By Emma Wilson and Gabriel Zucker

When Cal Poly Humboldt was built, there was no forethought about accessibility, due to prominent physical and financial challenges to updating campus. The hills and stairs that made the school unique ignored an entire group that are an integral part of the campus community. Today, the school is still lacking in a lot of areas when it comes to accessibility, but there is a lot of support from the school and the community to make this campus an accommodating place.

Aileen Yoo, the news and information director for the university, acknowledged that a lot needs to be done, but the school is not being complacent.

“We have a lot of work to do, and we’re committed to having constructive conversations about things that can be done in the short, medium, and long-term to make steady progress,” Yoo said.

Campus Disability Resource Center (CDRC)

The CDRC mission statement on their website states, “Humboldt strives to be responsive to the needs of its community through its commitment to providing services that support equitable access and foster equity and inclusion.”

“The University’s Campus Disability Resource Center (CDRC) was established as the Disabled Student Services over three decades ago to support disabled students and, in the last year, has moved to support the entire campus community,” Yoo said. “The CDRC is a hub of resources and services, which include priority registration assistance, accessible classroom furniture, alternate media, assistive technologies, deaf and hard of hearing services, disability-related advising, equipment available for checkout, exam accommodations, employment application assistance, and accessible office furniture..” 

Alicia Martin is an alum and academic researcher. Martin has been attending Humboldt since the spring of 2018, receiving her masters in 2020. They founded the club ADAPTABLE, which is dedicated to disabled students and staff and is still a big part of the disabled community on campus.

“One of the new things that CDRC is doing is making the complaint process more clear and easy to do, which is amazing,” Martin said. “There is now an actual committee that is working to make things better when it comes to complying with ADA regulations. This committee has been out for years. So, these changes are being made.”

Jim Graham, a geospatial scientist professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, noted there are a lot of positive things happening on campus, but emphasized the need for ADA regulations around campus.

“Our Academic Technology Initiative folks, they’re doing great work to get the electronics available,” Graham said. “The CDRC [has] made a bunch of changes, improved their website. So there’s good stuff going on. It’s the facilities piece, the existing facilities piece we seem to be stuck on.”

Student and Community Experience

For a lot of students coming to college, they have no knowledge or plan to receive accommodations. Martin did not even realize they were eligible until a teacher brought it up.

“I remember sitting in my classes, looking around [thinking], ‘Who else is here with me?’” Martin said. “There’s more of me here, and people who understand what it’s like to try to go to school and balance all of these extra things that you have to deal with as a person with disabilities. That is when I really started looking around and paying attention to things and noticing things.” 

Matias Solorzano, a graduate student in the psychology department in the academic research master’s program, highlighted his work with Graham on disability awareness events and plans for future projects. One event included inviting disability-specific resources and having Interim President Michael Spagna speak about his experiences with disabilities. 

Solorzano is developing a project in his activism class where he invites the California Department of Rehabilitation to help students with disabilities sign up for vocational rehabilitation. Vocational (VOC) rehab is aimed to help disabled individuals find jobs and learn how to maintain that job position. Part of Solorzano’s project is to find funding to help students apply for financial assistance to help pay for tuition outside of the financial aid sources that are traditionally available to them. 

“I’m trying to fill the gaps through policy to try to model a workshop based on what has been done before, to kind of evolve into a permanent program,” Solorzano said. “What the university has done well is that they really support us in planning the accessibility event. It helped us advertise, helped us get students to come. They are just very supportive and say that they want to do stuff.”

Solorzano emphasizes the importance of having students with disabilities involved in decision-making processes to ensure their perspectives are considered. He expressed his hope for continued progress and support for students with disabilities at the university.

“There really needs to be a specific space outside of the CDRC for students, staff, and faculty with disabilities to come together and really be a community,” Solorzano said. “If you want students with disabilities to come to campus and to stay enrolled, you need to be supporting them more. Whether that be through a cultural center, or what I’m doing. I am developing an activist project in my CRGS community.”

Julie Myers, an ecological restoration major, expressed gratitude for the assistance provided by the Student Health Center, highlighting the role of doctors and nurses in diagnosing her condition. 

