Humboldt State intends to return to in-person classes as a growing list of California schools start the spring semester remotely. In a letter addressed to the student body and campus community, the school announced that spring instruction will not change. Classes will begin as planned on Jan. 18, despite growing concern from students and the community. Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State, Sacramento State, Cal State Channel Islands, Fresno State, Cal State East Bay, Cal State San Marcos, and San Francisco State will not be returning to in-person instruction yet.

Humboldt county has seen a recent spike in cases after the holidays. Last week the Humboldt County Health Department recorded 1,113 new cases of COVID-19. A new local record for new cases in a week. The omicron variant is responsible for the surge according to the health department website. The letter from HSU administrators says the decision was made in consultation with Humboldt County Public Health.

“[Humboldt County Public Health] is in full support of these plans,” the letter read. “Vaccine and booster requirements, mandatory testing, masking, and other mitigating factors make the likelihood of infectious spread in the classroom low.”

Students and the community are critical of the administration’s decision. Immunocompromised students will have to evaluate if risking health is worth the education. Ash McElroy is a freshman who works at the Social Justice Equity and Inclusion Center. McElroy is immunocompromised thanks to multiple chronic illnesses.

“I do feel like the administration is putting all immunocompromised students at risk by not even considering staying online,” McElroy said. “Too often disabled students are treated as an afterthought. During this pandemic, we are treated as expendable. Disabled students are still paying the same tuition abled students are, and we should get the same amount of consideration.”

Madeline Claire is an immunocompromised bio major who felt that the administration was not taking community concerns seriously. Claire reached out to the campus coordinator but did not feel she was offered solutions or help.

“As an immunocompromised person I’ve worked so hard and sacrificed so much to stay safe, and to me, this feels like the University is forcing me to choose between my education and my health,” Claire said. “It seems like the administration either doesn’t know what to do about Omicron or doesn’t care, and frankly I don’t know which is worse.”

A petition to “Delay the start of face-to-face instruction at HSU to protect students and faculty” has been circulating through social media. Students and community members explained their reasons for signing on the petition site. Mariano Marroquin gave a reason for signing.

“I’m a student who wants to return to classes but doesn’t want to risk my health,” Marroquin said.

Johann Waltberg commented, “As a local resident, the availability of medical services is important to me. An outbreak at HSU will negatively affect all of us.”

A few hundred signatures accompany comments supporting an online start to the semester. The push for online classes was expected as HSU faced a challenge to its accreditation. Last semester WASC expected HSU to offer more than fifty percent in-person classes by the spring semester.

WASC evaluates and accredits colleges and universities to ensure they meet educational goals and standards. For nearly two years students have been learning with online accommodations in response to social distancing protocol. The Department of Education required an end to the temporary authorization of remote instruction by December 2021. To meet WASC accreditation standards, HSU must offer more than 50% in-person classes.

Students took a break but local bands did not. The fall break music scene offered a variety of shows and genres. Venues hosted new wave post-punk, city pop, minimalist drone, psychedelic krautrock, and rural punk. Most shows saw a mix of touring bands and local staples.

On Monday an indie rock show at Siren’s Song hosted local band Biomass and touring bands Chronophage and Behavior & Mayako XO. Luke Aronie plays for Biomass and can be found at any hardcore show in Humboldt. Aronie played the show and described the Humboldt music scene this week.

“The local music scene this week was mostly quarantined, several prominent bands came down with Covid,” Aronie said. “I believe they’re all doing well though.”

Kit Lamb, who also plays for Biomass, described their Morpheus sound for this night in particular. Biomass plays such a collective of sound that not one show carries the same sound as the other. The band what it feels each show, often based on the energy of the crowd. Lamb saw a decent crowd to draw from on Monday night.

“From what I can tell there is a healthy amount of creative energy going around” Lamb said. “I was pleasantly surprised at the decent turnout to a Monday night show, and when college students are out of town,”

On Friday, Nov. 20 Blondies saw a decent mosh turnout for a trashy show. Something Wicked and East Brothers kept the crowd’s energy up with some interactive moshing.

On Nov 16 the Clam Digger Tavern hosted a show that had been postponed until it could safely navigate COVID-19 concerns. Ray Triana opened up the night’s show. Skye Freitas, as Cowboy Daddy, wooed the crowd with some experimental indie. Rottwyler came in with the rural punk sound trademark of Arcata. To finish, Morning Forever brought a dreamy sound all the way from LA.

A group of students eagerly scribble their names on blue raffle tickets surrounding tables and a mattress draped with flower petals positioned in the quad on Wednesday Nov 17. The raffle prizes on display are not your usual baskets of baked goods or reusable water bottles, instead including a selection of dildos, bright pink fuzzy handcuffs, ball gags, vibrators, and even a jewel adorned butt plug.

