In the dimly lit conference room of the Solano library, you could walk in and smell the coffee brewing from a small white Keurig machine. Chairs would all be placed, papers are scattered across the tables, and chatter would erupt prior to meeting. For many staff, they know what this means: Another month, another meeting for faculty.

On October 21st, Solano college faculty members met up for their monthly meeting to discuss issues relating to academic and social affairs on campus. They would discuss subjects such as new upcoming projects and dual enrollment for high school students.

The meeting would last for 2 hours, from 3 to 5 o’clock with heavy emphasis on dual enrollment, mainly how to implement the course in a way that would be accommodating for both highschoolers and college students, and how to ensure highschoolers are best equipped to take said courses.

Because of the California Community College project Vision 2030, a program that’s aiming to have high school students take 12 credits worth of college courses by graduation, the senate is required to come up with a plan that will benefit all parties involved.

The goal of Dual Enrollment is mainly to allow students to push themselves into attending college. Josh Scott, the president of the academic senate, explained the overall benefit of this program for highschool students,“If you look at the history of dual enrollment, the real benefit has been for the students who are first generation and their parents didn’t attend college. Maybe they didn’t see themselves as ‘college material’, by having the chance to go to, like, highschool classes and get some of this experience helps people see that.”

Scott followed, “The problem that we’ve had at a state level is that most of the students who have actually taken dual enrollment classes are often already on this track who have parents who are pushing them. I think for all of us, our priority is getting students who do see themselves as right on the edge and be able to pull them in rather than wasting resources on students who might not need that.”

However, the question isn’t just how to encourage students to take said courses. Rather, they’re concerned about how to successfully accommodate the highschoolers as well as college students.

There’s currently three main methods known that the academic senate may use to implement dual enrollment: Sending professors to highschools to teach, training highschool teachers to be able to teach said courses on their respective campuses, or having highschoolers attend the courses on the college campus.

As of now, a task force is being assembled to further ponder the question and which root may be the most accommodating for all students and faculty alike.

However, dual enrollment wasn’t the only subject discussed at the meeting. 

There were announcements that there was going to be an opioid awareness and Narcan training program as well as the rising scholars program which is dedicated to helping incarcerated students receive better care and time from professors.

Other subjects brought up during the meeting included fixing the wording in advisory messages for programs, announcing that there’s going to be 11 new faculty that’s being hired over the course of 3 years, and looking at how to spread awareness on academic renewal.

Academic renewal is the ability to petition for up to 30 units worth of bad course grades to be not reflected in your GPA. While the grade will still remain on transcripts, this option can potentially give students a second chance.

Towards the end of the meeting, a presentation was given by Atticus Frey on the subject of ZTC, otherwise known as Zero Textbook Costs. The program is aimed to make different courses have either significantly less expensive textbooks or even free textbooks for courses.

Staff currently are preparing to encourage students to look into these policies and programs, the goal being to help students continue to thrive at Solano.

With the new semester ramping up towards its sixth week, the student government is currently functioning at a significant decrease in membership of the senate. As sourced from the September 24th agenda discussion, 19 needed members for a governing board, the current government is only at 11 members including a vacant position in the executive board.

When compared to last year’s student agenda listing for September 27th 2023, almost every position was filled except for 4 slots. While there were gaps before in leadership, evident by 2022, which struggled to develop the senate due to students finally coming out of lockdown, there was a somewhat shift in interest for leadership seen during 2023.

Solano’s student government is often vital towards student advocacy in our school, taking on major roles regarding staff and student interaction. Student government is often responsible for legislation and fixing problems throughout campus, similar to the federal government and how it operates.

Each member of the senate and executive board handle specialized tasks, focusing on a variety of subjects. Some are broad, such as leading and presenting legislation like the presidency role. Others are also hyperspecific, such as focusing on public health and safety for students.

The student government concept has existed for decades, with California containing some of the earliest examples such as the university of Berkley’s associated student union, dating back to 1887. Throughout history, student governments have been sources for change on many campuses due to the student led nature of the organizations, advocating for student autonomy and representing the student voice to staff.