“The Student Health Center has helped me significantly, the doctors there — even the nurses — they helped me get diagnosed,” Myers said. “They’ve helped me with …  I forgot the word [physical therapy] — and I’ve done that for two years. So doctors at Student Health really helped me, and they’ve supported me more than the CDRC, definitely.”

Myers is also grateful for a number of professors and her advisor with ADA accommodations assistance. Myers explained how professors have been very flexible and supportive, such as Wildland Fire Science and Management Assistant Professor Alan Tapley, who went out of his way to accommodate her needs. 

“He taught forest ecology, and we would have a lot of labs in the community forest and even off campus,” Myers said. “He would send me directions of where we’re going and he made a map and circled where we were going, and even when we were walking in the field trip, he would be like, ‘How are you doing? Are you okay? Do you need to sit? We can sit and take a break in class.’”

Myers acknowledges a positive change in the school’s approach to disabilities since the recently appointed administration.

“With the new administration, the [Interim] President’s more visible and he comes from a special education background, so I think that’ll really help with what’s going on, because he’ll maybe pay attention a bit more,” Myers said.

There is still a long road ahead, but the building blocks are being set in place. The need for community involvement and collaboration to address these issues is still a pressing issue, but a path is being forged.

“It’s really the community that builds Cal Poly Humboldt,” Martin said.“It’s the community. We are the resilient redwoods, right? We are attracted to this place for a reason, and that includes people with disabilities.”

This is the second part of a three part series about accessibility on campus. 

Emma Wilson is a public relations journalism student at Cal Poly Humboldt minoring in environmental ethics. Wilson is an environmental reporter and science editor for the lumberjack. She is also the president of the Journalism Club of Cal Poly Humboldt. Wilson likes swimming, playing music on the radio, and making collages. 

Gabriel Zucker is a senior journalism student at Cal Poly Humboldt. He is the photo editor for The Lumberjack. He loves photojournalism and wants to use his platform as a journalist to give a voice to the voiceless.

By Griffin Mancuso

Through the usual hum of the Arcata plaza — cars driving by, dogs barking, construction noise — a chorus of passionate voices rang out.

“No Trump, no KKK, no racist, fascist USA!”

Dozens of Cal Poly Humboldt students and community members stood in a circle holding signs, about half of them wearing masks. In the center stood Rick Toledo, a member of the Humboldt Chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, who led the chants with a megaphone adorned with Palestinian flag stickers. A Palestinian flag secured in a nearby tree floats in the wind, bearing the message, “Right to exist, right to resist.”

“Slavery, genocide, and hate,” Toledo yelled into the megaphone.

“America was never great!” the audience yelled back.

On the morning of Nov. 6, the United States woke up to see that Donald Trump had won the 2024 presidential election with 295 electoral votes and 50.7% of the popular vote, compared to Kamala Harris’ 226 electoral votes.

Benny McGee, a zoology major, recalled the desolate atmosphere of campus after the election results.

“The campus was eerily silent,” McGee said. “I feel like every woman that I passed just gave me the saddest look… no one was saying anything. I thought I’d be eavesdropping, hearing something. It was just people going about their day, just sad, doing nothing, and I was pretty upset.”

On the same day, SDS Humboldt posted on Instagram advertising an anti-Trump rally. The caption called for their audience to join them in the Arcata plaza at 1 p.m., learn how to fight against fascism and imperialism, and get involved in future activism.

Toledo led the event, starting with group chants in support of Palestine and criticizing Trumps’ ideologies, then providing an open mic for people to voice their thoughts. People stepped up to the mic calling for everyone to find joy even though, “fascism sucks the soul out of you,” expressing worry for people in the LGBTQ+ community, and their disappointment in both the Republican and Democratic parties for their responses to the war in Palestine.

In response to people’s fears and frustrations about the election results, the SDS decided to host an emergency national day of action. Some SDS chapters hosted their rallies on Nov. 6, while others — including SDS Humboldt — hosted their rallies on Nov. 7. 

Toledo wanted to give people a space to vent about the election, connect with one another, and hear each other’s needs and how the election impacts them.