The Humboldt State women’s resource center put on their annual Kink The Quad event after being unable to put on a 2020 event due to the pandemic. Isabela Acosta, a sophomore art history major, is this year’s body politics and health educator for the resource center. Acosta helped coordinate the event and hopes it encourages discussions about consent culture on campus and education about safe sex.

“People are weird with sex especially kinky sex and ropes, I see people get really guarded and that’s fine,” Acosta said. “It’s not everybody’s thing but it’s not something you should be ashamed of or make someone else feel shamed for it.”

Acosta mentioned how this year’s Kink The Quad event has collaborated with other on-campus associations like CHECK-IT Violence Prevention and the Benjamin Graham Sex Research and Education Lab to table alongside the demonstration. Acosta put an emphasis on a bondage theme for this year with a focus on shibari – an ancient Japanese form of rope bondage.

“I was worried about negative opinions and negative feedback but everyone was really excited, especially the staff I met with, they were all really looking forward to this event,” Acosta said.

The event included a sex toy raffle, all provided from Good Relations storefront in Eureka, free condoms and lube, CHECK-IT resource booklets, and a live shibari demonstration every hour until the event concluded. Acosta was leading the shibari demonstrations with fellow student staff members and even a student volunteer, art studio major Livia Stella Miller. The shibari demonstrations focused on the importance to use safewords during kinky sex for consent and comfort as well as tools for safety when participating in certain kinks, like scissors with bondage. Volunteers who were being tied up also did demonstrations using their safe word for breaks or to stop completely. ’Apple’ was the safe word for volunteers.

“It was a little less itchy than I expected and really fun,” Miller said. “Kinks in particular revolve around a lot of power dynamics especially bondage so it’s important to know how to make your partner feel good and not bad, even in kinks that aren’t involved with power dynamics it’s just important to make people feel good.”

CHECK-IT Violence Prevention was also tabling at the event and handing out booklets for supporting victims of dating violence and normalizing consent culture. CHECK-IT staff member Sophia Effa, a psychology major, was running the table and has been working with the program for around two years. Effa feels Kink The Quad has destigmatized the mentioning of kinks by just being present on campus for the student body.

“I think it’s important because I feel like not a lot of people have access to education revolving around kinks that’s ethical and safe, so I think an organization on campus like the women’s resource center is really important for educating our students because not a lot of people have access to that,” Effa said.

Hannah Craven, an HSU psychology major who showed up for the event and demonstration, was surprised to see how many students were also there and was glad to see education about harm reduction when using sex toys with a partner or initiating kinky sex.

“I thought this was really interesting because its almost strange to me a school would have this,” Craven said. “In the past schools I’ve been to they have very much shied away from sex education especially in this way. It’s interactive and kink focused. I also feel like this is very inclusive to same sex partners which is nice because you know we were never really taught those things.”

Kink the Quad is an annual event on campus every November but Acosta hopes to get more kink spaces on campus in the future while working with the women’s resource center.

“There will definitely be more kinky events on campus in the future,” Acosta said. “I’m gonna try and plan something for the spring semester and see what happens.”

There’s no place like home.

That at least is the consensus among HSU men’s basketball head coach Tae Norwood and his squad, who finally got the opportunity to play a game in front of the Lumberjack faithful with their home opener against visiting Lincoln University on Saturday, Nov. 20. The game marked the first home event for the team since February of 2020, and an amped crowd of over 800 fans was treated to an instant classic, as the Lumberjacks closed a seven point deficit with just under three minutes remaining to defeat the Oaklanders 81-78.

It’s also not every day that your first home game features an NBA hall-of-famer. Gary Payton, a 17-year veteran of the NBA best known for his time with the Seattle SuperSonics, roamed courtside for Lincoln.

After the game, Payton said he was excited to compete with his young team against a difficult road crowd in order to battle test them.

“I love it [the hostile road environment], that makes me even more pumped,” Payton said. “You want to be able to make the crowd quiet, and we had them quiet for a long time.”

The win is the third straight victory so far in this young season in which the ‘Jacks have prevailed by only four points or less.

“I’m gonna have to go call my cardiologist,” Lumberjack coach Tae Norwood said. “It’s our third game down to the wire. All credit to our guys, their resilience and just the competitiveness and the will to win the game and the will to never quit, it paid off for us.”

