By Savana Robinson

On the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 7, Abby Miles opened the door to her family home in Altadena and saw the hillside on fire, flames quickly moving toward her. Miles screamed for her dad, then ran to help neighbors before grabbing some belongings and bags she had already packed for her return to Humboldt. By the time her family had their dogs and most cherished belongings in the car, the sky was bright red and ash was falling.

“It was honestly a lot of running around and panicking,” Miles said. “What do you do when you open your front door and the whole mountain is on fire behind you?”

The Eaton Fire started not far from Miles’ house. On Jan. 21, it was 89% contained, having burned 14,021 acres and destroyed 9,418 structures. Miles is a senior child development major at Cal Poly Humboldt.

“The fire started in Eaton Canyon, which is right off of Altadena Drive,” Miles said. “And my house is two blocks over from Altadena Drive.”

Miles and her family evacuated and went to several loved ones’ houses in the following days.

Earlier that day, Charlotte Kuhner had to evacuate her home in the Pacific Palisades but found deadlocked traffic when she reached Sunset Boulevard. After taking 30 minutes to move 20 feet, Kuhner made it onto the Pacific Coast Highway before her neighbor, stuck further up Palisades Drive, was told by a police officer to abandon their car and run because the flames were so close, which he did. Later, Kuhner watched reports on KTLA5 of cars being bulldozed to give the firefighters passage up Palisades Drive. 

That evening, Kuhner was at an Airbnb with seven loved ones who had all been displaced by the fire. Two days later, Kuhner found out that her family’s home was okay after her dad and brother went on foot to confirm that it was still standing. Most of the houses on Kuhner’s street survived, but two streets up, including a home she used to live in, everything had burned to rubble. 

Kuhner is a senior accounting major at Cal Poly Humboldt.

“There’s homes still smoldering and burning and one house will be perfectly fine, and then the next eight [will be] completely destroyed,” Kuhner said. “It’s insane to see. It’s so devastating.”

Kuhner, appreciative of the survival of her family home, mourned for her neighbors and those around her who were not as fortunate.

“Me and a few people I know whose houses did survive are feeling crazy survivors’ guilt,” Kuhner said. “Our entire community is gone, but our house is still there. But what do you do after that? No one’s around.”

As of Jan. 21, the Palisades Fire was 65% contained at 23,448 acres burned and 6,528 structures gone.

Cal Poly Humboldt Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Chair, Jacqueline Mayrand, explained the causes of survivor’s guilt and natural disaster-related trauma and what those experiencing it can do to cope. 

“Survivor’s guilt basically occurs in the aftermath of a traumatic event that affected a group of people and some may compare their experiences to those of others who were less fortunate during the event, which can lead to feelings of guilt,” Mayrand wrote in an email. 

Mayrand offered advice for those experiencing negative feelings in the aftermath of traumatic events.

“I think talking to people who have been in similar experiences [is helpful], finding the support through friends, loved ones, co-workers who are willing to have these conversations, making sense of [it] with others,” Mayrand said.

Miles’ uncle is a firefighter who grew up in Pasadena and Altadena and has fought the Eaton Fire since the day the fire broke out.

“He actually has been staying at my house with his crew members because so many firefighters came from other places, and so many people were displaced from their homes,” Miles said. “He just texted my dad. He was like, ‘can we sleep on your couch?’ And so now, there’s five firemen just chilling in my house in the dark whenever they need somewhere to sleep, which is funny to think about, but also it feels really good knowing that there are people who are dedicated to this neighborhood.”

Miles’ uncle was emotionally affected by the devastation caused by the fire, exacerbated by a lack of water.

“He was just saying how he’s never felt like he’s been letting people down more,” Miles said. “His family home is a couple blocks down from my house, so it was really close to the fires. He just sounded so heartbroken.”

The National Guard is blocking entry to both the Pacific Palisades and Altadena to prevent looting. Only some people with proof of residence and valid reason to enter were allowed past guards. Kuhner noted the strangeness of being barred from her neighborhood, especially when wanting to help.

“It’s weird not being able to … go to my neighbor’s house and grab their things because I have some elderly neighbors who can’t go back in there until it’s completely 100% fine,” Kuhner said. “I just feel helpless. I want to help them, but I know it’s not safe.”

In the days following the start of the fires, an outpour of support and resources were shared on social media. In the aftermath of the fire, Kuhner noticed amid the shock, the community came together.

