Students

The recent agreement between striking graduate student workers in the UC system did little to solve their housing woes.

While the graduate student workers that went on strike from the UC system for six weeks won concessions like increased pay, a substantial portion of the workers are still dissatisfied and the contracts are relatively short, so tough negotiations may resume again in 2024.

For years, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has enrolled the smallest percentage of Black students among all campuses in the California State University and University of California systems. Although it’s difficult to pinpoint the reason, the campus attracts few freshman applicants and transfer students, and students describe a racist environment.

In the new episode of "Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast," CalMatters' Manuela Tobias and the Los Angeles Times' Liam Dillon break down how California’s housing shortage drives some college students into homelessness.

California colleges often reduce financial aid to students when they earn private grants, a practice known as scholarship displacement. Students say it’s unfair to lose funds they’ve worked hard for and need to pay for soaring living costs. This year, the state agreed, and banned the practice for low-income students starting in the 2023-24 academic year.

The search is underway for a new California Community Colleges chancellor. The CalMatters College Journalism Network asked students enrolled in the 1.8 million-student-strong system the qualities they believe are the most important in a chancellor.

California’s estimated 75,000 undocumented students don’t qualify for federal work-study or most job opportunities, and often struggle to make ends meet. A new state service program launched last week, College Corps, will give hundreds of them as much as $10,000 per year to perform community service in areas including K-12 education, food insecurity and climate action.

California’s education department updated its statewide data system in the spring but the rollout resulted in thousands of errors. Key information about special education students and other high-needs groups was missing or miscalculated.

A one-time state program worth $500 million has opened up from its pilot program to support displaced workers who want to acquire new job skills. Unlike other student aid, this grant can support programs shorter than three months. Recipients cannot have been enrolled in a training program when they lost their jobs.

Remind me how that Beatles song goes… If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat If your debt is cleared, I’ll tax the relief Okay, maybe that’s not quite right, but it’s a fitting enough description of the legal conundrum the state of California and as many as 1.3 million indebted residents are now […]