The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Month: November 2022

  • Festivities marked one year anniversary of entheogen decriminalization

    Festivities marked one year anniversary of entheogen decriminalization

    by Camille Delany

    Thursday, Oct. 6 marked one year since the passage of a resolution that decriminalized entheogens, or plant-based psychedelics, in the City of Arcata. Celebrations took place in Redwood Park at an event organized by Lissie Rydz of the Do Nothing Society and Danielle Daniel of Microdosing Humboldt. The sky had been overcast all morning, but as the event was underway the sun began to shine through the clouds, illuminating the colorful hammocks and blankets clustered in one corner of Redwood Park.


    Danielle Daniel, a local microdosing coach who led advocacy for decrminizalitation at the City Council meeting one year ago, reflected on a year of decriminalization in Arcata.
    “I’m just excited, and feel so blessed, and just like really relieved that everything’s fine,” Daniel said. “That was the big fear of decriminalization. Like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘People will just be tripping in the streets!’ It’s like, no, it opens up access for people to heal.”
    The decriminalization process took a concerted effort from the community, the support of the Arcata City Council, and hard work on the part of organizers


    “Coming into it last year, it was really stressful. It took a lot of energy. It really drained me,” Daniel said. “It was freaking hard! And when it was decriminalized, I was so happy, but I was so drained at that time.”


    “Since then it’s just been really magical just feeling safe to be able to provide my services in educating the community about microdosing and the healing potential,” Daniel said.
    Daniel handed out free microdoses of psilocybin mushrooms (decriminalization permits the gifting, but not selling, of entheogens) in baggies that included a card with her contact information to adults over 21 with proof of ID.


    “There’s been quite a few people coming up to me that have never done [psilocybin] before and they feel safe enough to do it here,” Daniel said. “It’s very cool, witnessing that fear dissipating more and more.”


    Students mingled with members of the larger community as art supplies, snacks, and books were shared across vibrant blankets. Roslyn Gilbert, a Cal Poly Humboldt student, often attends Do Nothing events and values their atmosphere of friendly relaxation and inclusion.


    “Being a trans woman, I feel like there’s a lack of spaces in this world that are friendly to trans women without being explicitly queer,” Gilbert said. “This is a very safe place to be trans. It doesn’t feel like I have to carve out a safe area.”


    Hosting the event with Daniel was Lissie Rydz, who started the Do Nothing Society over the summer. With the Do Nothing Society, she aims to create public spaces for social relaxation in the face of growing productivity culture. The Do Nothing Society isn’t always entheogen-specific, but held Thursday’s “Microdose and Do Nothing” celebration in honor of one year of decriminalization.


    “I credit most of my growth as a person to psychedelics,” Rydz said. “So I think that it’s beautiful that [since decriminalization] there’s not all this fear and anger.”


    Rydz advocates for building community, enjoying public spaces, and making time to play. Do Nothing events are public and, when not held at Redwood Park, can often be found at houses of community members, local events, or a nice river spot.


    “It’s proof of concept by doing it,” Rydz said of decriminalization. “It’s not scary, it’s sweet!”

  • Swim club makes a splash

    by Dezmond Remington

    Water is a terrible medium for sound, being roughly 800 times denser than air. It is practically impossible to speak underwater. This makes it all the more incredible that water brings people together so well.

    Emily Handy, president of the new swim club on campus, is attempting to bring that sense of community to what is often a very solitary sport. Handy swam competitively in elementary school, but took time off from the sport until last November, when she broke her ankle after slipping down a wet hill while biking. Swimming was one of the few sports she could do, as it’s low-impact and it didn’t hurt her ankle like a bike did.

    “I want people to come regardless of their skill level or commitment,” Handy said. “I just want people to be able to go into the pool, be able to have contact with lifeguards, or coaches, people who can kind of mentor them if they have questions…there’s people who aren’t necessarily the strongest swimmers or people who don’t necessarily want to compete but they want to show up to the club anyways just to be able to swim, to ask questions about form, just kind of be in the water, figure it out. And I want to give them access to that.”

    Indeed, there are quite a few people interested in joining the club, well over thirty at last count, all different varieties of people.