“I hope to educate more people on some of the faults of the current system — the two-party system — and the way that it’s not entirely democratic to only have a decision between one representative of big capital and another representative of big capital,” Toledo said. “I think in a real democracy, we would be able to directly influence policies, we would be able to directly choose our representatives by popular vote, and we don’t have that.”

Many attendees had their own critiques of the Democratic party, ranging from their policies around the war in Palestine, to the demographics they catered to, to the way their campaign was run. Jarrett Whitloe, a geology major at the university, attended the rally wearing a keffiyeh around his head and the USSR state flag as a cape. He was disappointed with the election results but was not surprised.

“The democrats absolutely chose to do this to themselves,” Whitloe said. “They took a candidate who was not chosen by the people, who had no primary that was held to elect her, ran her on the worst campaign possible, told everybody on the left to fuck off and die, and then wonder why they lost.”

Some attendees highlighted the positive outcomes of the election. Community member Laura Benz participated in the chants while holding a sign reading, “Fuck fascism,” with a watermelon slice on it, meant to represent Palestine. She also spoke during the open mic portion, calling for the “liberal lunch girlies” to join them in their fight. She heard about the event on social media and was excited to see more people standing against fascism.

“What I saw post-election is there were people that were very quiet throughout the last few months, not really speaking up, not getting very politically motivated,” Benz said. “But, because Trump got elected, they are politically activated and they are excited to get involved in their communities in ways they were not going to do under Kamala.”

McGee was initially unsure of what steps to take after the election, but felt like she needed to take action, so she was relieved to hear about the rally hosted by SDS Humboldt. She was also frustrated with the school’s approach to students’ concerns leading up to the election. She believed the school hosting events aiming to relieve stress or provide a distraction were muting the anger needed for political activism.

“I want people to see that they’re not alone in their rage if they feel that they’re the only one angry, because that’s definitely how I felt yesterday,” McGee said. “I looked around to my peers, to my friends, no one seemed to have the anger that I had inside of me. So, I really hoped — for myself, too — coming here, that I would fuel that a little bit in a safe way.”

Whitloe also emphasized that action needed to be taken despite the feelings of helplessness among students and community members.

“The important thing is that you do something about it — anything — rather than just sit at home and post shit,” Whitloe said. “As much as this is an event of words, and that has value, rhetoric is weak. You have to go out and do something.”

Toledo made it clear that Trump’s election was not a dead-end to activism.

“We want to come out here and show people that we’re out here, we’re ready to oppose Trump,” Toledo said. “We’re not just gonna let this be the end of it, he doesn’t just win the election and now it’s over. It’s just getting started for us.”

Griffin Mancuso is a journalism major and editor-in-chief of The Lumberjack. He has written stories for every category in the paper, but particularly enjoys writing human-centric stories. He has also freelanced for the North Coast Journal and News Decoder.

By Brad Butterfield

After three years of business, the Campus Store, Eureka has closed, leaving a mighty six-figure deficit in its wake. Alternatively, the off-campus Campus Store, Arcata, remains open despite a significantly larger deficit and far higher operating costs. The university remains committed to utilizing the off-campus storefront as a bridge between the community and university, and there are no current plans to shut down the Arcata location, according to Aileen Yoo, Director of News and Information for Cal Poly Humboldt. 

From November 2021 to September of this year, the Campus Store, Eureka accumulated a deficit of $149,745, according to public records. The university did not renew the store’s lease, which expired on Oct. 31. The storefront had been established to increase the university’s economic footprint outside of Arcata, as well as to better serve members of the campus community living in Eureka, according to Yoo. While the store succeeded in expanding the university’s economic footprint, it had failed to turn a profit after three years of business. 

“That location proved to be a financial liability that outweighed these other considerations, leading to its closure and a renewed focus on the on-campus and Arcata Plaza locations to best serve our students and community,” Yoo said.

