College Beat

Panelists discuss the importance of acknowledging and apologizing for California’s racist policies during CalMatters’ Ideas Festival.

The state is directly investing money for low-income students and all newborns to attend college. After two years, the program is still not widely known by the students who need the most financial assistance.

Once federal grant funding ends many resources and opportunities at Hispanic Serving Institutions continue only through student and faculty efforts. Experts say campuses must maintain programs to better serve Latino students.

Students and faculty protesting the Israel-Hamas war at universities throughout California are facing a range of consequences from arrests to suspensions and bans from campus. Meanwhile, students and faculty have also had to endure campus closures, canceled events, and classes moving online. What are the academic and legal costs of civil disobedience for California’s college protesters?

The University of California’s campus safety plan was designed to calm protests by limiting law enforcement. Yet as tensions grew to violence against a UCLA student encampment erected in protest over the war in Gaza, many are criticizing law enforcement’s initial lack of intervention.

The UC Native American Opportunity Plan seeks to make the system a viable option for Native students in California by offering them free tuition. But Native students enrolled at UC campuses report that strains on their budgets along with insufficient resources and faculty representation have been obstacles to academic success.

After bringing his story all the way to the University of California Board of Regents, a disabled UC Berkeley student has prompted the UC to ensure emergency evacuation chairs are in every multi-storied building in the 10-university system.

California’s three public university systems are either setting or reworking their climate plans to fall in line with the state’s goal for carbon neutrality by 2045, all while striving to expand in size and scope. New plans do away with a large reliance on carbon offsets, making an already difficult and costly process of reducing emissions even harder.

While graduation rates for Black students are the lowest in California universities, cultural centers can help address equity issues. Centers for Black students create a safe space to foster community while connecting with academic resources and Black faculty.

Now that undergraduate student workers in the California State University system have voted to join the staff union, their next step is to negotiate a contract. Students say they’ll be asking for sick time, fair pay and increased hours.