Dispose of the Tampon Tax
Periods cost about $7 a month. That’s $7 a month, 12 times a year, for approximately 40 years. This means that, on average, this basic bodily function ends up costing those who menstruate a few thousand dollars. Gov. Jerry Brown approved Assembly Bill (AB) 10...
System Fails to Address Housing Barriers
UC Santa Cruz students, while not alone, are facing an injustice that prevents students from reaching their full academic and personal potential. This injustice is the housing crisis — where students are struggling to find and keep homes with little to no support from the...
Community Not Commodity
Families, students and residents in Santa Cruz are left with few housing options in a city overrun with vacation rentals during a severe housing crisis. There are 372 Airbnb listings in Santa Cruz, 240 of which are entire homes for rent. These vacation rentals are...
Call It What It Is
Universities across the country are failing to accurately label violence toward Black students as hate crimes. Chennel Jazzy Rowe, a Black woman, began college at University of Hartford this fall, experienced chronic health issues and was harassed by her roommate. After a month and a...
California Perpetuates Water Injustice
California currently fails to provide over 250 communities reliant on groundwater with clean, safe drinking water, leaving thousands of residents at risk of severe health issues. This isn’t from a lack of resources or ability — but negligence by the state. The long-overdue solution finally...
Q&A: Chancellor Blumenthal and EVC Tromp
Conducted by Michael Kushner and Elena Neale. Student Media participated in a Q&A session with Chancellor George Blumenthal and Executive Vice Chancellor Marlene Tromp on Oct. 10. Blumenthal and Tromp answered questions about overenrollment, free speech, the budget deficit and athletics. City on a...
Weeks later, Puerto Rico Faces Slow Recovery
Millions of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens are using dim candlelight to maneuver through their storm-stricken homes. Sometimes water drips from their bathroom and kitchen faucets, but it’s often too contaminated to use or drink safely. Category 5 Hurricane Maria produced the biggest and longest blackout...
Profiting Off of Trauma
Jennye Pagoada López was about two months pregnant when she approached Customs and Border Protections (CPB) agents at the San Ysidro border, seeking asylum from a gang-afflicted life in El Salvador. CPB placed her in detention for five days, during which time she slept on...
Courts Must Hold Oil Companies Accountable
For decades, oil companies have tainted waterways through fracking, spilled hundreds of millions of gallons of unrefined crude oil in the ocean and, most damningly, driven climate change. Oil companies continually push climate-denying agendas and fail to assume any responsibility for the damages they cause,...
Religious Attack on Body Rights
The Trump administration has slashed Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations on contraceptive access, creating economic, political and social barriers to health care for hundreds of thousands of people. As of Oct. 6, employers or insurers may choose not to cover contraceptives if doing so conflicts...