Yet, within recent years there’s been a noticeable decline in student involvement. Based on a study conducted by professor Jennifer Miles, Daniel Nadler, and Michael T. Miller back in 2012 and 2020 for the university of Arkansa, only 1 in 5 students would vote in their local student elections for doctoral colleges. In 2020, the study found that they decreased from 4,567 voters in 2011 to 3,878 in 2020.

With this trend being noted, the absence of individual involvement of the student government can create long term problems such as losing needed representation amongst higher education staff as well as struggling to form legislation that could help reform the community.

For students who are interested, Some of the positions available for students to consider joining are the executive secretary, the governing board senator, vocational curriculum senator, etc. You can also contact Denise Martinez, the advisor for the ASSC for more information or go to the Solano College ASSC website.

As the campus enters the middle of the semester, students often focus on their studies. Yet, some students are more invested than others into the wellbeing of campus. Enter AJ Matthews, a history and art major who happens to be the newest legislative advocate for the Solano Student Government.

“So, essentially, being a legislative advocate, I’m our school’s delegate to the SSCCC, which is the Students Senate for California Community Colleges.” They stated. “I joined last semester as a public relations officer, which also made me a part of the executive board. I had no experience. Um, I was kind of just going in blind.” Matthews furthered.

Joining the executive board though is no easy task, with the positions come a heavy responsibility. Yet, they were inspired by their colleagues in the previous semester to join the executive board. This includes last year’s legislative advocate, Carissa Brown.

“I was kind of mentored by Carissa Brown, our previous legislative advocate. She’s graduated now and she’s going to Davis, and she’s working as an intern for the Vacaville Vice Mayor, she’s amazing. She graduated with like five degrees!” Matthews explained.

“What I saw Carissa doing, I saw her organizing events. I saw her paying attention to what students want, what they need, and actually making a difference.” They explained.

Matthews found legislative advocate to be the best method to contribute to the civics on campus.

Matthews explained, “I was interested in that role instead of president because my friend Jedi.. I just really wasn’t interested in it, because when you’re the president of the student government, you have to do all of the Brown Act official proceeding language.”

They further added, “You know, it’s really complicated language that I just don’t want to be responsible for saying, because I’m more interested in actually talking about what we’re trying to do.”

Despite the enthusiasm of Matthews, not everyone is as interested in civics on campus which can be disheartening for members of the student government.

“It’s already a huge problem. Like I said, with the scheduling conflict, it makes it so much harder for us to get stuff done as quickly as we need to.” Matthews explained, following with, “Right now, as a legislative advocate, I’m working on our civic and voter engagement action plans. And this is a comprehensive two year plan.”

The civic life on campus isn’t the only concern, however. Currently, the government focuses on vast topics such as student welfare and academics.

Matthews explained, “And we also want to see a substantive curriculum adjustment. So we were talking about in a retreat, changing the English 2 curriculum to include more media literacy, because we were talking about critical thinking courses and how my friend was in a critical thinking course but only did fiction.”

The overall goal of the student government is to serve the student body, including expanding upon academics as well as the student experience. The government is currently focusing on encouraging students to vote in both local and national elections, developing more clubs, and improving general welfare.

Matthews is one of many leading the charge for campus engagement and is currently planning on helping different programs such as the Puente Project.

The next election is scheduled to begin on voting on April 5th 2025, with candidacy applications already open for the next semester.

There's music blaring across the harbor side, drag queens and kings would lip sync fiercely while dressed like royalty. On Suisun's Mainstreet, dozens would gather with street vendors and flags in tow.

Suisun city had never seen anything like this prior, as June 2nd marked the first annual pride festival in the towns history. 

Coordinated by the Solano Pride Center, the event would end up lasting from 12 oclock all the way till 5, ending on a speech and dance party for all to join in. Vendors from all across the region would end up participating in this years pride, selling merchandise and educating the public about queerness.

Brigid Reilly, a long time member of the solano pride organization, would end up helping coordinate this event and was moved by the support for queer people. Reilly has been a member of the board for the past 7 years, working as the co-chair to the organization. 

"Its very inspiring, I'm so honored to be apart of keeping the solano pride center going and providing services for the LGBTQIA population, we do everything from free mental health counseling to helping nonbinary and trans groups."

Reilly furthered, "We do senior groups. We get funding from solano county and UC Davis, and we have HIV funding to help test and stay in there range. We are very excited, I am very excited since this is my 7th year."

