Border-crossing journalism from the Sacramento Valley
by Ken Smith
posted April 5
Ricardo Orellana grew up against the backdrop of a 12-year civil war in his native El Salvador, but his childhood memories are thankfully dominated by more peaceful recollections — namely, of working with the cows at his grandmother’s farm outside the small town of Usulutá.
posted Jan. 23
Picketing at Chico State by striking faculty ended Jan. 22 when the California Faculty Association (CFA) reached a tentative deal with administration.
Faculty have been offered a 5% salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2023 and a possible 5% salary increase coming on July 1 of this year. In addition, the CSU will raise the salary floor for the lowest-paid instructors.
by Leslie Layton
posted Jan. 22
About 150 faculty and their supporters joined the picket line today as Chico State University employees participated in the statewide, five-day action that cancelled many classes in the semester’s first week.
CSU faculty unions statewide — that includes instructors, librarians, coaches and counselors — are asking for a 12 percent salary increase after years of small increases that fail to keep up with inflation, said Associate Professor Lindsay Briggs.
by Ariana Powell
posted Jan. 4
It’s been two years since the start of Professor David Stachura and Chico State’s spiral into a deep hole. Stachura’s alleged decision to engage in a “consensual” relationship with one of his students started it all. Following that, Chico State decided to keep the investigation, and later reports of violent threats, from its faculty, staff and student population.
by Leslie Layton
Spanish linguistics Professor Denise Minor will be remembered for many things – for her creative approach to teaching, devotion to her family, fierce loyalty to those she loved.
She has already been remembered for her joyful laugh, her love of language and her appreciation for its evolution, all of which shaped the students she taught and the Chico State Spanish Program that hired her in 2007.
by Leslie Layton
Zero. That’s the number of hate crimes that took place in Chico in 2018, according to reports to the FBI from the Chico Police Department and Chico State’s University Police Department.
That zero doesn’t reflect what happened to an African American man, who has said he was pelted with beer cans last year by several white people in a pickup truck who were using the N-word. He never reported the incident to police, but his girlfriend saw the bruises.
