With the weather getting warmer, and the semester coming to a close, wouldn't it be nice to sit and hang out outside with your friends while enjoying some good food on campus? Unfortunately, that perfect scenario is no longer possible now that Lobo’s, one of the only places to hang out on campus and actually have fun, will be closed for the remainder of the semester.
As usual at Sonoma State, the students are in the dark about all that is happening behind closed doors. It has been over two weeks since the news first came out in the Press Democrat about the $600,000 settlement involving Judy Sakaki and the sexual assault case involving her husband. Since that article came out, there has been a shift in energy on the Sonoma State campus. That shift comes mainly from the lack of knowledge across the campus about what is going on.
Things never seem to be as they should here at Sonoma State University, but lately the unrest on campus has not been due to power outages, pandemics, flooding, or fires for once. Last week, news broke in publications as large as the Los Angeles Times about President Judy Sakaki’s husband, Patrick McCallum, being involved in a $600,000 settlement in a retaliation case filed by the university’s former Provost and Executive Vice President, Lisa Vollendorf. Sakaki has handled this news becoming public knowledge in a manner that can only be described as embarrassing, not only for her, but for the entire campus community.
It has become almost a right of passage for anyone with a uterus, being prescribed hormonal birth control pills, and yet men still do not have a birth control pill of their own. The first solution doctors offer for nearly every ailment a uterus owner faces is usually hormonal birth control, despite the side effects list being about as long as the Constitution. This concept brings to light a larger issue: why is it the person with the vagina’s job to alter their body with hormone pills in order to prevent pregnancy? Why do men not share this burden?
In a world run by social media, it’s hard to hide your past from prying eyes. It has now become quite a normal occurrence for old mistakes celebrities made in their youth to resurface online and go viral. What ensues shortly after is what the internet has coined as canceling. The celebrity in question has their career ripped to shreds in a matter of days, all their dirty laundry laid out for the world to see. While this seems like a just punishment in some instances, what business do we have judging people for things they did when they were younger?
Picture this: You’re already late to class when you realize you forgot to print out an assignment that’s due today. You book it to the Lib, grab a computer, and log in to Canvas. Until you're stopped with good old Duo Push. You grab your phone, and it's dead.
![[Both photos courtesy of sonoma.edu]
Ming-Ting Mike Lee stepped in as the new SSU president following Sakakis resignation in July 2022](https://sonomastatestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CC4520AB-22A7-41B2-9F6F-2A2D5F76A28C-1200x1200.jpeg)