While the Campus Store, Arcata is operated by Follet, a nation-wide store operator for colleges, the Eureka location was operated by the Humboldt Outfitters, a Humboldt County based company. In this business agreement, the university paid the Humboldt Outfitters $3,000 every month to operate the store, according to Grant Scott-GoForth, who was the communications specialist for the university at the time of the interview. Additionally, the Humboldt Outfitters earned 5% off of every sale, according to Scott-Goforth. The agreement with the Humbodlt Outfitters resulted in the Campus Store, Eureka offering a much different inventory from the Campus Store, Arcata. 

Kianna Znika, a Cal Poly Humboldt alum and former social media manager for the Humboldt Outfitters, said that when she visited the Campus Store, Eureka, the retail environment was far from ideal.

 “It was just very clear that nothing was really being done there,” Znika said. “There were old pizza boxes stacking up, and people were always just on their phones or like, doing homework behind the counter.” 

 The store’s enduring financial woes, however, may have had less to do with its inventory and management, and more to do with the lack of students within the city of Eureka, according to Miles Slattery, city manager of Eureka. 

Slattery emphasized that the effort to create university-provided student and/or faculty housing in Eureka is ongoing and would likely benefit both the university and the city. Bringing a significant population of the campus community likely should have come prior to a retail store though, according to Slattery. 

“We’ve tried multiple times on housing projects to get some more students into our city, and I think that would help out a lot,” Slattery said. “It’s kind of a cart before the horse kind of thing … You know, you need to get housing here before you can see [the] benefit from the economy.”

Conversely, the 10,200 square foot Campus Store, Arcata is located within a mile from campus and is central to the thousands of students and faculty who call Arcata home. Despite its location on the Arcata plaza, however, the Campus Store, Arcata has fared far worse than the Eureka location — at least, financially speaking. From November 2021 to Sep. of this year, the Campus Store, Arcata has accumulated a deficit of $447,655. Rent alone at the downtown Arcata location costs the university $12,240 a month. The primary objectives for the off-campus Campus Store are centered around relationship building, visibility, and accessibility, according to Scott-Goforth, who did not include profitability as a measure of success for the store. Despite the Campus Store, Arcata’s financial difficulties, the university has no current plans to significantly change operations at the off-campus Campus Store, Arcata nor at the on-campus Bookstore, according to Yoo.

“We are focused on leveraging both locations to provide the services and products that customers want and allowing the Plaza location, in particular, to serve as a connecting point between the campus and community,” said Yoo.

Todd Larsen, senior director for enterprise services at Cal Poly Humbodlt, did not respond to an interview request.

Brad Butterfield will graduate Cal Poly Humboldt this December with a degree in journalism. He has worked as a maid, mechanic, butler, bartender, tour guide, server, photographer, and farmhand, [etc] – but is now chasing down the dream of fruitful employment in journalism.

By Noah Pond

On Oct. 14, Cal Poly Humboldt published a statement on their website titled, “Launch of On-campus Living Requirement for First and Second-Year Students.” This statement notified incoming freshmen for the Fall 2025 semester that the university would be enforcing a rule in which they have to live in the dorms for their first two years. 

“With the Cal Poly Humboldt polytechnic transformation and the addition of our new student housing complex opening in Fall 2025, the University is expanding opportunities for our current students to continue living on campus and enhancing the student experience for all,” the university’s statement read.

The university is also in the process of constructing the Craftsman Mall housing complex — set to open in Fall 2025, which holds nearly 1,000 beds. Enrollment has remained stagnant at about a 1% increase since becoming a polytechnic.

However, they have some statistics to back up their decision for mandatory on-campus living. 

In the statement, the university cited a survey conducted by The National Survey of Student Engagement, which showed that first and second-year on-campus students GPA’s outperform their off-campus peer’s by 2%. They also mention that 92% of first-year students who live on-campus return as sophomores, as opposed to the 90% of students who live off-campus that do not return after their first year. However, this was a nationally conducted survey, and was not specific to that of Cal Poly Humboldt.

However, there will be an exception for students if they meet certain criteria. If incoming students graduated from high schools within Humboldt or Del Norte County, they will be exempt. Other groups who will also be exempt are students who turn 21 prior to the academic year, are currently active or military veterans, are married or have legally dependent children, have independent student status for at least a number of years prior to the academic year as defined by FAFSA, and medical or disability circumstances that cannot be accommodated.

