Peralta Community College District's Only Student-Run Publication
Peralta Community College District's only student-run publication.

The Citizen
Peralta seeks proposals for new security vendors
Peralta seeks proposals for new security vendors
May 30, 2025
As a part of a tour of visits and study sessions at all four Peralta campuses, the Board of Trustees made their final stop at the College of Alameda.
April 22 Board Brief: College of Alameda highlights its academic programs and district enrollment trends
May 28, 2025
The district announced a new app allows students to access campus security, emergency contacts and law enforcement with the touch of a button.
Peralta community members now have access to new safety and security app
May 3, 2025
Laney athletics members line up for their turn during public comment.
April 8 Peralta Board of Trustees Brief: students say no to cuts, resignation incentives approved, and 2025 Employee of the Year Awards
April 22, 2025
An athlete looks down the dark stairwell towards the locker rooms. Illustration by Eliot Faine
The Locker Room Stall: 47 years of Title IX allegations at Laney College
March 31, 2025
Laney College Machine Technology students construct this high-powered reflector telescope as they progress through their training. The project teaches students how to create complex parts out of various materials using precise tools.
(VIDEO) Laney’s student-built telescope launches machining careers
April 16, 2025
Berkeley City College Multimedia Arts student Yunha Kim created the new owl mascot in collaboration with Marcus Creel, the district's graphic design specialist. (Owl and banner design via Yunha Kim and Marcus Creel. Used with permission.)
Berkeley City College arts student helps new mascot take flight
April 16, 2025
The pieces shown in Clay, Paper, Wood are crafted by advanced Laney students across many mediums. The gallery offers a tranquil space in the center of Laney College’s campus.
Laney Art students get crafty in new gallery show
March 10, 2025
New CoA President wants to be a role model for students
New CoA President wants to be a role model for students
December 12, 2024
Laney's student body president, Frida Veliz, wants to help connect students to the resources she didn't have access to when she first started college.
New ASLC President Builds Community
December 11, 2024
Berkeley City College Multimedia Arts student Yunha Kim created the new owl mascot in collaboration with Marcus Creel, the district's graphic design specialist. (Owl and banner design via Yunha Kim and Marcus Creel. Used with permission.)
Berkeley City College arts student helps new mascot take flight
April 16, 2025
The pieces shown in Clay, Paper, Wood are crafted by advanced Laney students across many mediums. The gallery offers a tranquil space in the center of Laney College’s campus.
Laney Art students get crafty in new gallery show
March 10, 2025
Native American photographer Dugan Aguilar spent decades documenting the lives of Indigenous Californians through his camera lens. His collection of work is on display now at the Oakland Museum of Califoria. (Shown: “Mimi Mullen (Madiu) Grand Marshall,” 1997 Greenville Gold Digger Days Parade)
This Indigenous art exhibition is free for Laney students
January 27, 2025
A seven-year relationship ends in a tumultuous fight in Jeffrey Lo's "A Kind of Sad Love Story," performed live at the Laney Theater last month. Shown: Maya Wooten, Jesse Savoey
‘It started with an argument about bags’: Laney Theater performs A Kind of Sad Love Story
December 8, 2024
Merritt Librarian reimagines 'alebrijes' sculptor’s life in new picture book
Merritt Librarian reimagines ‘alebrijes’ sculptor’s life in new picture book
May 30, 2024
Incumbent Area 2 Trustee Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, pictured here in The Citizen's newsroom, has what it takes to stay on the Peralta board for another four years.
EDITORIAL: Keep Paulina Gonzalez-Brito on the Peralta board
September 25, 2024
Staff Writer Desmond Meagley stands in the very spot where a security guard confronted him last month: the doorway of the men’s restroom in the Laney College Library. Meagley, who is transgender, tried to report the incident, but reached a dead end when an administrator told him he would need the security guard’s name.
The Catch-22 in AP 3435, Peralta’s Harassment Protocol
May 20, 2024
Social Media Editor Isabelly Sabô stands in front of the door to The Citizen's newsroom. Sabô is an international student from Brazil.
We’re not just ‘rich kids on vacation’: The journey of an international student
May 5, 2024
(Photo: Glen Carrie/Unsplash)
Student elections open today. Has voter information been ‘widespread’?
April 9, 2024
The state flag of California flies underneath the American flag on the west side of the Laney College campus. Behind, the Tribune Tower, which once housed Oakland's daily print newspaper, sits in the city skyline. Both California and the United States have open government laws that establish the public's right to information, but the Peralta Community College District consistently lags behind in comprehensively fulfilling requests for public information made by student journalists at The Citizen. (Photo: Li Khan/The Citizen)
We sued our district over public records and won. Here’s what we learned
February 22, 2024
An athlete looks down the dark stairwell towards the locker rooms. Illustration by Eliot Faine
The Locker Room Stall: 47 years of Title IX allegations at Laney College
March 31, 2025
The American Straight A Academy helped students in China receive transfer degrees from the Peralta Community College District without paying international tuition or setting foot in California. The for-profit company, registered in Dallas, Texas, has not disclosed how much students pay for the experience.
Investigation: A look at the for-profit Chinese business that sold Peralta classes overseas
October 30, 2024
Investigation: Over half of PCCD conflict of interest disclosures nowhere to be found
Investigation: Over half of PCCD conflict of interest disclosures nowhere to be found
September 17, 2024
The Citizen Investigates: International Travel
The Citizen Investigates: International Travel
July 25, 2024
Sunshine Week 2024: Spotlighting public records
Sunshine Week 2024: Spotlighting public records
March 17, 2024
Peralta Community College District's only student-run publication.