The ‘Jacks led by as much as 17 in the first half before Lincoln closed the frame by going on a 25-8 run in the final seven minutes to enter halftime with a 40-38 lead. Lincoln led by as much as eight in the second half, but a 12-3 run closed the gap to one with 7:28 remaining. The Oaklanders brought the lead back to seven over the next five minutes, but a 3-pointer by senior Amari Green and a tip-in by transfer AJ Sims closed the deficit back to one. Sims proved to be key on the defensive side, drawing an offensive charge on Lincoln’s next possession to regain the ball. Jaden Edwards hit a jumper with just seven seconds remaining to give the Lumberjacks the lead for good, as the team improved to 3-0 with an 81-78 victory.

Coach Norwood credited Sims’ drawing a charge as the highlight play of the evening.

“AJ picked up two big time charges on the defensive end in that last four minute stand to give us back the ball,” Norwood said. “Those things aren’t sexy. They’re not the sexy play.”

Jaden Edwards led the squad again with 22 points. Three other Lumberjacks scored in double digits, including 10 by Sims and Green and a season high 12 points for Thomas Melonja.

Norwood and Sims both credited their team’s identity, which includes constant full-court pressure, as a driving factor in the victory.

“We were trying to get stops,” the coach said. “I didn’t want to take the press off. I just thought, ‘this is who we are.’ Credit to them [Lincoln], they did a really good job of handling our press for 40 minutes.”

“The press kinda does scare you,” Sims said. “The reason I can say that is because I deal with it every day in practice. Even the best guards, it can make you tumble up in there. Once we get about one or two steals, that energy keeps going and we want to keep attacking you, keeping the pressure on you.”

For many players on the roster, as well as Norwood himself, Saturday’s game was also their first glimpse at the home crowd advantage that Lumberjack Arena can bring.

“They were loud,” Norwood said. “Sometimes they were loud even when we were shooting free throws. If we get that excitement and that type of environment every game then we are going to be tough out every night at home.”

Sims also agreed with his coach about the crowd’s energy.

“I can honestly say that was probably the biggest, loudest supportive crowd I’ve ever played in,” Sims said. “They bring a lot of energy that makes you want to keep playing harder. Whether it was offensively or defensively, I felt they [the crowd] were a big part of us winning tonight.”

Even Payton, who knows a thing or two about tough crowds, admitted how much they can impact a game if you let them get loud.

“When you lose focus and you let a crowd get into it, you get rattled and then you pick up stuff,” Payton said. “They start running around doing everything, putting their hands on balls and we just didn’t accept it right.”

“It was as good as advertised,” Norwood said. “This is an unbelievable environment that supports its basketball program, that loves this HSU brand.”

Humboldt State students Gabe Kim, Valentina Dimas, Rachel Marty, and Skylar Gaven have released the film they’ve worked on since September of 2020. The multi-episode documentary follows the lives of Humboldt-area homeless men and women. The first episode was released Nov. 26.

The pandemic created challenges for everyone. It harshly impacted unhoused communities as the nation was ill-prepared for a public health crisis at this scale. With learning opportunities and internships inhibited by the pandemic, students found their own opportunities. Through their lens, they were able to find compassion and perspective by engaging with the unhoused community in Humboldt. Gabe Kim worked as the project director and spearheaded the effort.

“We often see people begging on the street or curled up in a ball and we just walk by and don’t give it much thought, but just stopping and smelling the roses, it’s really valuable,” Kim said.

Initially, the time frame for production was undefined. The students became more invested and worked on the project through breaks. Through the pandemic, it was a challenge to just stay afloat, let alone make a documentary. Journalism professor Vicky Sama advised the students through the process.

“You can’t do a documentary about homelessness by using Zoom,” Sama said. “The students had the extra challenge of trying to find subjects for the documentary while taking extra safety precautions so that they could also be on the streets and see the lived experiences of the homeless so they could tell the true stories.”

The learning opportunities from making a documentary helped to prepare students for a career in a tangible way. They engaged with their community and built trust with individuals to create a powerful documentary. The student showed compassion and effort for the communities they are trying to uplift. Rachel Marty worked on the project as a videographer and producer and described it as an eye-opening experience.

“Homelessness isn’t something most of us think about every day, but for some, it is a constant reality,” Marty said. “This project has been a chance to rebuild empathy and humanity in our community. This all starts with an understanding.”

Journalism major Skylar Gaven, who worked as an editor, wants to show the public what homelessness in Humboldt county is like.

“These are real people and I think that this whole process has been a great educational experience,” Gaven said. “They’re sharing their story, which is honestly very important because this could relate to any other homeless individual’s life. They’ve shown so much of what homelessness is like up here, and perhaps we can change the perspective of how people think of homelessness.”

More information about the project and the first episode can be found on their website.

Men’s Basketball

The Lumberjacks opened their season with a pair of non-conference victories over Western Washington University and Simon Fraser University as part of the CCAA/GNAC Challenge on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills this past weekend.