“Everyone has just been kind of looking out for each other, contacting each other. It’s been very supportive, but I think everyone’s really devastated and just in shock still,” Kuhner said. “I don’t really know how everyone else is feeling, but I know me and my family are at least feeling very supported.”

Kuhner spoke about when they would return to the devastated area.

“My dad and I were talking,” Kuhner said. “He’s like … ‘when we go back there, it’s just gonna be so quiet, it’s gonna be so eerie.’ We’re keeping the house for sure; I mean, it’d be stupid to move, but I don’t even know how long it’s going to be before we go back in. It’s scary.”

Mayrand explained how people have a window of tolerance when it comes to everyday stress versus traumatic stress. The window includes everyday stressors that come with things like classes, homework and deadlines, but stress beyond that can cause duress. Mayrand listed things to watch out for when dealing with stress outside of that window, like hypervigilance, difficulty sleeping, relaxing or handling stressors of everyday life.

“If it starts to be outside of that kind of window of tolerance where you start to feel like, ‘gosh, my anxiety has really risen and is no longer at a place that I feel like is manageable,’ and it’s starting to really be elevated,” Mayrand said. “That’s when I would start to, you know, pay attention and see if there’s additional support that you need, either with your group of friends, your family, to add more regulating skills or calming skills, or to [seek counseling].”

Kuhner and Miles both spoke about their hometowns in L.A. County, compared to how they’ve been portrayed in the media.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of news reports on social media and stuff,” Kuhner said. “There’s a few celebrities who live in this neighborhood; it’s pretty close to Hollywood. I’ve only seen news reports on that stuff, and it honestly makes me angry. It pisses me off because that’s only such a small portion of the community.”

Kuhner gave insight on the Pacific Palisades community and how connected they are.

“I want people to know that the majority of the community are hard-working families, and they’ve lived in L.A. their whole lives, they give back,” Kuhner said. “You go to the grocery store, you know someone who happens to know your brother and who happens to know your neighbors, and it’s just it’s such an interconnected community, and you don’t really get that in L.A., so it’s such a special place.”

CAPS would like to encourage those affected physically or psychologically to reach out to schedule an appointment at caps@humboldt.edu or call (707) 826-3236.

Savana Robinson is a senior journalism major and news editor of The Lumberjack, as well as a multimedia journalist at Redwood News. She loves motorcycles, cats and video games.

By Eli Farrington and Savana Robinson

Upon returning to campus after fall break, several things on Cal Poly Humboldt’s campus had changed. Some of the changes were positive. The brightly colored leaves cast an autumnal hue over the university and students bundled up in their favorite scarves, mittens, sweaters and hats as the campus’ true beauty blossomed with radiant wonder. However, some of the changes left a bitter taste in students’ mouths, most notably the removal of the beloved library circle tree and the repaving of the intersection at Harpst and B St., which was formerly laden with bricks. 

Xavi Smith, sophomore botany major and appreciator of trees, expressed his deep frustration with the university’s decision to remove the library circle tree. 

“I bike up here, and the bus was stopped and blocking it, and [I thought] they didn’t know what to do,” Smith said. “I was just surprised. Everything is gone; tree’s gone. Feels weird, like it never was there.”

As the afternoon sun cascaded down upon the void where the majestic tree used to reside, the reality of its absence began to set in for Smith. It was the same species as the adjacent tree in front of the Student Health Center. Now the tree stood alone. 

“I don’t know why they would [remove it],” Smith said. “It mirrored [the adjacent] tree. It was all a nice visual line, I’m so confused why it’s gone. They could have put something else there — plants, not more concrete. It just seems like a really strange decision.”

Eden Harnar, a junior botany major, was shocked and bewildered to learn of the tree’s removal.

“I’m so upset about this,” Harnar said. “I really liked this tree. I took a bunch of photos of it freshman year when the storm was going on because I thought it looked so cool with the leaves in the wind, and now it’s gone.”

As a botany student, Harnar has a special interest in trees. Upon discovering its removal, she was overcome with emotion. Many years ago, she would gaze out the second floor library window and marvel at the tree’s brightly colored leaves and twisting, knotted branches. The tree’s familiar presence had always provided her studies with a sense of comfort and warmth, but now it was gone. 

“One thing about me is, I love trees,” Harnar said. “I’m gonna talk to my professors about this.”

The botany majors both proposed replacing the tree with a garden consisting of native plants in the center of the roundabout, rather than the tall, skinny, bright orange traffic cones that are currently placed there.

The intersection of B and Harpst St. was paved with brick but now, a smooth, newly paved road has taken the place of the masonry.

