College Beat

Shae Hammond, a senior at California State University Northridge, was relaxing on her front porch after returning from a weekend camping trip in September when she got an unexpected text from her roommate, Jen Martinez. Martinez’s boyfriend — who had recently been in the women’s apartment — had contracted COVID-19. The first thing to run […]

In the wake of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, colleges and universities are taking a hard look at their own policing practices. University of California student activists are calling for UCs to abolish or reshape their in-house police departments, and the Peralta Community College District recently voted to end its contract with the […]

The pandemic forced college students into crowded and noisy study spaces, from laundry rooms to bedrooms, affecting their ability to learn.

Dressed in a white gown and hooked to an IV pump, Tina Jones was sitting on a hospital bed when nursing student Erin Abille greeted her.   Glancing at Jones’ chart, Abille saw that the patient came into the hospital for a foot infection and had a penicillin allergy. “Are you in any pain?” Abille asked. […]

Lea este artículo en español. Last March, when state and local officials issued stay-at-home orders to contain the coronavirus pandemic, California’s college campuses became ghost towns. Life for many students assumed a new cadence, in which the need for safety eclipsed the pleasures of the college experience. A year later, feelings of distance ⁠— from friends, […]

I’ve known since I was a kid that Black and Latino people are more likely to be killed by cops. I didn’t want the situation to escalate.

At 32 of 33 UC and CSU campuses, police officers are whiter than the students — and in many cases, disparities are glaring

Lea este artículo en español. In mid-January, science education professor Al Schademan received one of around 2,000 emails sent to faculty, student employees and essential staff at California State University, Chico. The email contained a surprise for Schademan: He would be among the first higher education employees in California to gain coveted access to the coronavirus […]

International students forced to return to their home countries. Low-income students losing the jobs that kept them afloat. Professors and students alike pushed off campus and adjusting to virtual learning, sometimes without access to the technology they needed.  The coronavirus pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of California higher education as we knew it. In the […]

Sara Romero tutors math for middle school students in San Diego during their last class of the day. But on Jan. 6, her attention was divided between two monitors: one showing her students and another open to news coverage of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “I had to tell the kids, ‘I’m fine!’” said […]