The squad started things off on Friday by squeaking past Western Washington 70-69 off a pair of late free throws by junior Jaden Edwards with three seconds remaining in regulation. The 6’4” guard scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to record his first double-double in a Lumberjack uniform. AJ Sims scored a team high 17 points off the bench to lead a balanced offense that saw four ‘Jacks score in double digits.

Head coach Tae Norwood talked about the team’s effort in a postgame press release and described how excited he was with the season start.

“I thought our guys were resilient down the stretch,” the coach said. “We overcame a five-point deficit with less two-minutes to go in the game. Their effort was a microcosm of who we are as a unit. We preach toughness, selflessness and a commitment to excellence. Tonight, I learned a lot about this young team. They refused to quit!”

Norwood’s squad capped the weekend with another close victory on Saturday, overcoming a small halftime deficit to defeat Simon Fraser University 63-59.

A stout Lumberjack defense headlined the victory, with the team holding Simon Fraser to just a 38.6% field goal percentage and a measly 22% from beyond the 3-point line. Edwards recorded another double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the ‘Jacks in both statistical categories.

“I thought the key to tonight’s win was our resiliency and depth,” Norwood said. “John (Riddick), Amari (Green) and Alonzo (Washington) gave us a much-needed spark off the bench.”

The Lumberjacks (2-0, 0-0 CCAA) return home for their first official game at Lumberjack Arena in nearly two years with another non-conference match against Lincoln University on Saturday, Nov. 20.

Women’s Basketball

Michelle Bento-Jackson’s squad traveled to Seattle to play a pair of non-conference games on the campus of Seattle Pacific University this past weekend. The Lumberjacks dropped both contests, losing to Western Washington 56-68 on Friday, Nov. 12 and dropping a nailbiter to Seattle Pacific, 52-54 on Saturday, Nov. 13.

Coach Bento-Jackson attributed Friday’s loss to a lapse of defensive concentration.

“There were pockets of time where our defense was fairly solid,” Bento-Jackson said. “However, it is a 40 minute game. We need to fully understand the importance of each and every possession and can not afford mental lapses in our defensive execution. Overall, we had too many careless turnovers and our offensive execution struggled.”

Citlaly Davalos scored 16 off the bench to lead the Lumberjack offense.

Saturday’s game saw the ‘Jacks go on a 10-2 run to take the lead 52-51 with two minutes remaining. However, Seattle Pacific’s Hailey Marlow nailed a jumper to put the Falcons back up 52-53. The Lumberjack’s next possession came up short and the team was forced to foul. A free-throw by Kaprice Boston sealed the loss for the green and gold.

Once again, Coach Bento-Jackson preached execution as part of the team loss.

“We put ourselves in a position to win the game,” the coach said. “Unfortunately, we had quite a few mistakes with execution down the stretch. It is the first time this team has experienced end of game situations and we will absolutely learn from this.”

The team (0-2, 0-0 CCAA) remains on the road with a midweek matchup against Dominican University on Wednesday, Nov. 17 in San Rafael, CA.

Women’s Crew

The Lumberjacks traveled to Foster City, CA to participate against strong Division I competition at the Head of the Lagoon. The squad raced in four different categories: Collegiate 4+, Novice 4+, Collegiate 8+ and Novice 8+. For many on the roster, it was their first taste of collegiate rowing competition.

Head coach Matt Weise said he was impressed with the race results, and stressed the importance of getting out aggressive early on.

“Stepping on the gas at the beginning of the race was the goal of ours heading into this race,” Weise said. “The experience piece is what we’re missing as for most of our rowers this is the first time being in this environment. I am extremely pleased with how we performed this afternoon.”

Both collegiate teams finished 8th in their respective categories, while the Novice 4+ squad placed third. The highest placing Lumberjack team of the weekend was the Novice 8+ team who placed second behind UC Davis.

Humboldt State Volleyball concluded the 2021 campaign this past weekend with a pair of home matches on Thursday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 13. The team dropped both matches, losing in four sets on Thursday to Cal State Dominguez Hills and in three straight sets on Saturday to Cal State Los Angeles.

Saturday’s final home match also stood as Senior Day, as the Lumberjacks celebrated their five graduating seniors before the game: outside hitter Christa Pilgrim, middle blocker Jasmine McNeal, libero Carla Crespo, outside hitter Lenox Loving and outside hitter Hannah Cantrell.

For head coach Kelly Wood, it was good to be able to send her seniors off after a difficult year on the court.

“It’s always one of the most challenging days of the year, your final day of season,” Wood said. “No matter how it ends, it’s just so emotional and difficult because you’ve had so many of these girls in your program for so many years and you just develop strong relationships with these kids.”

