UCSC to Break Ground on Student Housing West Development, Regardless of Litigation
Guaranteed housing is a bygone ideal rather than a realistic expectation for UC Santa Cruz students in 2023. With only one year of guaranteed housing for first-years, students are quickly thrust into the highly competitive Santa Cruz housing market. In 2017, then-Chancellor George R. Blumenthal…
Earth Day 2023: Walking Out To Go Green
“Where would you start if you wanted to change the world?” Voices amplified by bullhorns, organizers repeated this question as they gathered at UC Santa Cruz’s main entrance. Holding signs and bottles of water, they marched to San Lorenzo Park. About 50 demonstrators convened at…
AFSCME 3299 Launches “$25/5%” Campaign for Pay Raises
AFSCME 3299 is demanding a $25 minimum wage for UC employees, and for employees already making $25 or more an hour to have their current wage raised by 5%. The union is also advocating for non-unionized student employees to be included in the demand for a $25 minimum wage.
Why Family Student Housing Doesn’t Have (and Might Not Get) Generator Power
In her five years living at Family Student Housing (FSH), Melissa Svigelj has acquired a bevy of camping lanterns, a battery generator, a solar panel, and a camping stove. These items aren’t for outdoor living, though — they’re for power outages. “My first year here,…
A mother, a son, and the school to jail ‘Pipeline’
As the lights dimmed, excited chatter subdued to hushed whispers, and the audience turned their attention to the stage. The first spotlight bathed a single figure in a pool of warmth, and Pipeline began. On Feb. 24, UC Santa Cruz’s African American Theater Arts Troupe…
Two Years Later, Zero Waste is Still Far Off
Why is UC Santa Cruz still purchasing single-use landfill products? Why haven’t you done a campus-wide waste audit? When will you present the campus community with a plan to achieve zero waste? What are you doing to get UCSC out of the bottom three UCs…
Out of State Grad Students Struggle with Residency Petition Process
UC Santa Cruz graduate student Rory Willats opened his MyUCSC billing portal midway into fall quarter and received a shock — he owed the university $5,800 he didn’t have. With that charge on his account, Willats would not be considered a student by the university…
Despite Postponements, MLK Youth Day Marches on
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” In the auditorium at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, a poster displaying this famous quote and the face of Martin Luther King Jr., hangs above…
Tensions Rise Between Students and Board of Regents
Controversial investments. A worsening housing crisis. Rapidly approaching climate deadlines. These were just a few of the topics weighing on the minds of speakers lined up to make public comments at the University of California (UC) Board of Regents’ most recent meeting. The UC Board…
Beyond the Bullshit
An arrow is drawn beneath your feet on the walkway beyond the Rachel Carson College academic building. Below it is a provocative inscription: “Beyond the Bullshit Climate Conference.” Passing by open classroom doors, the sounds of students in lively conversation about greenwashing, ecofascism, and radical…