September Issue
- The Scuttle Team
- 4 days ago
- 16 min read
Editor's Note
Welcome back Seahawks! The campus is buzzing with new faces, students are eager and ready, and there's a cultivated atmosphere of excitement and opportunity. This fall, The Scuttle team includes returning writers Lizzy Sterling and me, Josephine Fahey, as Editors and welcomes Cheyenne Janisch and B. Scazo as columnists. In this issue, you can find informational articles about Cabrillo's dedication to their student parents through programming and the development of the housing project Costa Vista, and opinion piece ruminating on life after college, workforce needs, and A.I., and finally the first editions of the new coloumns What We Make and The Happenings.
What We Make
A video series documenting and centering different students at Cabrillo and their art. Sharing unique perspectives on creative expression, varying mediums, and what art means to them.
By Cheyenne Janisch
The Happenings
A comprehensive column following student, local, and campus politics. With the goal of making the habit of keeping up with politics a little less harrowing for the student, read to stay informed about what's going on in your community.
By B. Scalzo
Events
Homecoming
It's football season! Join the Cabrillo football teams and student services in their annual Homecoming Kickoff Event and Game on Saturday, Sept 12 at 3:30pm in Parking Lot K. Students get free admission to the tailgate party and game! Enjoy food, music, and games.
Student Parent Success Month
September is Student Parent Success Month! Click the drop-down menu to see a list of events Cabrillo is hosting throughout the month to support student parents. Read more about student parent support programs at Cabrillo in this issue!
Events
September 1 & 2 | Student Parent Escucha with VP of Student Services12:00–12:45 p.m.9/1: Aptos Multicultural Student Center9/2: Watsonville A130Join us for a listening session to share your experiences, ideas, and needs as a student parent. Food included!
September 4 | Children’s Seahawk Story Time with President Capps1:00–1:30 p.m. | Children’s Center 1508Bring your little Seahawks for a special story time with Cabrillo College President Jenn Capps!
September 8–30 | Cold Weather Essentials Drive Donations collected September 8–17 and distributed September 21–30 at the Food Pantries on both campuses. Help us make sure student parent families have access to warm essentials as the seasons change.
September 21 | Car Seat Safety Check9:00–11:00 a.m. | Building 1500 Parking LotIn partnership with RCFam. Have your child’s car seat checked and receive helpful safety information. Sign up in advance: Car Seat Safety Check Sign-Up
Club Rush
Join the Inter Club Council, Student Senate, and Cabrillo Clubs for an exciting week of recruitment and learning throughout August 31st- September 3rd from 12:00-2:00pm! Head to the Welcome Center on the Aptos campus on Monday and Thursday, and the Breezeway on our Watsonville Campus Tuesday and Wednesday to meet clubs and learn how to charter your own!
Announcements
Cabrillo Talks
Cabrillo Talks is a unique opportunity for students to foster community through the power of storytelling. Modeled after TED Talks, this event features the unique narratives of our own Cabrillo Community. To learn more about the event and how to participate, scan the QR Code to the left.
Fall Deadlines
Keep track of these important fall deadlines this semester:
Saturday, September 5: Last day to add or drop a full-term class in Self-Service and receive a reversal of tuition and mandatory fees. Add authorizations must be used by this date.
Sunday, September 6: Last day to drop a full-term class without a “W” on your academic record. You will still be charged for the units.
Monday, September 7: Labor Day—Cabrillo College is closed.
Tuesday, September 8: Census deadline and last day to return a parking permit for a refund.
Join your Student Government
The Associated Students of Cabrillo College is your student governance group. Join as an executive officer, while positions last! Gain leadership experience, advocate for your fellow students, and learn about participatory governance. Scan the QR Code or visit their webpage to learn more.
What's next?
Editorial/Opinion
Many describe college as the best years of their lives, which is a hilariously daunting sentiment as a current student. After hearing the same fantastic stories of late night shenanigans, struggle meals, then subsequent melancholic descriptor, that conversation always leaves you with the same lingering question: “What's next?”
