College Beat

People walk past an “End Overdose” outreach table with informational materials and QR codes set up in a public plaza.

This new California law will offer college students rehab before discipline for overdosing

College students who seek help for substance use after an overdose face disciplinary action by their campus. A new California law, written in part by students themselves, will require public universities to offer rehabilitation services to students rather than discipline.

Alina Ta

Small bottles of a product labeled “feel free,” advertised for mood lift, energy, and focus, are displayed for sale inside a convenience store. A sign indicates the product costs $8.99 and must be purchased by customers age 21 or older.

Once given out at USC, this banned, opioid-like product is still cropping up in California

A drinkable product called Feel Free was once marketed to USC students as a wellness tonic. It contains an addictive, opioid-like ingredient called kratom leaf, now banned for sale by the California Department of Public Health but still available in many stores. A new bill in the Legislature would make the ban permanent in California.

Phoebe Huss

A person wearing a white sweater with blue stripes on the arm and a blue UCLA shirt underneath stands in a field near an apartment building, with tree branches poking into the background.

How college students can earn $10,000 for making a difference in CA communities

The popular College Corps program pays students up to $10,000 for community service work including tutoring incarcerated youth, assisting at food banks and more. The program is expanding from 45 to 52 campuses, adding hundreds of more students.

Brittany Oceguera

An illustration in green, red, blue and yellow tones that shows a desktop computer screen with an open window tab that resembles a Pokemon battle scene. At one end of the screen is a pixelated student and at the other is a wolf that represents a chatbot. The illustration includes a bubble text that reads "where can students get free food on campus?" alongside other bubbles of text with red exclamation points.

California colleges spend millions on faulty AI systems: ‘The chatbot is outdated’

Community colleges are spending millions on AI-powered chatbots that students say often give inaccurate answers. Many might see upgrades this year.

Martin Romero

Daveion Harris, a Sac State Child Development Major, wipes down the entrance of Sequoia Hall at California State University, Sacramento on Dec. 2, 2020. Harris works as a student safety ambassador, ensuring cleanliness towards preventing the spread of the COVID-19. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

College Beat

As cases rise, college students take COVID-19 prevention into their own hands

Earlier this fall, Occidental College junior Luigi Maruani laid in bed anxious and angry, swiping through his phone. His 75-year-old father had just contracted the coronavirus, and Maruani felt the federal government wasn’t responding to the pandemic with enough urgency. A post in a Facebook group for students living off-campus caught his eye. “We’ve heard […]

Hannah Getahun

Maddie Beck

and

Matthew Reagan

• December 4, 2020

David Lewis, 29, left school at Long Beach City College after struggling to manage online classes with his job at Trader Joe's. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters

College Beat

Community college enrollment falls as students grapple with job loss, online learning

Lea este artículo en español. David Lewis was just a few credits shy of earning his associate’s degree in journalism from Long Beach City College when the pandemic hit. Lewis, 29, was already encountering scheduling conflicts between his classes and a new job at Trader Joe’s. As the assignments for his online classes started to pile […]

Emma Hall

and

Tess Kazenoff

• November 18, 2020

College Beat

Ready for a ‘real’ college experience, transfer students find their hopes dashed

Kaylin Tran imagined her first year at UCLA after transferring from Pasadena City College as kind of like a coming of age movie: She’d join clubs, make lifelong friends and pore over books in the university’s iconic library. Instead, thanks to the pandemic, she’s sitting in front of a computer screen in her family’s San […]

Omar Rashad

• November 9, 2020

Nona Claypool, a third year student at UC Berkeley and transfer student coordinator, at Mosswood Park in Oakland on Oct. 28, 2020. Claypool, who focuses her work on recruiting Native American transfer students from community colleges, says tt is often the students who would benefit most from higher education who are unable to access it. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

College Beat

Affirmative action ballot measure fails, but these students are still fighting to diversify their universities

Proposition 16 failed, but students at public colleges and universities in California have been trying to increase representation of students of color at their campuses for years and will continue their efforts.

Kayleen Carter

• November 4, 2020

Breanne Yee, 19, a third year student at Cal State Long Beach studying political science, sits for a portrait at the Sunset District library near her parents’ home in San Francisco on Oct. 28, 2020. Yee, who grew up in the Sunset District, spent much of her childhood studying at the library and considers it almost like a second home. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

College Beat

Challenging the model minority myth: Asian-American students divided over affirmative action

The moment he stepped into Clovis High School, Chali Lee — now a first-year at Clovis Community College — left his Hmong identity outside its doors. Other students, he said, saw him as just another Asian male, another model minority — someone taking up all the seats at colleges. Lee knows it’s not that simple. […]

Janelle Marie Salanga

• October 28, 2020

Images by Tash Kimmell for CalMatters; iStock; Fred H. Gage at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies courtesy of California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

College Beat

Five ballot propositions that would affect students

Lea este artículo en español. Hundreds of thousands of college and university students are among the Californians expected to cast votes between now and November 3. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds registered to vote in California has climbed by 24% since the last presidential election, and students are finding creative ways to inspire their peers […]

Ethan Edward Coston

• October 27, 2020

College Beat

Students find new ways to get out the vote amid pandemic

Lea este artículo en español. First-time voter Fernando Villarreal is looking forward to participating in the upcoming presidential election. “I think it’s a really important election for democracy and I think young people have a lot at stake when it comes to education, healthcare and a lot of other issues,” said the Palomar College freshman. But […]

Bella Ross

• October 16, 2020

College Beat

Report: More than 100,000 low-income California college students lack internet access

Pierce College theater student Sonny Lira was in the middle of rehearsing a script when his phone overheated and shut off, abruptly cutting off his performance. This wasn’t the first time technical difficulties interrupted Lira’s community college class. Since Wi-Fi wasn’t good enough at home, Lira often practiced his lines over Zoom in his car, […]

Julianna Domingo

Shehreen Karim

and

Charlotte West

• October 7, 2020

College Beat

Welcome to Zoom University. That’ll be $500.

Some University of California campuses are charging new students hundreds of dollars for orientation sessions even though they take place entirely online.

Janelle Marie Salanga

• September 25, 2020

Isael Corona, a math major at UC Berkeley, looks out the window from his student apartment near campus where he lives with a roommate on Sept. 3, 2020. Corona says he misses being with his friends but wanted to be back on campus. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Education

College coronavirus testing varies by system, campus

With sometimes competing public health guidelines coming from the CDC and state and local sources, colleges and universities have made different decisions about how much coronavirus testing should be done, and when. Resources are a factor, according to experts.

Mikhail Zinshteyn

Felicia Mello

and

Kimberly Morales

• September 10, 2020

College Beat

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