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

The Citizen
A neon sign on the Laney College Tower building lights up at dusk. The Tower houses the offices of administrators, counselors, and other Laney employees.
Besikof Leaves Laney
March 19, 2025
The Board of Trustees listens intently as public comments are under way.
Peralta’s Board of Trustees vote to lay off 68 positions at 02/25 trustee meeting
March 15, 2025
On Jan. 30, 2025, the Trump Administration issued two executive orders focusing on restricting trans and non-binary people from accessing gender affirming care and spaces. These executive actions have raised questions within the LGBTQ+ community at Peralta about what the colleges are doing to protect their students.
LGBTQ+ students are feeling “fear and hesitation” under Trump. What’s Peralta doing about it?
March 14, 2025
Abdul Pridgen sits down for a chat with The Citizen regarding public safety, how Peralta's security model currently works, and his plans for a new model.
Interview and security updates with Peralta’s Interim Executive Director of Public Safety Abdul Pridgen
March 1, 2025
A sign reading 'No human is illegal' in the R-building at Merritt College. As of Jan. 21, ICE agents are now permitted on college campuses.
Merritt College updates its online resources for undocumented students after The Citizen finds outdated information from 2022
February 20, 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
Cheryl Lew has been an instructor in the Culinary Arts department since 2012 and was tenured in 2015. Her focus is on baking and pastries.
Multi-layered, highly decorated pastry chef Cheryl Lew brings culture and chemistry to Laney’s culinary department
December 11, 2024
Laney Engineering Department Chair Mallory Barkdull tallies points as her students pit their soccer-playing robots against each other. The friendly tournament challenges contestants to learn design and coding skills through play.
Robot soccer teaches students nuts and bolts of engineering
November 26, 2024
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
College of Alameda jazz professor Glen Pearson demonstrates his musical talent on his classroom piano. He's one of the newest members of the Count Basie Orchestra, a historic 18-piece jazz ensemble that took home a Grammy this year.
The humble Grammy-winning pianist leading CoA’s music program
March 4, 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
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
The UC Berkeley chapter of End Overdose at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley on Jan. 23, 2024. The organization passes out free fentanyl test strips to students, and gives other organizations training on Narcan usage. (Photo: Juliana Yamada/CalMatters)
Narcan at California colleges: Are students getting overdose medication?
March 8, 2024
Peralta Community College District's only student-run publication.

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

The Citizen

Column

Citizen Staff Writer Eliot Fane pays a visit to PCCD's cat community. Photos by Stevie Campos-Seligman.

The Feline Freaks Come Out at Night:  Peralta District Office’s Nocturnal Neighbors

Eliot Faine, Staff Writer • November 3, 2024
Peralta's nightlife is thriving, particularly in the district office parking lot.
Tea with Tamara: Black Panther Party History Month w/ Merritt College President David Johnson

Tea with Tamara: Black Panther Party History Month w/ Merritt College President David Johnson

Tamara Copes, Staff Writer • October 25, 2024
Johnson has been an avid supporter of preserving the Party’s legacy on campus.
As College of Alameda searches for a new president, The Citizen searched for one of the college's former presidents. The late Jeanette Poore was the first woman to lead a community college in California.

CoA’s mystery woman: The forgotten legacy of the first female community college president in California

Romi Bales, Staff Writer • May 13, 2024
As College of Alameda searches for a new president, The Citizen searched for one of the college’s former presidents.
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...

Tea with Tamara: Mark Rauzon, biogeographer and Laney Instructor

Tea with Tamara: Mark Rauzon, biogeographer and Laney Instructor

Tamara Copes, Columnist • December 11, 2023
Biogeographer Mark Rauzon, armed with a cup of tea, sits down with me to chat from his home in Oakland, CA.
Tea With Tamara: Lily Leung, Laney Library Technician II

Tea With Tamara: Lily Leung, Laney Library Technician II

Tamara Copes, Columnist • November 22, 2023
Lily Leung, Library Technician II and San Francisco native shares her outlook on life, and a bit of tea.

Changing Your Brain & Befriending Your Nervous System

My Recommended Resources (mostly budget-friendly)
Thayer Robins, Staff Writer • June 4, 2019

It is a source of unending sadness to me that many of those struggling every day with brain and nervous system conditions believe help is out of reach. Often they are told they need money they don’t...

Tower Staff Writer Isis Piccillo

Got $$$? We got the college

 Admissions scandal: a new outrage but old news
Isis Piccillo, Staff Writer • April 9, 2019

The overwhelming response I’ve observed from the recent college admissions scandal is that many are appalled, but few are surprised. Of course rich people are bribing and cheating the system. This...

Finding balance in your polyvagal nervous system

Finding balance in your polyvagal nervous system

Why couldn’t I fight back? It could be dorsal vagal
Thayer Robins, Staff Writer • March 14, 2019

PART 4 of 6 Our criminal justice system doesn’t understand the human nervous system. One assumption I find especially tragic is the idea that anyone who’s the target of an unwelcome physical or sexual...

Failing our students — The American public school system still has a long way to go; what can be…

Tamia Lane, Column Writer • February 28, 2019

By Tamia Lane We all believe that school systems could do a lot more to improve kids’ learning experiences, whether they are in grade school, middle school or high school. African Americans...

Don’t be a hater — by Tamia Lane

Community support can keep us from acting like ‘crabs in a barrel’
Tamia Lane, Column Writer • February 14, 2019

When crabs are in a trap, the animals as a group will pull down any of their kind that start to climb out of the barrel in an attempt to be the first out of the barrel that holds them in. Often...

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