Coach Wood also said she was proud of the resilience her team showed throughout a long, tough season.

“I was just so impressed with the resiliency of our older girls,” the coach said. “They stay positive. They kept working hard. We all stayed unified as a group and I was just really impressed with the way they handled this season.”

For senior Iibero Carla Crespo, the memories she made at Humboldt on and off the court will remain.

“I’ve definitely made some of the best friends in my life,” Crespo said. “I’ve learned so much, just from the community and volleyball, and I’ve met just so many amazing people. I would never ever ever take it back.”

Senior transfer Hannah Cantrell also said how rewarding the experience at Humboldt was.

“I went to the University of Montana before this,” Cantrell said. “But Humboldt was always the dream. I love it here. When I was a kid, I used to come up here and visit, and in high school I was always like, ‘Oh I wanna go to Humboldt State!’ I ended up transferring here and I don’t regret it one single bit.”

For many of the seniors, having the opportunity to compete and finish their career at home in front of fans after so much Covid uncertainty made the moment extra special.

“With the Covid year, it was kinda like, ‘ok, maybe that was the last one,’” Cantrell said. “It’s kinda been touch and go for a minute their. I’m just so grateful I got one last season with the crowd, with the fans, with the girls and with our coaches. We weren’t really expecting at the beginning of the year to even have a crowd. It was kind of a surprise, and it wouldn’t have been the same environment without them at all.”

The team finished the 2021 campaign with a final record of 3-18 and 2-16 in conference play.

Humboldt State has presented the initial movement to officially change HSU into California’s third polytechnic university. On Nov. 9 the California State University Board of Trustees met to discuss the name change of Humboldt State University to California State Polytechnic University Humboldt, or Cal Poly Humboldt. If approved by the trustees at the next meeting in Jan. 2022, the name change would be effective immediately.

Starting in Jan. 2021, HSU began a self study program to decide if they had the qualities to fulfill the role as a polytechnic university. President Tom Jackson expects the turning of HSU into a polytechnic to assist in stimulating the economy of Northern California. Currently HSU is the largest employer in the area, boasting $495 million annually.

On June 25 Governor Newsom and the state legislature designated $433 million in one time funding for facilities as well as $25 million in recurring operating costs to help transform HSU into a polytechnic university. At the November board of trustees meeting Provost Jenn Capps, President Tom Jackson, and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs Sylvia Alva presented an item to officially request the name change of Humboldt State University. The action will be taken in the January 2022 Board of Trustees meeting.

A polytechnic university is one that embraces a learn-by-doing approach. This allows students to apply learned concepts in preparation for careers. It includes natural and applied sciences, technology, engineering, and also focuses on liberal arts curriculum. According to Jen Capps, HSU will be a different kind of polytechnic university.

“We don’t deem to replicate the excellence at Pomona and San Luis Obispo,” Capps said. “But strengthen our expertise in sustainability and traditional ecological knowledge, and social justice and who we include and not who we exclude.”

Within the first seven years of becoming a polytechnic, HSU projects to bring up the enrollment to 11,000 students, nearly doubling the current enrollment numbers. This has been a key goal since the recent years have seen steadily declining enrollment numbers.

HSU plans on hiring more diverse staff and faculty to increase inclusion. Another objective for the university is increasing tribal partnership with the thirteen tribes in the surrounding areas. The university offers education to the tribal populations to help them grow and flourish. Both the university and the tribes will work together to fuse their knowledge of science and the environment to help support the community.

The board of trustees seemed generally supportive of the HSU name change, although they did have key questions for the presenters. Questions posed addressed student housing concerns, giving back to tribes, supporting higher education in tribal communities, as well as strategies to improve enrollment.

Although many questions are yet to be answered, trustees were overall supportive. One trustee, Adam Day, voiced his support of the polytechnic change.

“It just makes so much sense for so many reasons,” Day said. “The special place this campus holds in that physical geographical location. Historical issues, the economic issues, social economic issues, environmental and ecological. Your campus is so unique.”

With the incredible amount of money designated to the school and the immense pressure to properly create a new polytechnic, HSU president Tom Jackson seems up for the challenge.

“This is a huge responsibility,” Jackson said. “HSU will be deliberate and respectful and responsible and forthright as we accept the investment by the people of California in this incredible university and the emerging region. This is our moment.”

There will be a virtual open forum held by Provost Jen Capps and Chief of Staff Sherie C. Gordon on November 19th at 10:00AM. This is an opportunity for students, staff, faculty and members of the community to share their thoughts and ask questions about the upcoming changes. Register for the Zoom meeting in advance, online. If you have further questions call or email poly@humboldt.edu or 707-826-3300.

