As enrollment rates across California’s community college system took heavy losses following the Covid-19 pandemic, colleges have focused on advertising their tuition-free access in recent months.
Tuition-free community college has been a reality for many students for several decades under the California College Promise Grant, which waives tuition fees for California resident students and non-residents under the California Dream Act who meet the needs-based criteria spelled out in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as FAFSA.
For students who don’t qualify for that grant, colleges have the option of using another pot of funding to waive tuition. The separate but similarly named California Promise, created under Assembly Bill 19 in 2017, set aside $46 million annually to be split among the state’s community colleges to support students.
Colleges get flexibility with how they spend their portion of the funds, but many are choosing to put theirs toward waiving tuition for students who don’t qualify for the Promise Grant, something administrators say is driving students back to their campuses following pandemic enrollment declines.
As of the current semester, all 116 California community college campuses offer some form of tuition-free education.
Thus far, it’s been well-received by students like Paige Stevens, a returning student at Folsom Lake College.
“I didn’t even know about it. I was set up on a payment plan, paid my first payment, and then the next time I checked my balance, it said it was paid by the California College Promise Grant. I had to look it up,” Stevens said. “Now that I received this financial aid, I was super excited and enrolled in another two classes to take advantage.”
While much of the data immediately following the pandemic focused on the massive drop in enrollment, which subsequently led to fears of funding cuts, enrollment in the state’s two-year colleges has begun to see a fresh increase, and many administrators point to the Promise Program.
Some campuses have gone a step further and offered awards to students who may not qualify for the Promise Grant program.
Since the 2020-21 semester, Diablo Valley College in Contra Costa County has been offering a “full-time free tuition award” that refunds tuition to students who are California residents, enrolled in at least 12 units, maintain at least a 2.0 GPA and follow an education plan. Marisa Greenberg, marketing and communications coordinator for Diablo Valley, said that more than 8,000 students took advantage of these programs at their campuses.
“DVC is experiencing a moderate increase in enrollment this semester, and although many factors impact enrollment, we are confident that the college’s free tuition programs have played a role,” Greenberg said in an email. “We know from conversations with students that receiving free tuition makes it possible for many students to either remain in college or to take more units, thereby accelerating their time to completing a degree or certificate.”
In the San Mateo County Community College District, tuition has been waived for all students, regardless of income, since the fall 2022 semester. Between the fall 2021 and fall 2022 semesters, there was an increase of about 1,500 students, or a 9.5% increase within the three district campuses, according to Chancellor’s Office data.
The enrollment increase continued in the spring 2023 semester, which saw another increase of 400 students. Spring semesters generally see a loss of enrollment, according to the data. The district’s ad campaign, as seen in mailers and online ads, has focused on pointing out that tuition is now free.
Chabot College in Hayward also has implemented tuition-free enrollment for first-year students, regardless of income.
“At Chabot College, we understand that the ability to pay or offset college expenses yields a greater probability of enrollment,” President Jamal A. Cooks said in an email. “We wanted to make sure to break down the barriers to postsecondary education,” he added, noting that it’s the path toward upward social mobility.
The strategy seems to be paying off as Chabot College’s enrollment remained steady between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 semesters, seeing only a slight drop of under 200 students.
Given that the state in 2025 plans to end its “hold harmless” protections, which are currently keeping funding for the colleges at their 2017-18 levels even if their enrollment has declined, these campuses will need to continue reversing the trend of enrollment losses to avoid cuts. Once the temporary freeze expires, the state’s funding for community colleges will largely be reflective of enrollment numbers. The California Promise program will be one of the critical tools they continue to lean into.
Chip Woerner, director of marketing and communications for Los Positas College, believes that remaining tuition-free keeps access to other services available.
“A tuition-free campaign … opens a conversation with students about the many resources available to them at our college,” Woerner said in an email.
Hundreds of UCLA students protest in support of Palestinians on May 2, 2024.
Credit: Christine Kao
A critical presence persists across the dozens of university campuses nationwide where students have organized demonstrations in support of Palestinians: student journalists reporting for their school newspapers, at times providing round-the-clock coverage and, increasingly, doing so under threats of arrest and violence.