After graduating, all students face the uncomfortably large task of structuring their life without the guidance and sense of belonging that college offers. What was once an exciting rite of passage and a tantalizing confrontation of the unknown is now a terrifying economic awakening. It is paralyzing trying to pick a direction that could ultimately define the trajectory of your life. Today, the choice is ever more insurmountable thanks to inflation. Inflation of marketable skills, technology, the economy, the quality of education, and even the value of a degree.
Traditionally, higher education has been the greatest stepping stone in the systemic pipeline to what most define as success. While there are equally respected and alternative ways to achieve class comfort, and even more alternative lifestyles to pursue, higher education was always the tried and true and culturally typical way to course one's life. But, in response to the rapid and unpredictable changes to the economy and job market because of generative artificial intelligence, students are now finding that 4 years of college doesn’t get you as far as it used to. Which is completely unjust and frustrating considering the price of education has skyrocketed while the quality has plummeted. But why now? Why our generation? Is it even possible to pinpoint a cause, then predict a trajectory?
Humans have an intrinsic way of following the path of least resistance. This probably comes from a natural instinct to survive; we create systems of efficacy that allow us to not work as hard. Thus explaining why the industrial revolution was such a pinnacle of human success, why people use A.I. to write their class discussions, why people are addicted to drugs, why people would rather spend hours scrolling on social media instead of reading, and finally, why we choose to consume rather than create; because it's easier to accept that something is difficult than to actually do it.
Language learning models have been incredibly successful at capitalizing on this inclination, and if left unchecked can, to put bluntly, completely hijack our ability to think critically and create. This is not speculation anymore; it’s empirically proven. One National Institutes of Health study even calls A.I. in education a “cognitive paradox”. America has seen lowered success rates in math and literacy in the last 6 years, and while this can largely be credited to the 2020 pandemic learning curve, there has been little to no recovery since. Consequently, higher education has entered a feedback loop of simplifying curriculum to cater to declining participation and success rates. The adoption of A.I. in most academic settings is deluded and advertised as a streamlined performance tool, simplifying tasks like research and notetaking– but in actuality, there is no way in which generative A.I. can be used that does not augment the negative effects of outsourcing cognitive labor.
This poses a new threat to employers and recent graduates who are entering the workforce: education is too easy. Recent cultural trends show that students who graduate with just a B.A. degree are entering the workforce unequipped with the proper skill sets needed to succeed. Employers are realizing just how easy it is to slide through an undergraduate college degree, which is why you may have heard the phrase: “A Master's is the new Bachelor's.” The recent graduates who are sitting in the interview seats are underqualified, undereducated, and lack cognitive vigor.
What is more troubling than the declining value of human creation is how enthusiastic we are supposed to be about it. I recently received a promotional email from Canvas with the subject line “Creating has never been easier”, advertising their latest generative A.I. tool, and I almost flipped the table. Words used to describe A.I. like "accessible", “productive” or "revolutionary” are veneers; marketing strategies that make the user think they are making the smarter and more efficient choice by using A.I. to do a task for you. This completely forgives the mental guilt of using generative A.I. instead of your brain for educational intents and purposes.
But that’s just one piece of the puzzle. It’s not the case that students just need to work harder; it is that students can’t compete with A.I. in the workforce anyway. Disregarding the plethora of negative impacts A.I. has on academia, generative A.I. has completely metamorphosed the workforce landscape. The rapid changes in workforce demands because of A.I. have outsized certain degrees, leaving students stranded. Careers in clerical work, translation, data processing, and much more are all threatened by a hallucinating, half-baked software that can do a subpar rendition of these tasks for free. To the multi-billion dollar industries and businesses, outsourcing human labor with A.I. is like dangling tri-tip in front of a hungry bear. When students graduate, they are not just facing unemployment; they’re facing unachievable levels of output, competing with manufactured marketable skills, and repositioning themselves constantly to try and outperform everchanging workforce needs.