Humboldt State women’s basketball team came out victorious in their pre-season exhibition game against Southern Oregon University at Lumberjack Arena on Friday, Oct. 29, with a score of 75-67. The ‘Jacks started strong, racking up 20 points by the end of the first quarter to lead by six.

Freshman starter Jadence Clifton played well early, leading the team with nine points by the end of the first half and 14 points overall. Sophomore forward Madison Parry and junior guard Julia Iman followed shortly behind Clifton with 13 points each by the end of the game. Junior guard Sharon Roldan ended with 10 points and Senior Ashley Taylor Peralta totaled 12 points for the ‘Jacks.

Southern Oregon University kept the pressure on the ‘Jacks with a twenty-two-point comeback in the second quarter, giving the Raiders the lead. The visitors would control the game for most of the second and third quarters, ending the third quarter with a score of 54 – 48.

Roldan helped narrow the score with a 3-pointer bomb from the corner of the court a little more than halfway through the final quarter. Roldan also netted two free throws, closing the gap 58 – 60 with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. A pair of free throws by Parry only seconds later tied the game 60 – 60 with five and a half minutes remaining.

The squad played solid defense in the final minutes of the second half, forcing the Raiders to battle against the shot clock in multiple attempts to make clean breakaways to the hoop.

Clifton drained a 3-pointer in the final 45 seconds of the fourth quarter, sealing the deal with a leading score of 71-64. The Raiders attempted to claw their way back to victory with a couple of final shots, but overall fell short by eight points with a final score of 75-67.

The women’s basketball team travels to Seattle, Washington on Friday, Nov. 12 where they play against Western Washington University. Both Humboldt State men’s and women’s basketball teams will lead a public ‘tip-off’ event to celebrate their upcoming seasons on Monday, Nov. 1 at Lumberjack Arena.

This weekend a tangle of costumes and limbs could be found in Arcata’s music venues. Local bands played experimental indie, psychedelic cumbia, punkadelic gutter blues, disco jams, and some mosh-worthy crust punk sounds. The collective of sound kept show-goers dancing through the Halloweekend.

Since the pandemic, Arcata music venues have been quiet without the familiar sounds of local bands. As pandemic life becomes second nature, the music scene has adapted. Bouncers check for vaccine cards and IDs to keep showgoers safe. Halloweekend marked the occasion for a music scene revival. In the past few weeks shows have started happening again. This weekend brought the music scene back from the dead in true Halloween fashion.

On Friday at The Siren’s Song Tavern, the bands Over Yonder, Biomass, and Horse played the start of the Halloweekend. Over Yonder is a punkadelic gutter blues band local to Humboldt, Biomass is a psychedelic sound collective bringing riffs to the people, and Horse brought the mosh-worthy punk noise and got everyone moving.

On Saturday, Pablo Payaso fought the rain and played psychedelic cumbia for Dia de Los Muertos celebration. The event was planned with Centro Del Pueblo, a local community organization. Later in the night, Pablo Payaso played at Blondies. The band started playing together this past summer, and now they have the opportunity to get back into venues and play live shows. Connor West plays for Pablo Payaso and is glad to see the return of Arcata’s music scene.

“The music is back, it’s sad that it was ever gone,” West said. “Blondies has always been a hub for up-and-coming bands. God bless Blondies. They’re back in business, same as Richard’s Goat, and some house shows are going on too. It seems like everyone is coming back.”

Playing in both Pablo Payaso and in Over Yonder is Eduardo Gutierrez. Gutierrez plays a wide spectrum between two bands’ genres, bringing swampadelic sounds to Over Yonder and singing for Pablo Payaso’s cumbia sound.

“I’m stoked about [music] coming back,” Gutierrez said. “It had kinda displaced me for a bit when there was no music. I’m glad we are able to figure out a way to play where everyone is safe and comfortable. Keep supporting local artists. I love being able to uplift each other in this community in all forms of art.”

Horse played with Pablo Payaso and Over Yonder on Saturday and revived the nostalgic Blondies mosh. The fresh band is made up of Arcata locals and HSU alums, much like the other bands in the lineups. Brayden O’Brien donned their Halloween getup and messy eyeliner to lead the punk band.

“It’s a very welcoming and supportive community here, if you like to make noise there’s always a way to do it,” O’Brien said.

On Sunday, Medicine Baul, Biomass, and Dream Honey played a show to close the weekend. Dream Honey played experimental indie blues through the rain. Skye Freitas welcomed a familiar crowd that made the show feel especially nice.

