By Barley Lewis-McCabe

Dead-eyed administrators hovered over the open bar, just beer and wine — a big distinction. Drinking until their monologues about student success were as slurred as they were callous. Indentured student workers wandered the Kate Buchanan Room, waiting on their every desire, filling wine glasses nearly to the brim, bringing steaks, salads, cider-brined chicken breasts and of course a dessert. In the wake of the dinner, one thing was clear, it’s just unreasonable to assume the university could continue to fund bus lines or any program we’d offer, we’re in a budget crisis after all. Some sacrifices will have to be made.

I recently had the honor of being one of a handful of students invited to the distinguished alumni awards dinner on Thursday, Oct. 8. The most impactful administrators in our school and guests of the celebrated alumni gathered together to honor graduates who made an impact on their communities and to preach the accomplishments of our university. The room was decorated with flower pots, each table had a gilded H, golden plates and cardstock brochures depicting the honorees were placed atop long white tablecloths that went down to the floor. It was awfully tone deaf.

Alumni Relations footed the bill using funds allocated by the Cal Poly Humboldt Foundation. The Foundation receives charitable donations and invests in a series of mutual funds in order to fund a variety of student and campus services. It wasn’t money that was earmarked to go towards a certain program, It was up to Forever Humboldt to decide the most impactful way to spend it. Celebrations for alumni are hollow if current students are unable to have saturating meals or even get to school reliably.

At a school with obvious financial problems, I have to ask if this is the best use of our endowment. Should this money have been given to Forever Humboldt in the first place, or would it have been better spent keeping struggling departments afloat and uplifting current students? I wonder if people who donated to the foundation under the assumption that their donation would help fund scholarships knew what their money was spent on.

I’m not against celebrating distinguished alumni — the four honorees more than deserved to be there and be celebrated by their peers. In my mind, the problem is the dissonance between the ornate celebration and the average student experience at CPH.

I understand the limitations of our university’s budget and I know that there are plenty of good-hearted administrators who want nothing more than for each and every student to be successful, but what good did this dinner do for the students waiting in line for OhSNAP! to open? What good does it do for a student who feels powerless to stop the mold growing in their dorm? What’s the point in these patriotic celebrations of school spirit if so many of our students aren’t having their basic needs met?

The dinner was a far sight from tacos on the Quad or the stale tofu and tomato sandwiches we’ve become accustomed to from university catering. I dined on a sage butter steak over delicious garlic mashed potatoes, with a pan sauce and brown rice on a bed of eggplant. It was incredible — the best meal I’ve ever had at CPH — but it was poisoned with the knowledge that the average student would never be fed like this on campus until they graduated, if then.

Barley is the good-timing Editor In Chief of The Lumberjack, as well as a jack of all trades news writer. Contact him for any reason at bl258@humboldt.edu