The solano pride organization has operated since 1998, however this years pride was the first for the city.  This would end up being the first pride for many Suisun and Fairfield locals.

Dre Guiterez, a volunteer worker at the pride festival, would relate to the many firsts of this event.

"This is actually my first pride im going to, and im kind of glad its the first ever for Suisun, so its a first for the both of us."

Guiterez added, "I definitely think it is continuing to make progress with we want in the world. More acceptance, more visibility, more change, more fight for everyone to be accepted for who they are. To bring it somewhere closer to home, more local, is a good step forward."

The excitement of the festival was evident, with the public outpoor of support for the event to be held. One of the many supporters would include Suisun Mayor Alma Hernandez.

"I am absolutely honored, I absolutely love the fact that we are having a pride event that is inclusive for our community. Where members of our community feel seen, loved, and heard." Hernandez explained.

The Suisun government would end up helping the event, with the arts commission bringing fourth the idea. From there, they would end up collaborating with the solano pride center to help make this years pride become reality.

The appeal of the event wasnt just from queer solidarity, in fact many drag performers would end up participating. This would include local drag queen Antonio Lee, otherwise known by her stage name Adrienne LaCielo.

As a drag performer, LaCielo was already familar with performing for the public. She had worked on the first ever drag performance in Fairfield California titled "Adrienne's Draguation" featuring a slew of local drag artists. Despite her previous experience, she was still thrilled to be a featured performer.

"Its amazing honestly, I wish we would have had this event when I was a kid. I think it would have been such a exhilarating and thrilling event to see drag at a young age, but its an honor to be here and to be that superhero for young queer folk that were like me." She cheered.

As  June continues, local queer folk have more pride events to look forwards to including pride in Vacaville on June 23rd. This years pride festival would gain a large outcome for solidarity in the Fairfield-Suisun area. 

"I'm just excited! Nervous, but its excited energy!" LaCielo furthered.

It’s a little after 8 AM, and class has just started.

I'm sleep deprived. My camera is off and I drift off in front of my screen, then wake up for the next class. 

I eventually finish my work and get back online, this time alert and awake, playing video games and talking to friends until 4 AM. The cycle starts again and again and again, for 5 days a week, for two semesters, all contained in the freshman year of the class of 2024. 

While not everyone’s experience was like mine, its definitely relatable for members of the graduating class. From tales of struggle to success, the graduating class shares their stories of the pandemic transition. 

With a class made up of over 406 students, everyone has there own experience with the subject of freshman year. Jennah Rateb, a senior who came to Rodriguez from B. Gale Willison, is included in this majority. 

“I actually went to B. Gale Willison, I did open enrollment to Rodriguez because I was supposed to go to Fairfield but I didn't really like that school particularly. I ended up coming to Rodriguez during open enrollment and I was just kinda expecting a different experience,” Rateb stated. 

The transfer to middle school to highschool was expected to be different for a lot of students, but a global pandemic and online learning was not one of those expectations. 

“I didn't know our freshman year would be over the computer, but we’ve come a long way.” Rateb followed.

The transition from online would end up hitting students suddenly. The transition was fine for some, including fellow senior Brindi Tabi.

Tabi stated “It wasn't hard. It wasn't hard for me, because maybe I'm not a social person, but I'm also kind of an introvert. It was kinda okay for me.” 

The transition for others though, it would hit hard.

Danielle Young would end up being hit hard by the pandemic both socially and academically.

“Online school, which I don't know about other people, but in my experience it sucked. I had a lot of other circumstances that made it kind of suck, but I really struggle with online school.”

Young elaborated, “I work best when I'm in a classroom, I need to be in that environment to be in the headspace that I'm paying attention and I'm learning, so when I'm not in a classroom then I really struggle.”

Not everyone struggled with academics, however a good portion of students had declined in IQ scoring based on research from journal.plos.org. Intelligence Questionnaire scores had declined by “a difference of 7.62 point IQ points between students who took the test in 2020 and those who did it in 2002” according to an article from Forbes. 

The pandemic didn't just hit academically however, it hit socially. This manifested differently, including not being able to interact with peers because of fear of spreading the virus.