Not all freshmen were aware of the new requirements or the university’s statement. Luckily for them, this change will only be implemented Fall 2025, thus not applying to them. Three freshman friends Avery, Derek, and Drew, had their own fiery opinions on the matter.

“I don’t wanna live here,” Drew said.

“It makes me feel limited,” Derek said.

“The food makes me want to jump out the window,” Avery said. “from the J, out the window into my car and straight to Chipotle.”

Holly Jalison, a marine biology major, is annoyed by this change and feels that it does not align with their Humboldt experience. 

“Part of the reason I came here was because I liked how flexible Humboldt was,” Jalison said. “But now it’s kind of not, so that’s really annoying.” 

Jalison and Harris are not the only ones annoyed by this change. Jennifer Jones, HSU alum and a resident of Eye Street, is irritated by this development for other reasons. 

Eye Street lies below the seven story dorms being constructed on the old Craftsman Mall lot. Jones has lived on Eye Street for 12 years and remembers it being quiet before all the construction began. 

“It’s been really fucking annoying, because people come down here because they’re curious,” Jones said. “I’ve lived here for 12 years. It was really quiet, it was pretty chill. But now, people try to cut through the lot and jump the fence.”

She remembers living in the dorms in the early 2000s and doesn’t plan on sticking around once the students move in. 

“I never thought I’d want to move out of here, because I really like this spot, but I lived in the dorms back in ‘04,” Jones said. “I will not be living next to dorms.”

Not everyone on Eye Street was upset about this dorm project though. Lea Nagy, who has lived in Humboldt for 40 years and lives right next to the lot where the dorms are being built, is optimistic about the development. 

“Any kind of housing we can get in Arcata is better than nothing,” Nagy said. “These kids were living in their cars. Then, the university decided they couldn’t be in their parking lot, so I would love to see some of this housing be for low-income families and people.”

It seems like most Arcata residents see this project as a good thing, at least for the housing market. With little housing already available in Arcata and locals competing with students for housing, the new housing requirements are shaping up well for locals. 

Equipment operator and Eye Street resident James Figas voiced a similar opinion to Nagy. 

“I’m not bothered by it, I mean I’m already two blocks from the campus, so having dorms down the street doesn’t really change anything for me,” Figas said. 

After all, Arcata is a college town and the university brings a lot of money to the local economy. Locals like Figas are hopeful all that money will strengthen housing for all of Arcata, not just freshmen and sophomores. 

“There is so little housing around here,” Figas said. “I am hopeful that if there’s more campus housing, that there will be more availability for the rest of us around town.”

Noah Pond is a Junior at Cal Poly Humboldt and a reporter and opinion editor for the Lumberjack. During his free time he enjoys cold beer and his skateboard.

By Brad Butterfield

Cal Poly Humboldt’s projected enrollment of over 8,000 students for Fall 2024 has fallen short by a significant margin. Due to low enrollment, the university will lose millions in state funding for the 2024-25 academic year. Despite the enrollment and financial troubles, officials remain optimistic, citing progress in retention, applications, and transfer enrollment. On top of that, a 225 million dollar housing complex, funded by state polytechnic money, promises to dampen student and faculty housing difficulties.

The university prospectus, released in September 2021, projected 8,024 students enrolled for the Fall 2024 semester. This fall, however, the university had only 6,045 students enrolled at the time of census. The university aimed for enrollment growth varying between 3% and 13% each year following the polytechnic change. In reality, the university has had an increase of about 1% since becoming a polytechnic. While growth has been slower than projected, the university’s Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success Chrissy Holliday has not been surprised. 

“I knew we had a long road ahead of us to grow in the manner the polytechnic prospectus outlined,” Holliday said. “And that the transition to a polytechnic institution provides an impetus for growth, but that we still must do the heavy lifting to realize the growth.”

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — which has researched, reported, and provided information about colleges and universities since 1993 — public 4-year enrollment is up 2.2% nationwide for the Fall 2024 semester. While Cal Poly Humboldt is slightly behind the average enrollment increase nationwide, the university significantly increased its new, upper division transfer enrollment and retention of students, according to Aileen Yoo, director of News and Information at Cal Poly Humboldt.

