photo credit: SRJC
A screenshot of the Oak Leaf's website on March 9, 2026. 

Periodically, the KRCB Newsroom checks in with our journalism colleagues at the Santa Rosa Junior College to find out what the class is reporting on.

According to the publication, "the Oak Leaf is the award-winning, student-produced news media of Santa Rosa Junior College that has been publishing consistently since 1928. Advised by instructor Anne Belden, student reporters provide around-the-clock coverage of SRJC breaking news, sports, arts and entertainment, events and more for The Oak Leaf and its affiliated social media sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram."

This week we speak with current co-editor-in-chief Lauren Kelleher. 

KRCB/GRETA MART: What stories are you talking to me about today?

LAUREN KELLEHER: We've been still closely watching the Cassandra Hillman story. That's the dance instructor who was accused of—there were two sustained allegations—of retaliation and intimidation during the fall 2024 semester,, by one of her students, Jordan Tauzer-Pardo The JC is still yet to actually terminate this teacher. In fact, she returned last semester to teach, and this semester she is teaching again, teaching 13 sections of dance classes. Just at the last board of trustee meeting, they did consider a faculty termination, but they came to no decision. It's unclear if that was Cassandra Hillman; we've been unable to verify because it's considered a faculty matter, so it needs to remain private. There's not a shortage of students that want to take the dance classes, but they are actively abstaining from taking her classes. Last time we checked—bout three weeks into the semester—most of her classes were at less than 50% enrollment.

MART: She's teaching these classes that are less than full. Then, why are they keeping her on?

KELLEHER: Yeah, that's really the big question. We've only been getting constant reassurance from the president of the JC saying, we hear you and we're doing what we can. But Jordan Tauzer-Pardo did make an appearance at that February board meeting and had said a quote from her is, “it reflects discomfort, lack of confidence and concern about the person leading the classroom. That should matter.”

MART: Okay, got it. So the semester's underway, and is anything going to change? What's next in this story?

KELLEHER: We're just keeping our eyes on it. Seeing if they're gonna bring up that faculty member termination again, um, and actually make a decision on it. Um, we've been trying to figure out, uh, if it was her being considered or not and what's being done. I know students that are taking her classes currently have reported that in a lot of her classes, she hasn't been appearing to teach and there's been substitutes teaching in her place.

MART: I see.What other stories?

KELLEHER: We do also have just a look at the future of the JC; it seems like they are kind of running into some budget issues at this time. In that same board of trustee meeting, they did report that there was, they need to reduce spending by an additional $10 million for the 26/27 fiscal year.

MART: $10 million. Okay.

KELLEHER: Yeah. And, that was, interestingly paired with during public comment…there were all faculty association, which is the union that represents faculty members at the JC who were criticizing the college for halting the hiring process of a full-time counseling hire without any further explanation. So people who were working in the counseling department were promised an additional full-time staff member to support the department, and they were going through with the hiring process and suddenly halted it. And it's not really clear why.

MART: Okay. Got it. All right. Interesting. Bring us up to date on the trans athlete situation. For people who have never heard of this, don't know what's going on, can you just bring us up to date with that story?

KELLEHER: Yeah, I can talk a little bit about that. In our last season of volleyball, which was during fall semester, our women's volleyball team did have a trans player playing for our team. She and every player on that team was viable to play according to California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) regulations—-they have written rules basically stating, I think it's for trans women, they have to be on hormone therapy for at least two years before they can play on a 3C2A  women's team.

MART: Interesting. I didn't know that.

KELLEHER: Yeah, so they have that written in and that's all set but one of the escalations that we recently got back in January was Trump's Department of Education is launching an investigation into not only the JC but the  California Community College Athletic Association  as an athletic organization as a whole over alleged Title IX violations.

MART: Okay. Got it. All right. And so that so-called investigation is underway and what's next in that… you're just going to wait for a determination from the feds or what?

KELLEHER: I mean, at this point, we've been watching their press releases and seeing if they're going to put anything else out. We haven't seen any signs of them anywhere here on our campus. We've been unsuccessful in trying to reach the volleyball team and coaches during that entire proces. From the moment that it got national news through Fox News, they were instructed not to speak with any media regardless. So we haven't been able to get comment from any coaches, any teammates or anything of that sort.