Student and Staff Outlook on UC Santa Cruz COVID-19 Response
Beginning with the first two, and now four, weeks of remote instruction, winter 2022 is bearing similarities to 2020 for the campus community. Dining halls are once again open only for takeout as of Jan. 10, COVID-19 cases and positivity rates on campus are reaching…
As Students Travel for the Holidays — Remain Vigilant With COVID Safety
Some 30,000 feet in the air, you wait anxiously as flight attendants walk down the aisle offering snacks and drinks. Later, you sit at home celebrating with family and friends. With arms extended across the table, you clink glasses before taking a sip. If you…
The Sluggish Commute
I sit down in my afternoon class as the professor foregoes his usual icebreaker joke and dives straight into PowerPoint lecturing. A student rushes in from the back; out of breath, he sits down and announces, “My bus was 15 minutes late.” Slug commuters are…
“The two-state solution is dead. Israel has killed it”: New Solutions Are Needed in Push Toward Israeli-Palestinian Peace
You’ve likely seen the videos by now: dozens of Palestinian families being forced out of their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli riot police storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at Ramadan worshippers. Missiles fired by…
Developing the East Meadow Ignores Lawsuits, Letters, and Thousands of Students
What are letters from California senator John Laird and the Sierra Club, 88,000 signatures on a petition, and years of litigation to the UC Santa Cruz administration? Gobbledygook, it seems, given the university’s refusal to budge on the layout of its ambitious housing development, Student…
Beware the Surveillance Dragnet
A broken window. That is all the evidence the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) needed to gain access to 375 privately owned cameras, pointed at anyone crossing Union Square for seven days last summer. The blanket use of mass surveillance like third-party camera footage has…
The Temporary Outdoor Living Ordinance Offers No Solutions
Accessible and affordable housing has been a major problem in Santa Cruz for almost a decade. Yet, City Council has failed to create any policy that provides real solutions for the houseless community. The city has repeatedly torn down and swept housing encampments, which has…
Letter from the Editors: Statement in Solidarity with Asian Communities and Invitation for Submissions
Content Warning: Violence against Asian and Asian American communities, murder This past week we witnessed one of the worst attacks against diasporic Asians in the U.S. in recent memory. Eight people were shot and killed in Atlanta on Mar. 16 — six of whom were…
Financial COVID Relief From UCSC Has Been Few and Far Between for Students
In the next couple of months, UC Santa Cruz might be sending students a check to help with the burdens that come with the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be the second time in a year that UCSC will have the chance to provide direct relief…
Texas is a Warning for California (and the Rest of the U.S.)
As Texas plunged into a four-day blackout, Austin residents left their faucets dripping, hoping to keep their pipes from freezing over. But with so many people letting their faucets drip, the whole city water system depressurized, forcing residents to boil water for fear of contamination. …