While this all seems overwhelmingly minatory, I’ll leave the reader with this idea: the world has always followed cyclical trends of ages of enlightenment and of devastation. While inflation (in the broadest sense) has stuck its tongue in every crevasse of culture and society, dampened the world with ignorance, stripped us of creativity, and crumpled morals and humanity into a ball– there emerges a pedestal for the thinkers, the artists, and the creators to claim.
When the majority of jobs have become automated and streamlined, and we are permitted to simply pick up the scraps that capitalism and technology have thrown to us, there is an opportunity for those who manage to avoid letting technology think for us to claim whatever path we so choose. Because when everything is taken from us, we have nothing to lose.
-Josephine Fahey
Student Parent Success Month: Costa Vista Developments and Resources for Student Parents
September kicks off Student Parent Success Month here on campus! While Cabrillo has had a long history of supporting its student parents, this September is the first official month of recognition from the college.
Cabrillo offers a wide variety of resources for student parents. As the school has continued this legacy, more exciting resources have emerged. One of the most recent is the integration of family housing and childcare into the new on-campus housing, Costa Vista.
Ryan Haynes, Director of Oversight, Student Housing & Child Care Center, gave insight into the development of Costa Vista, explaining there are 20 family housing units specifically designated for Cabrillo students. The housing will include a child care center, with the capacity to serve 64 children.
Costa Vista is also set to include both outdoor and indoor amenities such as a study space, food pantry, fitness center, rooftop garden, and laundry facilities. Residential portions will be secure for residents, but a number of resources are said to benefit the greater community at Cabrillo.
The project's construction is integrating students who are parents into the design and development of Costa Vista. “I think the larger goal is to create an environment where being a parent and being a college student aren't treated as competing identities,” said Haynes.
“There are a variety of resources for student parents at Cabrillo, and one thing I have learned in my short time here is just how many different areas of the College are invested in supporting them”, Haynes continued on to say “one of my goals is to help us better connect and collectively amplify those resources so student parents don't have to know which individual office to ask in order to find the support they need.”
One such resource Cabrillo supplies is the MAMAVA lactation pods, located on both the Watsonville and Aptos campuses. These are in place to support student parents who are looking for a private place to breastfeed or pump. More information on where to locate them can be found on the Cabrillo webpage.
The Aptos campus library is home to many of these student resources, including one of the MAMAVA pods. They are also set to open a new family study room. Students accompanied by one or more children are welcome to come use the space. The kick-off celebration for the new space is set to be on September 10th, 2026, from 2 pm-4 pm in the Library, room 1043.
There are many other events happening this Student Parent Success Month too. Student Parent Escucha with VP of Student Services, Children’s Seahawk Story Time with President Capps, Cold Weather Essentials Drive, Car Seat Safety Check, and Faculty Training: Creating Inclusive Spaces for Student Parents are all happening this September. To find the dates and times of each of these events, navigate to the Student Housing, Family Services, & Essential Supports page of the School’s website.
Physical resources for student parents can be found on campus as well. “During the 2026–27 academic year, the Children's Center and Lab School, Essential Supports, and CalWORKs launched a shared diapers and wipes bank with access points in each of those spaces. This is also the first year of our Student Parent Support Working Group,” said Haynes.
The Student Parent Support Working Group is a hub for all of these different types of resources, bringing together financial, physical, and care supports through various partnerships and groups at Cabrillo.
The Student Parent Support Working Group unites Student Housing, Family Services and Essential Supports; CalWORKs, Rising Scholars and Juvenile Justice; EOPS/CARE; and the Children's Center and Lab School. These are all great places to check for any needs parents at the college may have. Links to all of those are listed below:
Cabrillo is committed to uplifting its students in their journey of higher education. It seems apparent that the resources accessible are able to benefit Cabrillo’s community. The increased efforts to improve such resources will only continue to support student parents.
