Column

Tea with Tamara: Dwayne Jefferson, custodian at Laney College

The award winning column returns as The Citizen interviews the Navy veteran and current custodian.

Tamara Copes, Staff Writer • April 24, 2026

The award winning column returns as The Citizen delves into the personality of the Navy veteran and current Laney custodian.

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

Tamara Copes, Staff Writer • October 25, 2024

Johnson has been an avid supporter of preserving the Party’s legacy on campus.

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.

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

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

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...

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

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...