The Citizen
Peralta Community College District's only student-run publication.

The Citizen
In Director Chelsea Bo's first feature-length film, half-sisters Harper (left, Chelsea Bo) and Georgie (right, Ava Acres), thrown together by circumstance and a weak blood relation, must untie the knots in their relationship. The film won "Jury Prize Feature" at the Alameda International Film Festival last week. (Courtesy: Paxeros)

No Right Way, Chelsea Bo’s hard-hitting emotional rollercoaster about the complexities of sisterhood, shown at Alameda International Film Festival

Festival showcases local and foreign filmmaking
Ian Waters, News Editor • February 29, 2024

Los Angeles-based filmmaker and director Chelsea Bo brought her 2023 film No Right Way to the Alameda International Film Festival on Feb. 22. The hard-hitting emotional rollercoaster, which invokes snarky...

Student Trustee Naomi Vasquez, who was sworn onto the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees on Dec. 12, 2023, sees her role as an opportunity to uplift her fellow students and advocate for the value of a community college education.

Student Trustee Naomi Vasquez aims to lift voices and empower students at PCCD

Isabelly Sabô Barbosa, Social Media Editor • February 28, 2024

Between studying full time, working part time, volunteering, and spending time with her family, Naomi Vasquez has many commitments to balance. Last year, Vasquez’s passion for uplifting student voices...

©Netflix 2023. Fair Use Disclaimer: This image has been used in good faith for the purpose of review and critique under the terms of "fair use". Under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" of copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.

Queer Black History: A review of ‘Rustin’

'On the same day I was born Black, I was born homosexual,' declares titular character in Netflix historical drama
Timothy Lane, Arts Editor • February 28, 2024
On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and told nearly a quarter of a million people tightly-packed around the Washington Monument’s reflecting pool, “I have a dream….” Rustin is the story about how the March’s success was anything but inevitable.
(Graphic: Li Khan/The Citizen)

PCCD Trustees to vote on $6 million Marina contract

$63.7 million amendment to BCC’s Milvia Street Expansion also on agenda
Sam O’Neil, Associate Editor • February 27, 2024

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD)’s Board of Trustees is set to vote tonight on a new $6 million contract with Marina Security Services (Marina), the private security firm currently contracted...

(Graphic: Li Khan, Desmond Meagley/The Citizen)

Peralta Board of Trustees Brief 2/13: city grant for childcare centers; BCC hires MESA director; Measure H endorsement

Facilities item tabled to January yet to appear on agenda
Ivan Saravia, Staff Writer • February 27, 2024

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) Board of Trustees held its second regular meeting of the year Jan. 13. Topics on the meeting’s agenda included new grant funding for childcare centers and...

The state flag of California flies underneath the American flag on the west side of the Laney College campus. Behind, the Tribune Tower, which once housed Oakland's daily print newspaper, sits in the city skyline. Both California and the United States have open government laws that establish the public's right to information, but the Peralta Community College District consistently lags behind in comprehensively fulfilling requests for public information made by student journalists at The Citizen. (Photo: Li Khan/The Citizen)

We sued our district over public records and won. Here’s what we learned

Li Khan, Editor in Chief • February 22, 2024
We asked our district a question in the form of multiple Public Records Act requests, but got incomplete answers. It's still happening.
Childhood photo of Burgess

Tea with Tamara: Drew Burgess, art faculty at College of Alameda

Tamara Copes, Columnist • February 21, 2024

Drew Burgess has been in love with art since the wee days of drawing at his parents’ kitchen table in San Jose, California. To Burgess, art is the lens through which he views life, and he explores...

(Photo: Citizen Staff)

PCCD public safety director placed on leave pending resignation

Announcement comes hours after recent court hearing for battery case
Lylah Schmedel-Permanna, Managing Editor • February 14, 2024
Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson announced yesterday that she placed the district’s Executive Director of Public Safety Tim Thomas on leave pending resignation. The announcement came hours after Thomas’ recent court hearing, during which the presiding judge stated that an active warrant had been issued for Thomas’ arrest. 
(Photo: @tapanakorn/Canva)

Thomas hearing rescheduled due to outstanding arrest warrant

Warrant stems from Thomas' failure to appear for Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program
Lylah Schmedel-Permanna, Managing Editor • February 13, 2024

A disposition hearing for the misdemeanor case against Tim Thomas, Executive Director of Public Safety for the Peralta Community College District, was rescheduled by the judge today, due to an outstanding...

Peralta Board of Trustees Brief 1/23: Enrollment increases; Laney, UCs partner for data science; DAS concerns

Peralta Board of Trustees Brief 1/23: Enrollment increases; Laney, UCs partner for data science; DAS concerns

Sam O’Neil, Associate Editor • February 12, 2024

The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) held this semester’s first meeting of the Board of Trustees on Jan. 23. The meeting included a proposal for a new data science curriculum at Laney College...

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