“The music scene is super supportive here, which makes performing and creating comfortable and I love that,” Freitas said. “All around acceptance and hype for all different genres of bands on the scene. Another thing to love is the eclectic variety of bands in the area.”

Arcata welcomes its eclectic artist back again to fill venues with their collective sounds. Venues like Humbrews, Richard’s Goat, Blondies, and Arcata Theatre Lounge are hosting shows again. Support your local bands and listen to some good jams.

From Nov 1 through the 12 Full Cycle Compost and WRRAP are teaming up to offer a pumpkin pickup to Arcata residents for free. You do not have to be a customer of Full Cycle Compost to reap the benefits of their service. As long as you sign up on their website to notify them where to pick it up, they will take the pumpkin off your hands.

Full Cycle Compost is a recently established co-op where five individuals bike around the city to pick up people’s food and plant scraps to turn into compost. Once they pick up the scraps, they turn it into compost at the Jacoby Creek Land Trust farm and the Jardin Santuario.

Their mission is to keep local food waste out of the landfill and to feed the local food web with healthy and nutritious soil and vegetables. Tobin McKee is a worker-owner there and helped establish the business with Morgan King from WRRAP. McKee is a Humboldt native who starts up new co-op’s but fell in love with the business so much he decided to become an owner.

McKee stated that 30% of landfill mass is made up of material that could have been composted. More waste means more unnecessary trips to the landfill for the trucks picking them up, which is not beneficial to the environment.

“When you take out your garbage, ecology picks it up, then takes it to a processing facility, and then they put it on a big truck that drives to Medford and all the food waste can’t compost in the landfill,” McKee said. “It rots and decomposes which releases a lot more methane than composting.”

The offer originally ran till Nov 5 but has since been extended. Now you are able to enjoy an extra week with your festive creations.

Starting in January a new law will be enacted that requires all multifamily dwellings and businesses to compost their food waste. Unfortunately Arcata does not have a composting facility due to the high cost so Full Cycle Compost is doing what they can to support the community.

“It’s gonna be a lot more hauling than we’re used to, but we’re going to do as many trips as it takes to pick up people’s pumpkins.”

Squeals of children and classic Halloween anthems resounded through the streets of the Arcata Plaza last Sunday. The streets were blocked off from traffic and packed with art vendors celebrating the weird and the wonderful of Arcata’s art scene.

The local cover band, The Dead Drops, played classic spooky bangers from the center of the plaza while adults and children alike danced and sang along in costume. The band played from 11am to 4pm, serenading the audience as they enjoyed the local food vendors surrounding them.

Art vendors brought a particularly interesting and strange array of creativity this year. From tarot card readers to exotic jewelry, the art vendors matched the Halloween spirit to a T.

One vendor brought a healthy dose of strange, with jewelry made from “ethically sourced” animal bones. Desert Lilies Bazaar is run by artist and belly dancer Ania Vogel. Vogel asked her mother Lia Sullivan to run the booth for her while she was busy performing.

Sullivan was dressed in a full witch costume and was sporting some of her daughter’s unique jewelry.

“This is half of a raccoon pelvis, so you look at her jewelry and they’re all from real bones, ethically sourced,” Sullivan said.

Art vendors weren’t all that was in store for Arcata residents on Sunday. A line stretching down the street waited in anticipation for the inflatable haunted house set up in the general store parking lot right outside of the plaza.

Families enjoyed a host of different activities including face painting, a dunk tank, and several other classic parade activities. The Humboldt State Marching Lumberjacks band gave a rousing performance that filled the crowd with lively energy and reverberated across the city.

It was a refreshing feeling to watch the streets of Arcata come alive with joyous celebrations given the last year and a half of turmoil and isolation. From the children trick-or-treating to the college students showing off their elaborate costumes, this year’s Halloween celebration was a rousing success.

The Mad River Levee trail was surprisingly calm. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves and a friendly elderly woman was walking her dog. It was a jarring sight given this was the scene of a violent murder only a week ago. A month before that, another man was murdered in an especially brutal fashion another mile away.

On September 11, 2021, the first body was found. He had been stabbed multiple times and received blunt force trauma. His name was Eugene Steven Segal and he was found on a trail off of Hatchery Road near Mad River.

On October 10, 2021, the body of Levi Harold Hernandez was found on a trail near the Mad River Levee and Taylor Way. His death was ruled a homicide, but the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) has yet to confirm how he was murdered. Both Hermandez and Segal were known to be living a transient lifestyle.

The HCSO released a press statement addressing the murders and why they can’t release all the information regarding the deaths to the public.

“Autopsies have been completed for both victims, however, cause of death information is being withheld pending the ongoing investigation,” said the HCSO.

