
As the first wave of academia-targeted federal budget cuts under the Trump administration hit UCSC, students, researchers, professors and community members gathered at UCSC’s Coastal Campus in protest. On March 7, 2025, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research grant money were put on the chopping block, endangering the research and livelihoods of student and federal research scientists alike.
Cecilia Schutz
Unhoused community members gathered their belongings in preparation for the Pogonip sweep in October 2024. Police escorts stormed the area on October 15, subsequently removing and displacing houseless individuals residing within the area. 
In September 2024, the ACLU sued UCSC for illegal use of the California Penal Code Section 626.4 for campus bans implemented on May 31. Student protestors alongside community organizers gathered outside Santa Cruz County Superior Courthouse to attend and support the impending court hearing.
Reggie Sasaki
Two students wearing cutouts of dean of students Garrett Naiman and associate dean of students for leadership and engagement Travis Becker stand at a rally in the Quarry Plaza on February 26, 2025. The rally was organized in solidarity with UC-wide AFSCME Local 3299 and UPTE-CWA Local 9119 Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strikes between Feb. 26 and Feb. 28. This was one of many strikes held by both unions throughout the 2024-25 academic year.
Drag queen Antoinette greets the audience at the third annual Mother Earth Drag Extravaganza on April 26, 2025. Hosted in the Seymour Marine Discovery Center by the Lionel Cantú Queer Center, the prom celebrated queer joy, student drag queens and environmental justice advocacy. Hailing from the House of Commitment drag family in Knoxville, Tennessee, this was one of Antoinette’s first shows on the West Coast.