“This means we are outperforming many of our peers, thanks to the strategic work that is underway,” Yoo said. 

The enrollment projections laid out in the 2021 prospectus were based upon previous enrollment patterns, capacity and demand for other polytechnics, and demand in Humboldt County to fill that need, according to Yoo. This ambitious projection did not reflect the time it would take to establish the university as a polytechnic. Moreover, the polytechnic change brought on previously unforeseen application volume growth of more than 80% in a single year. The shift in baseline data meant the university has had to refine its enrollment prediction processes, Yoo said. 

Losing money by the millions

Due to the university missing its enrollment target by over the 10% recalibration threshold set by the CSU, state funding will be cut by 5%, equivalent to 3.4 million dollars for the 2024-25 school year. The final effect of the budget cuts is yet to be determined, according to Yoo. According to Jeff Crane, Dean of the College of the Art Humanities, and Social Sciences, the budget cuts will likely have an effect on the number of classes that the university can offer and how majors are supported in the coming academic year. 

“You have the most flexibility — and it’s terrible to say — in what you offer as classes,” Crane said.

Ironically, the budget cuts themselves make it more difficult to increase enrollment to meet the CSU target, but budget cuts will only stop when the CSU target is met.

“Budget cuts make it less likely that we can achieve those targets, as the work to recruit and retain students requires personnel, marketing, and other activities that call for sustained funding,” Yoo said.

Enrollment to double by 2030?
A revised enrollment projection was released in Aug. 2024, which adjusted the “onramp” towards the — unchanged — overall goal of 12,000 students by 2030. This revised plan still saw the enrollment over 1500 students shy of the target for the fall 2024 semester.

“I think the numbers they projected were ambitious,” Crane said. “I think eight or nine thousand is a nice resting place with stable growth after that, I don’t think we’ll hit 12,000 personally. I think if we level off at eight or nine thousand — that’s a good number.”

Alex Stillman, who has served 18 years on the Arcata City Council, has no doubts that the university can and should reach the enrollment goals.

“We used to have eight to ten-thousand students attending Humboldt State, and so this has been a decrease for us, but we were able to do very well with that number of students in the past,” Stillman said, also an alum of the university. “I don’t see why there would be an issue with us being able to have that number of students.”

Why the low enrollment and why the need to grow? 

Cal Poly Humboldt has its sights locked on the resident full-time student target set by the CSU, which will then trigger a recalibration and put an end to the funding cuts. If the target isn’t met, funding will be cut and the target enrollment number reduced. Currently, the resident full-time student target is 7,375. This will likely be reduced to 7,006 for Fall 2025, according to Yoo.

The cause of the consistently low enrollment is anything but simple. Yoo, Stillman, Crane, and Holliday all noted various factors outside of the university’s control.

“We should also never forget external factors — demographic shifts, declining college-going rates, state budget reductions and world events,” Holliday said. 

On top of the uncontrollable occurrences, Crane pointed out the factors like the widely reported — potential — plan in 2023 to house students on a barge in the Eureka Bay, as well as consistent protests. 

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” Crane said. “We’ve attracted some negative attention. That is limiting our ability to grow.”

Not only is the university below its CSU-set enrollment target, it’s also well below the enrollment of many previous years. 

“We need people in seats,” Crane said. “Butts in seats. I look at classes that have seven students and 11 students, we need those classes a little more full.”

The low enrollment and decreasing support from the state both put financial strain on the university, Crane added.

Some students see enrollment growth as a double-edged sword.

“I think it’d be amazing for small businesses,” said Henry Grand, a senior studying business administration. “It would help them grow, help them support their families if there was an increase in enrollment. And for some folks, it would drive up the cost of living. It would make commuting really challenging. It would kind of take away from the natural beauty… you know, they would feel like their home was being kind of invaded.”