Young stated, “I remember that I was never a super outgoing kid, but I was kind of extroverted at the end of middle school. I had a lot of friends, I could talk to people, then once highschool started I never got that chance to adjust and adapt to the new environment.”

“I wasn't comfortable with the people, I didn't know how to be a teenager and I think I never properly recovered from that. Even now, i'm a pretty timid individual.” She followed up. 

Timid tendencies would end up persisting for many like Young, even post pandemic. However, some were less impacted than others.

Annika Lagance would end up having a somewhat different social experience compared to her peers, “Since it was all online, it was always just silence and that was awkward. I did do a sport, I did drumline and even though it was covid they still made us come to school.”

She added, “It was 6 feet apart still and there were masks and rules, but at least that way I was still able to see people just for a little bit. A couple hours outta my day, and I still got to see and talk to people so that was nice.” 

The pandemic had hit students of our graduating class in a variety of ways, from a traumatizing age of death and disease to the emotional disconnect found from the era. 

“There were times that once class ended, I would just stay in my chair and that was because I was recovering from another surgery.” Young mentioned.

She further added “My room was dark and my room was small, and I felt like an animal trapped in a cage.”

The sea of orange spans Pennsylvania Avenue, rally goers assembled on April 18th, fellow districts and union members standing in solidarity with the Fairfield Suisun Unified Teachers Association. RHS teachers chanted, “1% won't pay the rent!” 

The California Teachers Union is an American labor union which has been serving educators since 1863, and garners over 300,000 members. A more local branch of this organization is FSUTA, which serves the teaching staff of the Fairfield-Suisun areas.

With both inflation and pay disparity on the rise, FSUTA took to the streets in order to educate the public on their cause. 

Pam Williamson, president of the FSUTA union, stated, “The reason we are here tonight is because of labor negotiations between the teacher union and the district.”

She followed up, “They (FSUSD) are offering 1%, we say no because we know that they can afford 3.5%.”

“Currently, we are fighting for a raise. We fight for our raises periodically. Currently, the district is trying to only give us a 1% raise. I don't know if you’ve paid attention to the cost of everything, but its gone up alot more than 1%.” Jesse Castro, a Math and Psychology teacher at Rodriguez, stated.

He added, “I understand there are financial struggles occasionally, I think it's an important thing to support our right to give this raise. I decided to show up and support my colleagues and make sure my voice is heard.”

While many teachers love their careers, they don’t love the pay. The main frustration felt in the union stem from pay imbalance, with FSUSD offering only a 1% raise to combat the effects of inflation, in comparison to the 8% offered by neighboring districts. 

Devin Blaisdell-Bestor expressed, “A Lot of people say that because we are teachers and that it's a social justice job that was in it for the kids. Of course, we are in it for the kids but we are also professionals and we deserve to be paid and compensated like professionals.”

When they’re not out spreading the word, representatives of FSUTA help out in a number of other ways. For example, Alice Currie-Williams, a special education teacher at RHS.

“My usual tasks include the duties and responsibilities connected with my regular teaching assignment along with making sure I am open and available to help my fellow teacher peers when they express a need.” Currie-Willams said in a written statement.

However, this isn't just Currie-Williams’ sole responsibility, but rather a team of four, “I do this along with three other RHS site reps. We partner with the school admin to find solutions.”

All representatives for the union do so voluntarily. Currie-Williams described her reasons for stepping up to the role as “I’m interested in helping to support our school community,” and that she “Signed up to support my teacher peers.”

One such peer is Ashley Bryan, who teaches English. She joined the union in the summer of 2023.

On why she joined, Bryan stated, “It just seemed like a smart move to protect myself, and you are strong when you have numbers backing you,”  

The protection provided by the union is felt amongst its members, especially with job security. Fellow English teacher Louis Villagomez can attest to his protection.

“Ultimately if I don't feel secure in my job then that shows how I act in the classroom and how the general vibe of the school is.” Villagomez stated.

He furthered,  “When there's tensions high in the district or people are worried about layoffs or if they’ll have a job at the end of the year, the students will know that that is happening.” 

The FSUTA prides itself for protecting its members, which is seen with negotiations. 

Cook stated, “A strong union that negotiates good wages and benefits will support longevity within the school district.”