    Kaden Tobin was a competitive swimmer for 11 years, has taught swim lessons for five years, and coached for a year and a half. One of the reasons they chose to go to Humboldt was the fact that there is a pool on campus, and they assumed there would be a team or a club that used it. When they got to campus and discovered that wasn’t the case, they were disappointed. They believe the swim club has a lot of potential to bring people together.

    “There’s a lot of people that go into watersports, and you get this sense of community,” Tobin said. “I think it’ll be great for connecting people, especially incoming freshmen or people who have been on campus and haven’t really explored it yet.”

    It is that sense of community that has the most appeal to the members of the swim club. Transfer student Emma Wilson, who has been swimming since she was nine and is now a lifeguard and swim instructor at the Arcata Community Pool, agrees.

    “Working together, even though it’s an individual sport, you still get that motivation from each other,” Wilson said. “Like when someone completes a lap and they… make progress and I think that’s really inspiring for me to continue swimming and my passion for it.”

    What members want to get out of the swim club varies. Handy hopes it will be a gateway to expanding student access to the pool. Tobin wants it to be a good social outlet, and Wilson wishes for a competitive, dynamic team, with swim meets and the like, even though she describes herself as a very noncompetitive person. Regardless of goals, that desire comes down to the people you’re doing it with.
    “It’s an individual sport against yourself,” Wilson said. “But then the team brings everyone together…it’s just really uplifting. And so I hope we can bring more of a community and acceptance for it.”

  • Police chief candidate views cause concern among students

    Police chief candidate views cause concern among students

    by Carlos Pedraza

    The Chief of Police Search Committee held an open forum on Wednesday, Oct. 19 for students to ask questions of Thomas Calucci, one of the police chief candidates. A Cal Poly Humboldt email stated the meeting was being held in the Library Fishbowl but was changed at the last minute to the Great Hall above the Marketplace. In total, only two students were present to ask questions.

    Calucci is a former police captain from the University of Texas at San Antonio and was a member of the Behavioral Intervention Team, an organization that provides mental health checks. While at UTSA, Calucci collaborated with school counseling faculty to provide crisis training to university police.

    Calucci wants to bring a similar program to Cal Poly Humboldt.  

    “I want social workers to ride with our police officers,” Calucci said. 

    He went on to explain how he wanted police to integrate with the community and was against the us vs. them mentality of the thin blue line.

    “I need our cops to understand at this university, we are not here to kick ass and take names, we are here to protect you all,” Calucci said.

    Still, Calucci made it clear his main goal was to protect the university from those whom he saw as outsiders. 

    “I’m fairly certain that somewhere, someone in this community has a grievance against this university,” Calucci said. “Whether it be a faculty member or other student, I’m fairly certain that person is planning revenge… I wanna be here to protect you from them, not from yourself.”  

    When Calucci was asked who “them” was, he answered, “there are people who intend to do you harm, those are the people who I don’t like.” 

    Calucci appears to understand that policing has caused problems, specifically citing police-related generational trauma. Though he is aware of it, Calucci does not consider it his role to solve this problem. 

    “I did not sign up for the things you are asking me to do,” Calucci said.

    Humboldt student Elizabeth Rubio explained how the police system has a history of racism, prejudice, and violence, and asked how Calucci would handle prejudice in his staff and himself. 

    “First thing you said is we live in a racist society and that sucks you feel that way.” Calucci said. He acknowledged that racism was present in society. “ If I could wave a magic wand and make it go away I would because of that crap,” Calucci said in response to Rubio.  

    Rubio proceed to asked if Calucci was aware of the murder of Josiah Lawson and the case surrounding the alledged murder. Calucci said he saw a sign supporting Justice for Josiah, but he did not know any specifics of the case.

    Rubio also asked about the police response to student homelessness. Calucci said police would not harass students sleeping in cars and wanted them to feel safe. He stated his main goal was to get students off the streets and find temporary housing for them. 

    Jue Smith, the other student at the forum, felt that both police chief candidates were unprepared. 

    “Neither candidate did their homework about this area or legislation that’s been passed,” Smith said.