Changes, large and small

 In fall of 2021, the CSU system dropped ACT/SAT scores as a requirement to enroll, instead adopting a multi-factor admission scoring process (MFAS). During the Fall 2024 semester, an automated system-wide CSU MFAS process was put in place to further streamline the admissions process. These changes, at least initially, appear to be achieving the goal of increased enrollment. Fall 2024 saw a record number of applicants at 22,690. 47 new faculty have been hired, since the Spring 2022 semester, to areas where the university expects growth, according to Yoo — who also noted the low student to faculty ratio at the university. 

But, the biggest change, at least visually, comes in the form of a massive housing complex called the Craftsman’s Mall, which is under construction. The building’s completion will come in two stages, according to Yoo. The first tower includes 608 beds and will be ready for occupancy in the fall semester of 2025, according to Yoo. The second tower will be ready for occupancy for the spring 2025 semester. In total, the complex will boast 964 beds and is currently slated to cost 225 million — 125 million over the initial estimate. Following the planned demolition of the Campus Apartments, costing an estimated 2 million and expected to be complete in 2026, the university will offer 2,827 beds.

As changes to campus come one after the other, Grand questioned whether students’ best interests had been adequately included in the process.

“I am feeling though, that maybe the students’ perspective isn’t really what the university cares about,” Grand said. “They kind of care more about what their stakeholders see…it kind of feels like the school is being changed for an outside perspective, from an outside perspective.”

Growing pains aside, Stillman emphasized the undeniable value that the university brings to the Humboldt County community.

“I know a lot of people that live here are not happy with Cal Poly, or Humboldt, or whatever you want to call it, and I think then possibly they are living in the wrong community,” Stillman said. “Because if we didn’t have Cal Poly, we would not have the richness that we currently have.”

By Emma Wilson and Gabriel Zucker

Campus accessibility has been a long, ongoing issue for students and faculty combined. As a campus, there have been concerns for the accessibility of campus buildings and facilities. This led to a push by community members advocating for a change in accommodations on campus, reforming the campus culture around disabilities, and critiquing ableist systems.

Aileen Yoo, director of News and Information, emphasized the university’s compliance with ADA Title II and its dedication to improving accessibility.

“The University fully recognizes that there are challenges with accessibility on campus,” Yoo said. “The reality is that there are physical and financial challenges to updating a campus that is more than a century old. We have worked diligently over the years to make programs and resources accessible for all members of our community.” 

Creation and purpose of accesscph.org

Access CPH is a website that gives information to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. It was created by Jim Graham, a natural resource professor who is disabled. Over a year ago, he saw that the school’s disability map of the campus was missing a lot of information.

“To my horror, it still shows an accessible map going down the stairs in front of the [Natural Resource Building],” said Graham. “I’ve been raising this issue — this specific issue — for over a year now, and it hasn’t been addressed.”

Over the summer, he decided to collect data around the school and compare it with the data from facilities. First, he tried to get funding from the school to bring on student workers to collect the data. He received no funding from the school and collected all of the data himself, which was very difficult due to his disability.  

“We had a couple students work on it during one of their classes as part of their class project,” Graham said. “And then, over the summer, I just started going out and measuring, particularly the slopes and cross slopes, and that generated this map of the accessible areas. And then I combined it with the data from facilities, including some other data from facilities to create this map.”

All of his findings were put into a map with comparisons and notes between his findings and the facilities accessibility map. He found multiple problems across the campus that were legal, but still caused a lot of problems for students with disabilities. 

“If you’re in a wheelchair and you’re on the fifth floor of BSS, there’s instructions for people to go down the stairs,” Graham said. “There’s no instructions for people in a wheelchair, which scares them, right? There are instructions now on the website, but they’re not in the buildings.” 

Graham is still fighting for change on this campus. Although it is a slow process, he admits there is some progress. He said that the new ADA/504 Interim Coordinator Crystal Coombes is making a lot of improvements and changes to policy and the website. Graham believes the biggest problem is existing facilities on campus. 

Stigma built into the foundation

Rosamel Benavides-Garb, Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion & Campus Diversity Officer, sees one thing that has been happening at Cal Poly Humboldt for the last 30 years — an inaccessible campus.

“Colleagues, students, and staff that have disabilities, whether they’re visible or invisible, have never been part of the design of the university,” Benavides-Garb said. “This is not a nice formulation, but is part of a structural aspect of the institution. So, the historical 30 years or more — I would dare to say, the last 100 years — is the same.”

