Note: intended for release on September 24, 2021 but was missed during publication A collective groan is heard on Hastings College campus on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 16. A little past 8 a.m., Dr. Annette Vargas, recently appointed Vice President for Student Access, Enrollment, and Performance, sent an email to campus announcing that despite campus being in the green according to the Guideline Matrix, … Continue reading Opinion: College mask mandate keeps community and campus safe, if enforced

At the beginning of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the attendance policy was changed to allow virtual or in-person attendance according to safety needs. This was mainly set up to allow students in quarantine to be able to participate in class, and it also opened the door for students who may have been feeling ill in general, or who wanted to quarantine before … Continue reading Online classes will have merit beyond the end of quarantine and lockdown measures

Students are the target audience of college campuses; they are built and designed for and, by and large, who they are occupied by most predominantly. This is why the student perspective is so vital to understanding a college campus entirely. Student journalism is one of the most accessible ways for students to have their voices heard and experiences recognized in an official manner on campus. … Continue reading The importance of college, student journalism

We are Hastings College Ally Training (HCAT), and we were formed as part of our Persuasion class. For this block, we were tasked with running a campaign about diversity. After deciding that we had the most agency to talk about the gender and sexual minorities (GSM), we designed and developed a campaign to teach the general public about it. One reason we chose this topic … Continue reading Hastings: we ask that you #updateyourallystatus

Not too long ago (depending on who you ask…) college was a very different experience. The application processes, classes offered, schedules and day-to-day environments were either much more open or distinctly closed off depending on location. For modern college students, internships are better than they were in the past, students and teachers have more avenues of communication than ever before and doing research is no … Continue reading The imagined attainability of college education

We’ve all seen posts on social media that include the phrase: “share this article/picture/story/picture etc. about this issue.” I’m not saying that these types of campaigns are bad, in fact that they are often very helpful for raising awareness of lesser-known issues.  However, they often fall into the trap of fake activism, also known as “slacktivism.” Slacktivism is a kind of passive “activism” that is … Continue reading Activism, how to change the world in a productive way