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 colleges and universities to offer rehabilitation services to students rather than discipline.
Higher Ed
Posted inEducation
UC and graduate worker union reach agreement, averting strike
The University of California and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative four-year contract agreement covering more than 40,000 graduate student workers and staff, averting a planned strike following months of dispute over alleged unfair labor practices.
Posted inEducation
UCSC projecting a slightly higher deficit, still has $99 million in cuts coming
Officials at UC Santa Cruz say the campus now projects an $81 million deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, slightly higher than the previously estimated $79 million, driven by rising costs, higher-than-expected student aid spending and lower revenue from international students and federal funding.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC’s college system and core courses are humanities’ best defense
UC Santa Cruz historian Kiva Silver is worried about the future of the university’s college system and the core courses at UCSC. He believes the courses, usually taken in students’ first year on campus, are essential to preserving a human-centered liberal arts education as a bulwark against AI. The courses, he writes, should not be sacrificed as the campus works to overcome a structural deficit of about $87 million. The courses and living-learning communities are part of UCSC’s original 10-college system and, he argues, foster critical thinking, belonging and the type of intellectual community that has always nurtured humanity. If students never ask “who am I?”, he writes, how will they be able to differentiate themselves from machines?
Posted inLatest News
New report by UCSC researchers examines financial, social and legal hardships faced by farmworkers
A new report by UC Santa Cruz’s Institute for Social Transformation and the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueño examines the harsh conditions faced by farmworkers and how immigration fears contribute to the severity of their challenges.
Posted inEducation
UCSC faculty pressing administrators to pause parking fee increase, conduct formal review
UC Santa Cruz faculty are urging campus administrators to pause planned parking fee increases and conduct a formal review after saying they were not consulted before the changes were announced.
Posted inEducation
New Cabrillo College president Jenn Capps’ No. 1 goal is to increase access
Cabrillo College’s new president, Jenn Capps, says her top priority is expanding access to higher education as she begins her tenure amid declining enrollment, a budget deficit and campus concerns about racism and immigration enforcement.
Posted inEducation
California colleges spend millions on faulty AI systems: ‘The chatbot is outdated’
California community colleges are spending millions on artificial intelligence-powered chatbots that students say often give inaccurate answers. Many might see upgrades this year.
Posted inEducation
Cabrillo trustee leaves board meeting after confrontation over racist comments; staff criticize rest of board for inaction
At two consecutive Cabrillo College governing board meetings, trustee Steve Trujillo drew criticism for singling out a Black staff member during a discussion about a racist video and for later invoking his past relationship with a Black partner while defending himself, before abruptly leaving Monday’s meeting. Faculty and staff denounced the remarks and the board’s failure to intervene.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
UCSC alumni to celebrate life and legacy of Tom Lehrer with performance in April
UC Santa Cruz alumni will reunite on April 11 to honor the life and legacy of Tom Lehrer, a beloved math educator as well as American musician, singer-songwriter and satirist who taught at the university for decades and died last summer at 97.