“They recognize that the eyes of the world are on college campuses and they can be a lens through which people can see what’s happening,” said Christina Bellantoni, director of the Annenberg Media Center at USC.
Student journalists are central to the reporting of historic national protests calling for universities to divest from companies with military ties to Israel and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We have a job to do as student journalists. I like to say we’re not student journalists, we’re journalists,” said Matthew Royer, national editor and higher education editor at the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
At some schools that have shut down access to nonstudents, like USC, a private institution, student journalists are the only regular source of news on campus grounds. And at schools where journalists from outside news organizations are present, like UCLA, student journalists have remained top producers of the most accurate, up-to-date information.
A post by Matthew Royer from The Daily Bruin at UCLA.
The Daily Bruin had such high readership this week that its site was down for several hours Wednesday, requiring the newsroom to extend the site’s bandwidth.
This week at UCLA, a group of four student reporters were verbally harassed, beaten, kicked and pepper-sprayed by a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters who that night had attacked the on-campus encampment for hours.
A police officer grabs a protester by the back of their jacket to stop him from moving toward the encampment on May 2, 2024. Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor
At least one of the reporters, Catherine Hamilton, went to the hospital with injuries after the violent assault.
“Truly, there’s not much time for us to recover. As the new day starts, we have to be prepared for anything to happen,” Hamilton said in an interview with CNN. She returned to her reporting post shortly after being released from the hospital.
Royer confirmed that UCLA had promised journalists a safe room that night, but “the doors were locked, and they weren’t given access by the hired UCLA security.”
UCLA has not responded to a request for comment.
In a statement Thursday, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the violence on campus “has fractured our sense of togetherness and frayed our bonds of trust, and will surely leave a scar on the campus.”
His statement made no reference to the assault on journalists.
“I think it’s our jobs to continue to do what we can in the safest manner possible,” said Royer, who said counterprotesters have yanked his press badge, blasted megaphones near his ears, and blocked his camera over multiple days while reporting.
Student journalists nationwide have also been threatened with arrest by police arriving on campus to clear student encampments.
“We train these students to put safety first,” said Bellantoni. “What I cannot guarantee is that they won’t be arrested in this. If they are arrested, I can guarantee you those charges will not stand and we will make sure that we fight that because journalists have a right to be there and a right to witness it.”
A man wearing a jacket that reads “Anti Genocide Social Club” records a livestream of a line of CHP officers between Royce Hall and Haines Hall on May 2, 2024.Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor
Protests in support of Palestine are nothing new on UC Berkeley’s campus, according to Aarya Mukherjee, 19, who has covered campus activism and the encampment as a student life reporter for months at The Daily Californian.
But when he heard Daily Bruin reporters were assaulted, he said he “felt for them.”
“Last night, there was a very good chance of a raid. … So we were kind of preparing for the same thing to happen to us,” Mukherjee said, noting that the campus has been generally peaceful with little hostility toward the press. “It’s honestly scary, but … we accept that risk. We just hope it doesn’t happen.”
Given UC Berkeley’s history of protest and constant stream of student activism, managing editor Matt Brown said Daily Cal reporters are uniquely prepared to cover events that may turn violent. For years, guidelines on staying safe have been passed down through the organization’s editors.
“Everybody’s always in pairs. Everybody’s always taking shifts. Everybody’s always communicating. Nobody goes out there without a press pass,” Brown said.
Free Palestine encampment at UC Berkeley on April 29, 2024. Credit: Kelcie Lee / EdSource
The Daily Cal published an editorial late Wednesday that expressed solidarity with reporters at The Daily Bruin. It also condemned UCLA for failing to protect campus journalists.
“Everybody was on board; and within about an hour, we had a draft,” Brown said.
“We condemn the attackers and any attempt to stifle student coverage,” the editorial read. “It is the community’s duty to safeguard the students who are putting themselves in harm’s way to keep them informed.”