According to Benavides-Garb, Cal Poly Humboldt was structurally designed for a walking population, which excludes the people who need accommodations. This prompted him to question what was happening with this particular population of disabled individuals. 

“Our colleagues are bringing to our attention and saying, ‘Please, let’s do something. Let’s do something about this. We’re a public university with an ethos of services. Let’s be truthful to that call,’” Benavides-Garb said.

Julie Myers, a student at Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in ecological restoration, feels unsupported by the institution as a whole.

“I changed my major because I didn’t really see the leniency, like the flexibility from professors that way. And ecological restoration seems to be a little more understandable than forestry, but I’m having a hard time because a lot of the professors, they’re not used to people with disabilities going to outdoor labs and stuff,” Myers said.

Alicia Martin, a student and advocate at Cal Poly Humboldt, discussed her journey and experiences with disability accommodations. She highlighted the challenges faced by students with disabilities, such as parking issues and the stigma around disclosing needs. Martin emphasized the importance of independence and disclosure in accommodations and criticized the current system for its flaws.

Martin co-founded the Adaptable Club in 2019 to support students with disabilities and address institutional barriers. 

“I don’t care if you’re disabled,” Martin said. “We need allies, we need a club; we need a community for people with disabilities. And that’s when we started Adaptable, which was a club for students with disabilities on campus. Unfortunately, it went out of service once we all graduated and moved on, and we’re definitely hoping to get that back.”

Martin also expressed the need for better data collection and community involvement to improve retention and recruitment of students with disabilities. She expressed hope for the new interim president’s commitment to disability issues.

“The new president, one thing that I vividly remember him saying from his speech is he’s not only an ally, but he’s an accomplice,” Martin said. “He really cares about these issues surrounding people with disabilities. He has a background in special education, which is what I would like to major in with my PhD. So I’m very hopeful with this interim president. ”

Impact on students, teachers and staff

Aaron Donaldson, a lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, emphasized the need for a campus-wide ADA rebuilding and criticized the university’s slow progress, calling for a cultural shift towards anti-ableism.

“There is an ableist culture on this campus,” Donaldson said. “People have walked by these problems for decades, and in order to fix that, we need a campus-wide recommitment to anti-ableism. This is infrastructure — every building, every walkway, every elevator. It’s cultural. People should not be walking by Telonicher House in silence.”

Despite the removal of bushes blocking railings next to the Art A building on B street, Donaldson feels that progress is too slow and not enough is being done to address ADA issues proactively.

“Other people who can walk should see the railing with the bushes and not say, ‘Those are cute,” but ask the question, “What happens if someone needs to grab those railings? Who do I talk to to get this railing cleared?’” Donaldson said. 

Myers suggested improvements like better transportation to classrooms, more accessible buildings, and personalized accommodations. 

“I’ve been complaining for years about the transportation, about the new shuttle, how maybe it could go to actual classrooms, and not just like the BSS or the Kinesiology building, maybe to the NR building or the forestry building,” Myers said. “The disability van could be whenever you need it, and you can call if you need it.”

“One, anyone can become disabled at any point in their life,” Martin said. “No one is immune. Two, there is what we call terror management theory and psychology. This fear of death, this fear of pain, this fear of becoming disabled, prevents [people] from wanting to address this. We want to avoid it. If we lean into it and we and we look at what that’s like, we have to empathize. We feel sympathy and pain.” 

This article is the first part of a two-part story about a lack of accessibility for people on campus and the university’s response to these issues.

Emma Wilson is a senior public relations journalism student at Cal Poly Humboldt minoring in environmental ethics. Wilson is an environmental reporter and the science editor for the lumberjack. She is also the president of the Journalism Club of Cal Poly Humboldt. Wilson likes swimming, exploring the world’s vast environments, playing music on the radio, and making collages. 

Gabriel Zucker is a senior journalism student at Cal Poly Humboldt. He is the photo editor for The Lumberjack. He loves photojournalism and wants to use his platform as a journalist to give a voice to the voiceless.