-Lizzy Sterling
The Happenings
Young adulthood is the time a lot of people find themselves getting into politics. For many, keeping up with all the happenings, especially in today's age, has become increasingly overwhelming, leading some students to be unsure where to start and how to keep up. The Happenings is about informing the Cabrillo student body of what’s taking place on their campus, in their county, and in the state of California, as well as anything nationwide that will impact students. Hopefully, you find this segment of some use in your personal political journey.
My name is B. Scalzo, and I am a second-year journalism major here at Cabrillo. Growing up, I found myself becoming interested in and keeping up with politics from a young age, and got into journalism as a way to help others stay informed on what’s going on in their city. I hope my column helps you to stay informed and make informed decisions with your time and votes.
A Voter’s Guide for Midterms
If you’re someone who’s never voted before, someone who’s just confused about the whole process, or someone who’s unaware of what each proposition is proposing, it’s important to be educated on how to vote so you can make your voice heard in California’s upcoming general elections this fall. Below is a quick guide for students on important information they should be aware of so they’re ready to vote this upcoming election season.
When are California Midterms
California’s general election is on October 19th. Ballot drop-off locations will open on the 6th, and in-person polling centers will open on the 31st. The last day to vote in person will be November 3rd, and mail-in ballots must be brought to a post office and manually postmarked if being mailed on the 3rd, though mailing 7 days in advance, or as early as possible, is highly encouraged. The last day to register to vote is November 3rd, but everyone is encouraged to register online as soon as they get the chance to make the voting process smoother.
What Will Be on the Ballot
Below is a brief summary of each proposition that will be on the ballot for California’s 2026 general election. Note that these are only intended to give a brief overview, and all readers are encouraged to do their own research to form their own opinions on what they will be voting for.
Prop 1: Proposition 1 is about the State selling 11.25 billion dollars in bonds to continue to fund low income and public housing programs. 1.25 billion of this would specifically go to veteran housing, and the rest to other public housing programs.
Prop 2: Proposition 2 raises the amount of money the state can put into its reserves, from 10% of general fund tax revenue to 20%. It would also require the state to put money towards paying down state debt, specifically California’s federal unemployment insurance debt.
Prop 3: Proposition 3 would raise income taxes on high earners, and allocate these funds towards healthcare and education programs. This would affect the taxes of those who earn between $360,000 to $721,000, with income tax ranging from 10.3% to 12.3%.
Prop 37: The goal of this proposition is to provide loans to homebuyers to help purchase newly constructed homes. California’s housing finance agency would be able to borrow up to 25 billion to fund these loans, and help create low-cost mortgages.
Prop 39: Proposition 39 would make it a requirement for voters to show identification at in-person polling booths. Mail-in voters would be required to provide the last 4 digits of a government ID. Registering to vote already requires identification, but the act of voting does not.
Prop 40: The 200 Californians with a net worth over one billion would be required to pay a one-time 5% tax. This money would go towards healthcare, food assistance, and education programs. If Proposition 41 or 42 earn more votes than Proposition 40, 40 will be nullified, even if 40 receives enough votes to pass.
Prop 41: Proposition 41 aims to make it harder to pass new special taxes by requiring all new special tax proposals to be reviewed by the state auditor before they can be voted on. The auditor would then review the measures to see if they would cut state spending by 10% annually.
Prop 42: Proposition 42 prohibits new taxes on assets like personal property and investment accounts, which are usually only taxed when used to generate income.
Prop 43: Proposition 43 would raise the threshold to create and impose local taxes from a majority vote to ⅔’s of the vote to be in favor of said tax measures. This 2⁄3 's rule already applies to tax measures proposed by local governments, but not to measures proposed by individual voters.
Prop 44: This proposition requires clinics that treat low-income communities to up their spending to 90% of annual revenue on patient treatment and care.
Prop 45: Proposition 45 overhauls the environmental quality act, with the goal of speeding up projects deemed as essential by imposing a 365 day limit on reviews for projects such as roads, bridges, and schools. It also imposes a 270-day limit on environmental law lawsuits.