Elyssa Sanders didn’t notice the change at first, but once she did, she was disappointed with the results. 

“I do miss the bricks,” Sanders said. “Because the bricks look a lot nicer.” 

Sanders also noted that the intersection previously felt pedestrian-oriented because of the bricks, and the new road felt vehicle-oriented.

“It felt like that was only [for] people who were walking in a pedestrian way,” Sanders said. 

Sanders’ walking companion, Courtney Tolhurst,  expressed a similar sentiment.

“It’s kind of sad to see another pedestrian walkway get taken over by a road.” 

Eli Farrington is a highly intelligent human life form working as the news editor for The Lumberjack. In his free time, he enjoys analyzing the complexities of the human condition. His passion for journalism knows no boundaries and exceeds time and space itself. 

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.

Campus community speaks out on the changes to campus following April protest

By Brad Butterfield

Significant and lasting changes have come to campus in the wake of the pro-Palestine protest this April. Following the protest’s conclusion, multiple high level university employees resigned, nearly tens of thousands were spent on security cameras, and a new campus locking procedure was outlined, but then not carried out as described. In August, a groundbreaking CSU system-wide Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) policy was released, which has resulted in ongoing and spirited dialogue on the topic of free speech on campus.

Campus locking plan… or not?

A May 21 university email stated that most buildings would be locked most of the time. Students would need key cards to access buildings, even during normal business hours, the email said. The plan, which was not put into place as described, punctuated a series of administrative decisions which left some faculty frustrated with leadership decisions and communication.

“The free mobility of people in spaces is a huge part of the joy of things, which is chemistry students talking to communication students talking to faculty in the anthropology department,” said Maxwell Schnurer, chair of the communication department. “And that notion that you would imagine the constituency that you serve as a threat, and that you would need to make sure that only authorized people were in particular spaces at times, is a sad failure of the university.” 

According to James Woglom, chair of the faculty senate, the campus locking plan arose from a period after the protest that was marked by a distinct lack of trust between university decision makers.

“I think we were in a space in which multiple constituencies on campus had a deep level of distrust in each other,” Woglom said. “And not to say that we have healed that mistrust, but I do think at that time, it was another in a series of actions taken without shared governance and without a sense of an understanding of what our campus needed.”

According to a May 30 university email, the locking plan had been in the works, “for some time,” and did not stem as a direct result of the pro-Palestine protest.

The walking back of the locking plan came after considerable conversation and advocacy from both students and faculty, according to Woglom.

The campus locking plan is now “on hold,” according to Aileen Yoo, Director of News and Information.

On May 13, the university spent $29,367 on security cameras, according to public records. The purchase was not a direct response to the protest, but, “added a sense of urgency,” to an already formed security plan for campus, according to Yoo.

Extended sabbatical, transition, retirement, resignation

Multiple high-level university employees have resigned following the April protest. Peter Cress, who was interim chief of police during the protest and Tom Jackson Jr. who served as president resigned over the summer. Also noteworthy is the resignation of Frank Whitlach, a 17-year employee of Cal Poly Humboldt, who headed the university Advancement Division prior to resigning and embarked on an, “extended sabbatical,” according to a university press release dated June 7. Additionally, Molly Kresl, who was associate dean of students, resigned following the protest under undisclosed circumstances. Both Kresl and the university declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding her resignation from Cal Poly Humboldt. Public records related to the matter were supposed to be released on Oct. 18, but have been delayed. 

While some in the campus community see Jackson’s resignation as a victory, many feel the opposite way regarding Kresl’s departure.

“I don’t think losing Molly was a super great thing for the university,” said Sara Jaye Hart, chair of the department of history. “That’s a big bump, you know. But losing Jackson was… you know, that’s a success.”

System-wide Time, Place, and Manner 

A first of its kind, system-wide CSU TPM policy was released by the chancellor’s office on Aug. 15. The new TPM policy allowed each university the opportunity to adjust the policy to fit individual campus needs in the form of addendums. The summer release and lack of collaborative conversation in development of the system-wide policy frustrated many faculty members. A lawsuit filed by the California Faculty Association alleges that the chancellor’s office violated the Higher Education Employee-Employer Relations act during the creation of the new TPM policy.

“[Mildred Garcia] can’t just create a policy that affects our work without meeting and conferring with us,” said Tony Silvaggio, interim president of the California Faculty Association, Humboldt.