Despite the significant challenges regarding pay, FSUTA combats this by providing financial support to teachers by providing sick days to their colleagues using the FSUTA sick day bank. 

“We only have a set amount of days and so you're always worried about having to take off extra time. For me, joining the union was for my health and with my multiple sclerosis I have to miss school more than other teachers.” Bryan explained.

Nick Baca, The ceramics teacher, stated, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do this, its not my favorite thing to do but its necessary. If you’re in a union, that means you have to stay together. If you don't, your union won’t have any power.”

Whether it's the little acts of affection like kissing or buying a box of chocolates, we often associate the month of February with Valentine's Day, the holiday of love.

For most. 

However, there's a subgroup that's often overlooked when it comes to these holidays: the aromantic and asexual communities. 

Fazila Afzal, the Rodriguez school psychologist, explained the orientations.

 “Asexuality is when a person is unable to feel anything, it has more to do with sexual orientation, “ Afzal said. “It's a lack of sexual orientation for a person. It is a spectrum and there are gray areas where the sexual attraction does happen, but it’s rare or not frequent.” 

Afzal also explained aromanticism. 

“Aromanticism is the same thing but more like a romantic orientation. They don't feel romantic attraction to another person or again the gray area. They may feel it or not feel it.” 

One of those various sub-identities in the Aromantic spectrum is Demi-Romantic, the inability to form romantic relationships unless there's a strong emotional connection. Romantic love and sexual love may be harder to feel for them, but it doesn't mean they are not capable of experiencing relationships. 

Maya Adimora, an asexual and demi-romantic student, described her experience as being on the aromantic spectrum. 

“It's all about having an emotional connection vs a deep emotional connection, a lot of times you hear people talking about love at first sight and I don't experience that at all. Literally every person I've ever crushed on I was friends with for a couple of months to a few years.”

Similar to the aromantic spectrum, there's also the asexual spectrum. While they may be similar to aromantics, there are still two separate communities. Asexuality in particular focuses on the lack of sexual intimacy.

Daniella Lomboy, an asexual student, described her experience with love and intimacy.

“I would say so, love is different for a lot of people, and my definition, because I'm asexual I find the romantic aspect more important than the intimate and sexual kind of thing.”

Lomboy further elaborated on her views of love, “It's the same for a lot of people, it's different but for me personally, I prioritize the romantic aspect much more than every other part but I don't mind that thing. I would say that I don't look for it, but if it's there then it's there.”

The views of love that Lomboy and Adimora have are very similar, being based on the emotional connection that's developed. However, asexuality and aromanticism remain to be misunderstood socially. 

“A lot of society is focused on love and sex and human connection. It's like if you don't want to be with somebody then there must be something wrong with you,” Adimora stated. 

The idea that love is an integral part of the human experience is often seen as fact. What people don't grasp is that for many people, including our classmates, this is not always the case.

Afzal elaborated on the invisibility of asexuality and aromanticism, “There's this misconception that because you're a person you have to have romantic or sexual attraction towards another person. Because they don't fit that norm, then they get labeled as broken because our society has a hard time accepting something that's different.”

However, assuming that they’re broken is not the only stereotype that aromantics and asexuals face.

Lomboy stated, “So when I came out as asexual, the most common thing I heard was that ‘oh that’s gonna change in the future’ or ‘what is that’ or I think one was like ‘what your feeling it's not real, that sexuality is not real.’ I was kinda confused by that,”

Lomboy further added, “It is very much real, and another thing is that because asexuals don't feel a certain kind of attraction then they can't be in relationships which again, is wrong. Since it's such a broad spectrum, the communication of the person you are interested in is really important when it comes to romantic and sexual attraction.”

While the community is misunderstood and small, this doesn't make their identity any less valid than the rest of the LGBTQIA+. 

Afzal stated, “It's hard, it's so hard to be the person you want to be and to be open about it. Trust me when I say this, there's nothing wrong with you. You're just different and there's nothing wrong with that. It's okay to be different, it's ok to have or not to have feelings that are sexual towards another person or romantic towards another person.”

Afzal concluded, “You're definitely not broken, there's definitely nothing wrong with you because you feel a certain way or you don't fit the mold. It's ok to be who you are.”