Many have also collaborated across campuses, a sign of their understanding that they hold a powerful position. The Daily Trojan, the Daily Bruin, the Emory Wheel, The Daily Californian, Washington Square News (NYU), the Berkeley Beacon (Emerson College) and the Daily Texan (UT Austin) joined forces to produce a compilation of photos of protests at their respective campuses.
‘That’s our Achilles’ heel’
Mercy Sosa, 22, received a tip that protests were starting at Sacramento State University on Monday at 6 a.m.
As editor-in-chief of The State Hornet, she got to work. By 6:30 a.m., she was on the scene — and continued to report on developments at the encampment for the next two days despite upcoming final exams.
“The amount of walking I did, the amount of not sleeping that I did — it’s exhausting,” Sosa said. “But I felt like it was my duty to be there and to make sure that students knew what was going on. And this isn’t just a Sac State story: This is a national story. … I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.”
The campus announced the encampment could remain intact until May 8. Unlike at other campuses, student reporters at Sacramento State haven’t faced aggression from campus or other stakeholders. The environment, Sosa said, has been mostly peaceful, with some counterprotesters and few police.
It’s similar at Sonoma State University, where Ally Valiente’s team at the Sonoma State Star are covering their growing student encampment.
But the current calm hasn’t made it easier for them to stomach the violence that played out at UCLA.
Daily Bruin homepage on May, 1, 2024.
Daily Bruin homepage on May, 2, 2024.
“It sort of makes me scared this could actually happen to any campus,” said Valiente, news editor.
Being a member of student media, where reporters and protesters can interact student-to-student, has played a key role in developing trust with sources, who are sometimes classmates, according to Chris Woodard, a managing editor at The State Hornet.
It’s a unique level of access that Brad Butterfield leaned into while reporting for Cal Poly Humboldt’s The Lumberjack, along with his knowledge of campus grounds.
Not all reporters covering Humboldt’s protests understood “how complex our campus is,” he said, which impacted police when it came to “gaining control.”
They also often work alongside journalists from other publications, who at times forget they are students.
Woodard recalled being in line for an interview by the encampment alongside a half dozen reporters from other publications.
“I kind of went up to all the other publications like ‘Hey guys, if you can please do me a favor and let me do the next interview? I have to go to class,’” Woodard said.
“I could tell this by the reaction of all the other professional journalists they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a thing for you.’”
They let him go ahead — and he made it to class 20 minutes late.
Mukherjee and his Daily Cal colleagues are taking shifts to cover the protests and encampment, sometimes reporting in the field for 24 hours straight in the days leading up to final exams.
He said a relentless news cycle has made it harder to focus on school and that it is sometimes hard to separate life as a student from life as a reporter.
“Students should obviously be studying, hitting the books,” Mukherjee said. “Because of the constant news, we feel as though … we have a responsibility to report that, kind of, almost supersedes our due diligence as students.”
Others, like The Lumberjack’s Butterfield, did not attend class once protests began.
“Because I am a journalism major, I think that’s important to note: I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much on what’s happening in my classes because I’m out in the field doing what I’m going to school to learn how to do,” said Butterfield, 26. “When there’s a massive and important story on our campus to cover, at least my professors have been pretty lenient in understanding that that does take its priority in a lot of ways — and I’ll catch up on my work at some point in the next week or two.”
With local newsrooms growing sparse, Sosa said student press has become increasingly important in filling that void of local coverage for both the campus and larger community.
But in communities like Humboldt, student coverage is sometimes nonexistent over the summer.
“I think that’s our Achilles’ heel, when the semester ends a lot of folks kind of go their own separate ways, especially here in Humboldt County ’cause there’s so little jobs,” said Butterfield.
Woodard also said that “it’s hard to bear that pressure” for being at the forefront of national reporting as a student.
“You’ve become the No. 1 news source for the biggest story in the country. But at the same time, we have finals next week,” said Woodard, 30. “It’s like, which one do I take more pride in?”
A few days ago, he said he sat on the floor of his apartment and cried.
The toll, he said, can be especially difficult on editors — who are not only going to school and contributing to coverage, but also managing teams of their peers and classmates, often in their late teens or early 20s.
