Not only will students graduating in May be embarking on a new journey in their lives, they will be the first to experience graduation at Sonoma State University’s Weill Hall.

The Green Music Center will now host Sonoma State’s Commencement ceremony. Also new rules will be in place. No alcohol will be permitted during the ceremony and glitter cannot be used in the decoration of ceremony caps.

Karrigan Börk, assistant professor at the University of Pacific spoke at Sonoma State University on Wednesday. Börk’s lecture ‘Ditching Our Innocence: The Clean Water Act in the Age of Anthropocene’ was apart of the the John and Mary Louise Riley Geology Lecture Series, sponsored by the Sonoma State Geology Club.

Due to recent federal legislative changes ditches are no longer protected under national the Clean Water Act. This has sparked disapproval and concern in the environmental community. Missouri Farm Bureau has promoted #ditchtherule in efforts to express objection to the new outlines of the water policy. 

Political revolutionists, civil rights advocates and environmental awareness movements all sing the same tune for social justice.

“Systemic transformational change has always been initially advocated by third parties,” said David Cobb, a Green Party member who spoke on ‘How to Engage Electoral Politics in an Age of emerging Fascism’ at Sonoma State University’s Social Justice week. The week long focus on social justice, included workshops and lectures that took place Monday through Friday.

Instagram photographs of black women and their ranging in skin tones are meant to celebrate the color of one’s skin. Valerie Moreno’s photos capture the essence of black Puerto Rican natives. 

Moreno showcased her photographic movement at the first annual North Bay Womxn of Color Conference on Wednesday at Sonoma State University. Themed workshops shined light on a variety of issues and creative movements pertaining to women of color. Some of these topics included uncommonly known Title XI, creating empowerment by gaining tools of consent, the cultivation of self via the power of yoga and combating high rates of Latina teen suicide by gaining knowledge and creating conversations.

Economics as a study, introduces how capitalism functions and benefits our American society. Yet that’s where it ends in regards to critical analysis, shared Richard A. Wolff last Monday in the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University.

His talk, Alternatives to Capitalism, is one of the many social justice lectures series donated by Andrea Nettle, a former professor of education at Sonoma State.

Film research can raise alarming truths of gender, ethnicity and other identity groups.

According to a study conducted by the USC Annenberg School, women are disproportionately appearing in film.

“Exceptional platonic solids are beautiful three dimensional figures,” explained St. Mary’s College Professor Andrew Connor on Wednesday.

“The reason they have so much symmetry, [is because] they are made of regular polygons. Meaning the edges of the faces all have equal length and the angles are all the same. Faces are all congruent to one another,” said Connor during his lecture at Sonoma State University.

Jose Antonio Vargas finds it crucial to look to the past, in order to think critically on the topic of immigration and citizenship today. “Documented,” a film for CNN, was directed by Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize Winner. He is the founder and CEO of Define America and continues advocating for undocumented people.