Feature Archives

On May 28th, students, staff, workers, and faculty rallied at the base of the UC Santa Cruz campus to protest the UC administration’s decision to cut Community Studies department staff, Latin American Latina/o Studies professors, and director positions at the American Indian Resource Center and the Women’s Center. The rally was organized by the New UC coalition to ensure universal access to education, and to promote freedom of thought in the university.

At the May 16th ceremony for UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall law school graduates, World Can't Wait protested against Boalt Hall Law Professor and author of U.S. torture memos, John Yoo. The protest against torture called on graduates to demand that the UC law school not tolerate torture and those who are apologists for torture policies.

The Rock n' Roll On the Knoll Benefit Concert scheduled to occur on the UC Santa Cruz campus on Sunday, May 17th has been canceled. This was announced with very short notice on the afternoon of May 14th. Apparently, UCSC had to export some of it's police force to a graduation ceremony at UC Merced where Mrs. Obama will be speaking.

The Santa Cruz County Task Force for LGBTIQ Youth presents the 12th Annual Queer Youth Leadership Awards on Saturday, May 16th, at Scotts Valley High School. The event begins with a community resource fair at 5pm, followed by dinner and an awards ceremony. A community dance with DJ Eko follows the show.

UCSC is seeking to meet budget deficits by cutting health care coverage and benefits to its graduate students, including those with families and dependents. These cuts could increase the cost of co-pays for doctor visits and emergency care, decrease life-time coverage limits and probably, and most significantly, increase co-pays for prescription drugs, even those taken on a regular basis for chronic conditions.

On April 30th, students at UC Santa Barbara demanded a meeting with Chancellor Henry T. Yang. They asked for an end to the witch-hunt against Professor William Robinson. Robinson has been targeted by the Anti-Defamation League because of his forwarding of images that made a historical comparison of Israeli military actions in Gaza with the violence of the Nazi Germany in Warsaw.

On Wednesday, April 29th, UC Berkeley Police, apparently acting on behalf of ICE and introducing themselves as ICE agents, arrested Jesús Gutiérrez, a worker at the Clark Kerr Campus Dining Commons and a union activist in AFSCME Local 3299. Gutierrez remains in Santa Rita Jail. On Wednesday, May 13th, a rally and a march was held at Sproul Plaza, UC-Berkeley, to demand the release of Jesús Gutiérrez from ICE custody.