“Being an editor of student media and being an editor in real media are two very, very different things,” Woodard said. “For all the student editors out there that are dealing with this: I hope everyone just gives them a hug.”
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Local and state officials in mid-March piled 50,000 sandbags along the low-lying banks of the San Joaquin River when rising levels threatened to overtake Firebaugh.
Emma Gallegos/EdSource
Earlier this year, students across the country watched as wildfires devastated large parts of southern California. Yet even as they watched — and, in some cases, lived through — a very real example of what climate change can look like, many students don’t have a good understanding of why events like these are happening more frequently and with greater intensity. Without that foundational knowledge, they are ill-equipped to help mitigate the problem that is impacting their generation so significantly. Lack of climate literacy is a crisis — one that higher education has a responsibility to address.
Acknowledging the problem is no longer enough. Although 72% of U.S. adults recognize that our climate is changing, only 58% acknowledge that it is human-caused and even fewer understand the scientific consensus — that over 97% of climate scientists affirm our role in the ever-warming planet. We need a climate-literate electorate if we want to drive effective climate action because the solutions we choose to support are based on our individual understanding of the problem. To do this, we need to make climate education part of general education. And we must move quickly.
Many students know what is coming. Rising climate anxiety among 16–25 year-olds is telling but disempowering if they aren’t prepared to meet the moment because they hold misconceptions about the root causes. In a 2021 survey, students 14-18 years old overwhelmingly reported that climate change was real and human-caused, but follow-up questions showed large gaps between their conceptualization of Earth’s interrelated systems and reality. They also vastly underestimated the scientific consensus.
These gaps in knowledge make sense: when climate change is taught in middle and high school classrooms, nearly one-third of science teachers are sending mixed messages about the cause, often because they themselves were never introduced to the subject during their higher education experience. Prioritizing climate literacy as part of general education at colleges and universities would reduce the perpetuation of these false narratives.
Ideally, institutions would offer multi-dimensional climate education for all students; realistically, the pace of climate change far outstrips the pace of change in higher education. However, a general education requirement for climate literacy is possible — and necessary. These central concepts do not rely on additional college-level coursework, making a first- or second-year course on the topic accessible to students in any major.
Additionally, we need students to understand that policy, psychology, and art are just as important at shifting our trajectory as atmospheric science and clean energy technology. In this way, we make room for every student in the climate movement, no matter their professional aspirations. At Harvey Mudd College, we have developed a course to help students think critically about the impact of their work on society through an interdisciplinary look at the climate-fueled challenge of fire in the North American west. Our teaching team is intentionally broad, so we can cover California’s legacy of fire suppression, the depictions of nature in media, and the religious roots of environmental attitudes, as well as fire ecology and the greenhouse effect. While we do lay the groundwork for understanding the problem, fully 50% of the course is dedicated to analyzing proposed or current interventions.
In addition to a solutions-focused curriculum, basic climate education also needs to prepare students emotionally and mentally to keep engaging in the work. Nearly 60% of respondents in a recent global survey of youth indicated “extreme worry” about climate change. Considering students’ emotions doesn’t mean we shy away from hard truths — that would not serve our students well and undermine their trust in faculty. In fact, those hard truths can tap into students’ deeper motivations for learning, so long as we also help them build emotional resilience through reflection. Programs like the All We Can Save Project can offer resources and even course materials. And efforts to wrap this “affective approach” into climate education are already underway, as with the Faculty Learning Community in Teaching Climate Change and Resilience at California State University in Chico.
The world is currently on track for nearly twice the rise in global average temperature that leading climate experts warn is safe. The kind of climate education we need is appearing, but not at the scale or speed required. Higher education leaders must prioritize climate literacy by integrating climate education into the general curriculum. Institutions must ensure students are prepared academically, socially, and emotionally to address climate change. We need empowered graduates who have both climate knowledge and a solutions-focused mindset in uncertain times. Their world literally depends on it.
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Lelia Hawkins is a professor of chemistry and the Hixon Professor of Climate Studies at Harvey Mudd College. She is currently serving as the Director of the Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment, a new program expanding climate education for Mudd’s scientists and engineers.
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