Regardless of the lawsuit, the top-down approach to governance across the CSUs has disappointed some campus leaders in Humboldt.

“It has a hierarchical feel to it,” Woglom said. “It feels imposed. It feels potentially oppressive, just by it being something that wasn’t made by us and was applied to us.”

The new TPM policy “obviously fails,” said Schnurer, who added that policies like the new TPM aren’t an effective way of preventing people from organizing.

“The most stringent laws in the most repressive states don’t prevent people from expressing themselves when they reach a critical point of deprivation,” Schnurer said. “It just kills the small parts of a university where, honestly, we should be talking deeper about some subjects, and student protesters bring attention to issues that the university might never perceive.”

The TPM policy’s release provided $75,000 in one-time funding for each university to aid in educational programming regarding the new TPM policy.

“$75,000 while we have student tuition and fees go up, we are cutting classes and faculty,” Silvaggio said. “It’s really disturbing.”

At a TPM presentation on Oct. 3, Chrissy Holliday, vice president for enrollment and student success, emphasized that policy is largely the same as the previous TPM policy which existed at Cal Poly Humboldt. 

“We took existing policy, procedures, all of that, and pulled it into the addendum framework that the system gave us,” Holliday said.

Regardless of its similarity to the old policy, many of the changes in the new TPM policy have concerned the campus community. Under the new TPM policy, Chief of Staff Mark Johnson will serve on the newly created Free Speech Response Team (FRST), which currently has 13 other members.

“It’s highly problematic that his name is on it,” Silvaggio said, noting that the faculty overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in Johnson due to his handling of the protest. “Both [Johnson] and the president’s decision to deploy law enforcement against student demonstrators resulted in direct physical harm of students and members of our campus community.

The FRST is tasked with implementation and enforcement of the new TPM, while the newly created Community Engagement Team (CET) is designed to de-escalate through conversation. 

“They are purely there to help maintain a safe and calm environment and to intervene and to try to have calming conversation,” Holliday said.

Holliday explained that the CET will receive specific training in handling protests. The effectiveness of the CET remains to be seen — and some are skeptical. 

 “I think having a team that says, ‘Oh, we’ll rush somebody over to listen to your complaints, you don’t need to protest,’ you know, kind of misses the point to a certain degree,” Schnurer said. “If it’s left in the hands of administrators, it’s going to be the same situation as we saw last spring.”

According to Silvaggio, the faculty interest in the CET stemmed from a lack of trust in the administration’s ability to safely handle protests.

Whatever its imperfections, the TPM policy change did ignite a campus-wide conversation regarding freedom of speech and of assembly.

“The fact that it’s engaged, as many people are in conversation about what free speech looks like and how to police … that is awesome,” Hart said. “It doesn’t mean it was rolled out perfectly or even particularly well, but it still has an unintended consequence of increased engagement, and that’s good.”

This article is the third of a three-part protest follow-up series. 

By Eli Farrington

On Oct. 10, the Cal Poly Humboldt Presidential Search Committee held an open forum in the Van Duzer Theater. The committee included a handful of members of the Cal State University Board of Trustees, along with a few faculty members and administrators from Cal Poly Humboldt. 

The open forum began at 11 a.m. sharp, with Committee Chair Leslie Gilbert-Laurie addressing an audience of roughly 250 students, faculty, and community members. 

Gilbert-Laurie began by stating that the committee was in the early stages of their search, and the purpose of the forum was for the board to receive input from the campus community on the qualities and traits to look for in the next Cal Poly Humboldt president. She then passed the microphone to CSU Chancellor Mildred García, who explained that the search committee would not be taking any questions about potential candidates due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the selection process. She continued by saying that the search would be nation-wide, and the board would use the insights gained from the audience’s feedback during their search. The other members of the search committee introduced themselves, and then the open forum officially began. 

Over the course of the next hour, attendees lined up behind microphones on either side of the auditorium to address the committee. 

“We need a president who will foster a community where students feel heard, supported, and engaged,” Eduardo Cruz, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Legislative Vice President of Associated Students, said. “Our next president should be more than a decision maker. They should be a physical and active presence in our campus life and community; attending events, engaging in conversations, and building relationships with students, staff, and faculty in order to create a sense of unity and belonging. A president who prioritizes this kind of engagement will help foster a campus culture where students feel supported, inspired, and empowered in pursuing their academic and personal goals. Together, let’s ensure that our next president is not just a figurehead, but a true advocate for our campus success and growth.”

