Beware: Social media blunders can sink career chances
April 4, 2015
Graduation is just around the corner, job fairs are sprouting like the pollen-spewing plants that stuff up my nose and resumes are being written to entice employers into a job offer. But in the 21st century, we have advanced communication tools and employers know it. Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are...
Consent can still be sexy
March 29, 2015
Consent has more to it than just a single “Want to have sex?” question. While consent needs to be taken seriously, it doesn’t mean it can’t be playful. I was in a class on human sexuality that had a unit on consent, in which we covered the legal definitions. In California, a person who’...
How to ease a friend’s coming out process
March 29, 2015
For me, the early days of coming out were a nerve-wracking and stressful ordeal. There really are very few ways to know how any given person may react to the news. Here are a few things I wished would have, or not have, happened when I was coming out to people. 1. Say thank you. I just place...
Social media doesn’t make change
March 21, 2015
Social media is a wonderful way to spread the word around social issues but social change takes more than butts in seats – it takes feet on the streets. The world has seen the power of social media as a way to organize protesters in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. However, clicking ‘like’ ...
Fostering diversity requires more than empty gestures
March 21, 2015
Hung on lamp posts throughout the Chico State campus are a series of banners bearing statements on what qualities “Chico State values…” One of these values is excellence. That’s true — it looks good for the administration. Another is diversity, because it also … wait. Seriously? I ...
Class hasn’t been dismissed
March 14, 2015
Chico State students are busy. Next class, next club meeting, next advisor meeting, next group project meeting. But the time adds up. Think about packing up and leaving a Monday/Wednesday/Friday class five minutes early. That's 15 minutes a week. Times 16 instructional weeks that's 240 minut...
Closed minds threaten LGBTQ community again
March 14, 2015
So it looks like I may end up being a criminal again. The California Office of the Attorney General has received a proposed initiative that could make that happen. Matt McLaughlin, a southern California lawyer according to the state Bar Association, submitted the initiative titled “Sodomite Suppre...
Christian privilege leads to exclusion of other beliefs
March 7, 2015
Some declarations of identity come with reduced status: identity with the LGBTQ community, a mental illness, a stigmatized physical illness or kinkiness in sexuality. Some declarations grant increased status. Like doctors, professors, lawyers, marriage with kids and being Christian. It's the latter, the Christia...
Scoop the poop
March 7, 2015
The fresh air is cool and crisp in the pre-dawn light. With the exception of the grounds keeping staff, the campus is silent and unpopulated. I enjoy the air on my early morning walk - when my nostrils are assaulted by the pungent scent of fresh dog shit. I would have thought that there woul...
The cost of graduation? Another university fee
March 1, 2015
Spring is in the air and commencement is right around the corner. As a graduating senior, I was looking forward to it. There was another little shock waiting for me when I went to file for graduation: a fee of $48 if filing on time (one year out) or an additional $10 fee if filing late. According t...
Investigation into student’s homicide drags on, offers no answers
February 28, 2015
On Sept. 3, the body of Chico State student Marc Thompson was found in his burning Ford Taurus 25 miles northeast of Oroville. The death was ruled a homicide, but six months later investigators have not been able to unravel what happened. I first met Marc when he walked into the Butte College Inter-Club Council, a...
Blood is still thicker than water
February 21, 2015
While walking home earlier this semester, I had the dubious pleasure of listening to a young woman argue with her mother. Most of the people walking on that block of Warner Street shared that same pleasure. Apparently the mother had seen some social media posts of this young lady at a party and called her ab...
