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?