Many of the audience members that followed Cruz’s comments shared the belief that Cal Poly Humboldt desperately needed a president who was active in the campus community, and expressed their disapproval of former university President Tom Jackson Jr.’s leadership and lack of involvement with the student body. 

Other members of the audience implored the committee to acknowledge Cal Poly Humboldt’s uniqueness compared to other CSUs and select a president whose leadership style would accommodate the particular needs of the university’s isolated campus. 

“We are the Alaska of the CSUs,” Professor and Department of Sociology Chair Josh Meisel said. “It’s not just about transportation, it’s about differentness, and that is so essential that this committee recognizes. We are so far away physically, culturally, and historically. So much is so different about this place.”

Many commenters shared beliefs that supported electing a president that embodied the true values of Cal Poly Humboldt, such as shared governance, environmentalism, community engagement, an active presence on campus, respect for students’ free speech, and an appreciation for the history of the university as a place of activism and protest. 

Assistant Professor Rouhollah Aghasaleh spoke on Tom Jackson Jr.’s lack of qualification for leading Cal Poly Humboldt, touching on the fact that the former president ran the university like a business rather than an educational institution. 

“[Our next president must] be one of us, not a CEO in disguise,” Aghasaleh said. “Let’s be honest, how many of us in this room are wearing a full suit and tie right now? We need someone who looks like they belong here, not someone we would mistake for an investment banker at a shareholder meeting. Our next president shouldn’t come in like they are leading a military operation. We are not asking for Humboldt boot camp. We need an educator– someone who knows how to inspire, guide, and dare I say actually listen. Whoever takes this job should have an established resume in working with shared governance. We are tired of hearing what we cannot do. We get it, there are rules, budgets, and policies, but we need a president who helps us find ways to get things done.”

As the forum came to a close, Chancellor Garcia thanked the audience for their input and wished the committee luck on their search. 

“Thank you again committee members for agreeing to serve in this process,” Garcia said. “This is one of the most important things that we do – choosing a new president. I know that each of you will take this charge seriously, and your commitment is deeply appreciated.”

Eli Farrington is the news editor for The Lumberjack. He enjoys playing guitar, ceramics, and keeping his finger on the pulse. 

Cal Poly transition continues with groundbreaking of $100 million engineering and technology building

By Savana Robinson

Eight golden shovels dug into a long pile of dirt as dozens watched. Moments later, a countdown, then dirt flew. This commemorated the groundbreaking of the new Engineering and Technology Building at Cal Poly Humboldt as part of the University’s transition to a polytechnic.

Cal Poly Humboldt Interim President Michael Spagna gave some remarks before the groundbreaking. In his speech, Spagna threw out numbers such as the $100 million behind the project, which came from California’s $458 million investment in the polytechnic transformation.

“This building is going to be symbolic,” Spagna said. “Not just in the transformation of Humboldt State University to Cal Poly Humboldt, but it will serve as a beacon for generations to come, for this region and beyond.”

University Provost Jenn Capps spoke about the workspaces that the building will feature. There will be 15 teaching labs, a machine shop, a wood shop, and a collaboration space. Capps explained some of the work that went into bringing the project to its current point.

“It was like 150 to 200 presentations I did in a year,” Capps said. “We were incredibly intentional as I reflect back on those moments, and I’m super proud that as I reflect today, our community is at our best when we communicate, collaborate, strategize, listen, invite people in, and we delivered on a promise which is reflected right here today.”

With sustainability in mind, the building will be the first built with mass timber for the university. According to the American Wood Council, mass timber is wood products made of multiple layers nailed or glued together, and is more renewable than steel and concrete. Associate Vice President for Facilities Management, Mike Fisher, noted that the use of this material for the building will reflect the beliefs of the campus community.

“It’s an innovative way to build using natural products,” Fisher said. “Embedded carbon and what we do with steel and concrete is a bit intensive, and this is a step forward to demonstrate who we are as a sustainable campus, what we value as a student body, and as a collection of people that work here.”

Fisher concluded by inviting President Spagna, Provost Capps, Dean Riggs, Chair of Engineering Eileen Cashman, Chair of Computing Science Dale Oliver, Swinerton Vice President Jeff Good, and Supervisor of AC Martin Danielle Martin to fling dirt with golden shovels as a ceremonial tradition.

“I’m honored to be part of this university and to work with everybody here,” Fisher said. “And keep our university moving forward.”