How to Register to Vote
To register to vote, visit https://registertovote.ca.gov/. Here, you can register to vote if you’re 18 or older, and if you’re 16-17, you can also pre-register so you’ll be ready to go by the time you’re an adult. If you’re unsure if you’ve already registered, you are also able to check your registration status to confirm you’re set for this upcoming election.
Where to Find Your Nearest Polling Booth
To find where the closest polling booth is, visit https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/polling-place. Polling locations become available here around 2-4 weeks before the upcoming election. Polling booths are typically located at public locations, such as schools, libraries, churches, and firehouses.
Mail-In vs. In-Person Voting: What’s Right for You?
When weighing the pros and cons of each voting method, it’s important to consider a few things: Will you be able to physically get to a polling booth? Do you have the time to go to an in-person polling booth? And will you remember to actually mail your ballot? That last one may sound silly, but if you’re someone who struggles with procrastination or often forgets important things, or are prone to losing things, you may want to consider voting in person. If you’re someone who maybe struggles with a disability, doesn't own a car, or doesn't live near an in-person polling location, voting by mail may be more useful to you. Both of these methods of voting are good, and at the end of the day, the most important detail is that you’re voting, no matter what you choose to do.
Additional Resources
To find more detailed information on each ballot measure, you can use https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures to read about each proposal. Calmatters and Ballotpedia are other great resources to find concise summaries of each proposition. The California secretary of state’s website has a page where you can find all of the important information on registering to vote and polling.
-B. Scalzo
What We Make
Hello Scuttle readers!
Here’s something new– I’m doing a video. I’m coming to you from my home. This is the first edition of something new that I’m trying for my column with The Scuttle. This is my first time composing a video series, as well as my first semester writing for The Scuttle. I’m really excited to hear your thoughts.
Welcome to What We Make, a video series where I, Cheyenne Janisch, will sit down with Cabrillo students and talk about art—their materials, their methods, their ideas, and most importantly, what drives them to create.
For my first episode, I wanted to show a project of my own, which prompted me to reflect on how experimentation and chance show up in my process and in my results.
I’ve heard it argued before that intention can be a measure of success in art; that, whether or not it comes across to viewers, the closer an artist gets to their intended vision and executing that, is how successful they are with their art.
When I took combined processes this past summer, practically everything I did was an experiment. Some of those were linked to an idea, and experimentation was the first step in understanding the materials and how I could achieve a certain effect. Other experiments had less direction than that, at least going into them.
I found that out of everything I created in that class, the pieces that were most interesting to me were the ones where I freely experimented and improvised as I was creating those pieces. When I would jump into bleaching my cyanotypes, or toning them with natural toners, without knowing what colors those would yield, and how the materials I was using, fabrics or other substrates, how they would take the tone.
Now maybe my methods here could appeal to the logic of ‘intention=success’ if you consider experimentation my intended method. If I intended for a piece to be the product of experimentation with no pre-planned direction, then I succeeded in creating something by those methods.
On the flip side, one might consider these prints to be less successful because of the gaps in my intentionality for unintended or experimental effects, or, if they succeed in being interesting, they are less products of my own success, and instead, to the credit of chance.
Two things stick with me: Not only are the experimental pieces my favorites, but I had the most fun making them. Allowing myself to dive headfirst into completely new mediums, without fear or hesitation, and then seeing how it behaved, responding to it with new things to try, was really fulfilling. That might have been my most important take-away from the course.
It took a combination of my experimentation and the natural and chemical processes at every stage of cyanotyping/bleaching/toning to create these pieces. It took me, enacting change and form on my materials to set in motion the chance-based and hands-off changes. Like when they took the color or didn’t. Both aspects are essential to each one. Something meaningful lies in that, that these images are the manifestations of a creative conversation between me and chance, risk, and experiment.
-Cheyenne Janisch
Student Submissions
The Scuttle encourages editorial submissions from students about anything relevant to Cabrillo, students, or current events. Get your opinions published! Additionally, send us your poetry, short stories, photography, and artwork, and we'll feature it in our issues. Fill out our Google Form to submit.
Thank You for Reading and for Your Continued Support of Student Journalism.
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