The two murders happened to people with similar status in very close locations. However, the Sheriff’s department has yet to officially link the two murders. It is possible that they are unrelated.

“Despite the close proximity of these cases in location and date of discovery, investigators have not officially determined a connection between the two incidents at this time,” said the HCSO.

There are still people camped out on Mad River despite the recent attacks. Talking with a resident couple, it became clear that this situation did not surprise or startle them.

Dorothy and Mike are a middle-aged couple with a camp set up by Mad River. Neither one of them had heard of the murders despite the fact that they are camping so close to the scenes of the crimes.

“I’m not worried at all, not with her around,” Mike said referring to his german shepherd napping by his side.

“If someone comes around I’ll hit him in the head with something big, I have things to protect myself you know,” said Dorothy.

The HCSO has multiple tips on how to enjoy the river trail while continuing to stay safe, such as staying on defined trails, informing a friend of your location before going out on the trails, and keeping one’s phone out of view.

The problem with these tips is that they are not for the people who are being targeted. While the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office tells the public to take self-defense classes and avoid listening to music too loud, people with no option but to camp out on the river bank are left in the dark. It is concerning and disheartening that the people living on the river have not been sufficiently warned. The investigation into these two brutal murders remains ongoing.

Anyone with information regarding the alleged murders are urged to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Division at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip Line at (707) 268-2539

A government isn’t a government without its constituents. No different is our own student government without us. Since the adoption of COVID guidelines and social distancing, participation numbers within the Associated Students organization have continued to decrease. Many of the positions within the organization have remained vacant and policies going into effect are voted on by only a small portion of the overall student population.

“We’re trying to make a change,” Rosa Granados, External Affairs Representative and a major in social work, said. “We just need [students’] assistance to show up and to be there as a vote when these policies are being made.”

Student housing, food access, and mental health are always hot topics being discussed in these policies, Granados expressed. All of these issues, she noted, being present in the many different committees spread out across the AS.

Malluli Cuellar, Legislative Vice President and a major in political science, further explained that these committees are like smaller boards within the organization. Each one is uniquely centered around their own mission or topic, such as sustainability, diversity, bylaws, and more. These committees are also open to any student of any skill level and background to participate in without formal election. It is through the presence of everyday students working within these committees that many of HSU’s important events and policies come into being.

“The nice thing about our committees is that typically they are meeting biweekly,” Cuellar said. “So compared to the Board of Directors it tends to be a smaller time commitment. It’s a really good place to start!”

The AS itself is headed by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors are a predominantly student-elected group of fellow HSU students who work as the connecting mouthpiece between student and faculty relations as well as oversight members within the previously mentioned committees. The Board is currently made up of 18 positions, of which half still remain empty this late fall semester.

“We represent the students,” Chase Marcum, Student Affairs Vice President and a major in anthropology and international Studies, said regarding the AS as a whole. “And we represent our fellow peers, in creating a healthy and positive environment for their educational pursuits, creating and effecting change that they want and desire.”

This ability, Marcum explained, to represent and advocate for the needs and desires of HSU students, was the common factor among all the board members interviewed that had inspired them to first apply.

“All these programs that I’ve utilized,” Granados said. “Student athletes, mental health services, food services, and even housing service have helped me be here getting my degree and so I really want to be in spaces where I can advocate for [them].”

The chance to make a change through the AS was not only the catalyst for each member’s initial application but also is the reward that has kept them coming back semester after semester.

“It’s one of those positions and roles where, yes, it is extremely time consuming,” Marcum said specifically in relation to his position. “But at the same time it gives back tenfold!”

“It’s a labor of love,” Cuellar said, adding after Marcum. “If the amount of work that you’re putting in meets how rewarding the work is to you it’s really sustainable.”

Not all members expressed that working with AS has been all work and no play though. David Lopez, Administrative Vice President and HSU student majoring in cellular/molecular biology, expressed that it is the students who join that dictate how much work they wish to take on. They do this by the positions or amount of committees they choose to dedicate themselves to. In his words, it’s a low risk environment to make high risk impacts.

“There is a place in AS for anyone who is able to give any amount of dedication to it,” Lopez said. “It’s a buffet, an endless buffet! You get to choose however much you want to put on your plate.”

No matter what type of student you are, no matter your major, or what year you may be, AS wants to hear your voice and to get you involved.

“We don’t need you to be the best student leader,” Cuellar said. “We don’t need you to have the skills yet. We’re going to help you and empower you with those skills. As long as you have that spark within you to keep you motivated, that’s all we’re looking for!”

The best place to get started if you are interested in getting involved with AS is to visit their website at https://associatedstudents.humboldt.edu/ and to send an email to hsuas@humboldt.edu to get connected with the members themselves.