Journalist to Journalist, I’m Asking You to Not be Impartial
To my fellow journalists covering the protests following George Floyd’s murder, I have an important request: don’t strive for “objectivity.” I choose to put objective in quotation marks because I believe it is neither a possible nor desirable ideal. Many days in the past week…
Retailers Allowed to Reopen May 8
Retailers across California will be able to reopen with modifications that could involve curbside pickup, deliveries, physical distancing, masks and hand sanitizer beginning May 8. Gov. Gavin Newsom made the announcement on May 7 after the state experienced weeks of stabilized hospitalizations and intensive care…
Small Businesses Face Effects of COVID-19
“We just did not have the resources to weather a lengthy shutdown like this.” – Mia Bossie, co-owner of 99 Bottles, a Santa Cruz restaurant and pub that closed permanently in March Bossie and her husband founded 99 Bottles eight years ago, and it came…
Pandemic Highlights Job Precarity for Lecturers
The fight for increased job security is nothing new for UC lecturers. About 1,600 lecturers lose their jobs every year. Amid COVID-19, UCOP announced there would be no layoffs through June 30. But unless the UC makes these protections more permanent, lecturers will be left…
Campus Moves to Protect Students from COVID-19
By Haneen Zain and Elena Neale Updated: March 13, 2020 3:22 p.m. UC Santa Cruz suspended all in-person classes from March 11 through April 3 after a second case of COVID-19, or coronavirus disease 2019, was confirmed in Santa Cruz County on March 9. The…
Graduate Student Teaching Strike Spreads to UC Santa Barbara
So-called “Doomsday” came and went last Friday as about 85 UC Santa Cruz graduate students voted to continue withholding fall quarter grades after a day that saw about 1,000 students, workers and faculty rally and march through campus. Marchers succeeded in shutting down campus entrances,…
Graduate Students On Strike
Graduate students at UC Santa Cruz have had enough. After two months on a grading strike with no action beyond dialogue from the university administration, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) voted to initiate a full teaching strike beginning Feb. 10. The picket drew several hundred…
Victory for AFSCME Local 3299
Service workers in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 reached a tentative contract agreement with the UC late on Jan. 21 after almost three years without a contract. The new contract includes wage increases, secure benefits, mechanisms to limit…
Tuition Hike Proposals Draw Crowd of Protesters
Demonstrators turned a Jan. 22 UC Board of Regents meeting into a representation of ongoing power struggles between students and workers on one side and UC administrators and regents on the other. During the public comment period of the meeting, held at the UC San…
Weekly Briefing
Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) Update Undergraduates, striking graduate students and workers affiliated with the K7 unit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 convened Jan. 9 for an undergraduate-led student-worker-power rally outside Kerr Hall. After about 200 graduate…