By Barley Lewis-McCabe

In a seminar lead by Sheria Gordon and Chrissy Holliday on Thursday, Oct. 3 in the Great Hall, students were presented with an overview of the Time Place Manner (TPM) regulations. The intent was to clear up confusion, but many students left feeling like they had more questions than they went in with. 

At the start of the school year, the campus was given $75,000 from the Cal State University system to support TPM education, with things such as community engagement, TPM-related activities, safety training led by campus law enforcement, and tie-ins with other planned events.

Time Place Manner regulations apply to all members of the community and anybody on campus, whether or not they are officially affiliated with the university. The most notable changes were the implementation of the Community Engagement Team (CET), and Free Speech Response Team (FSRT). These two groups are both responsible for making sure students are safe, and the TPM policies are enforced. 

The FSRT is made up of administrators whose jobs were already vaguely related to the subject. Their role is to observe events, determine proper action, as well as implement any policy changes, and make sure that the TPM policy is enforced. The CET is made up of student and faculty volunteers chosen by the Dean of Student’s office. They are responsible for making sure community members are safe at these events and have been trained in de-escalation techniques, as well as peaceful resolution strategies.

The FSRT is a part of the CSU-wide initiation of TPM policies, and thus exists at every school, but the CET is Humboldt-exclusive. One of their most central points was that the new regulations are, in Holliday and Gordons own words, essentially the same as before. 

One memorable moment was the discussion on spontaneous protests. In the TPM regulations, protests and gatherings with amplified sound have to be approved 2 days in advance. 

Some students took issue with this, one being Peyton Leone. 

“When something big happens, students have to hold that fear in their hearts for 2 days before being able to do anything,” Leone said.

When this was brought up, Gordon mentioned wanting to alter the rule around it, stating that she’ll, “look into it after the meeting.” 

The legality of protests as a whole in the TPM system was something discussed at length. The event was broken up into two parts, with a lecture at the beginning led by Gordon and Holliday, and then the students were split into two groups to discuss any questions they had about the TPM policies.

Last year’s pro-Palestine protests were on everybody’s mind at the seminar. Whether in making vague reference to past events, mentions of encampments, or even upfront discussion on it, it was clearly not forgotten. Elizabeth Loomis, an Anthropology student, talked about their distaste for what they believed to be administration’s hypocrisy around student action.

“The school wants to advertise itself as a place that supports student activism,” Loomis said. “Yet, they called the National Guard on its own students”. 

Some of the new system-wide TPM changes seem to be a direct response to the protests, specifically with limitations on unauthorized structures, restriction on free movement, vandalism, and a specific ban on encampments. They also restated that face covering for purposes of identity concealment is restricted, although there are exemptions for personal safety and religious reasons.

The protests were generally mentioned throughout the forum, with Gordon and Holliday both making general statements on mistakes made last spring, and discussions on student discourse, or activism. They also reflected on specific lessons learned, and what they’d do differently knowing what they know now when questioned by students.

“There wasn’t as much large-scale awareness of the TPM policy stuff,” Holliday said. “I don’t think everyone really knew the right way to go about it, or the resources that were there to share their concerns.” 

Holliday and Gordon had no comment on whether or not the university was responsible for escalation during the protests.

Interim President Michael Spagna was also in attendance. 

“There were a lot of lessons learned, and the only way to go forward is to hear from these experiences and grow from them,” Spagna said.

He also passionately agreed that certain university responses to last semester’s protest were handled poorly.
“There were a lot of things that people regret,” Spagna said. “In high-pressure situations, people are people. They sometimes make mistakes … so admit it, learn from it, and [discuss] what are we gonna do differently next time.” 

By Mia Costales

On Sept. 27, Professor Rouhollah Aghasaleh received a letter titled “Notice of Investigation Outcome” from Provost Jenn Capps, ending their temporary teaching suspension and allowing them to be on campus for the first time since April 30. The letter recounts the university’s final verdict in the investigation of Aghasaleh, who was present on campus during the pro-Palestine protests last semester, finding them guilty of violating campus encampment rules and regulations. 

“The University has received the final investigation report into your alleged misconduct arising out of the protest and building occupation at Cal Poly Humboldt in April 2024,” Capps said via the email sent to Aghasaleh. “The report made the following findings of fact: 1. In April 2024, you knowingly and intentionally violated the hard campus closure directive when you came onto campus without authorization and stayed overnight with the students. 2. On April 29, 2024 you ignored and violated police dispersal orders.” 

Despite this outcome, the university made the decision to end Aghasaleh’s suspension effective Sept. 27, the same day the email was sent. This decision came with the stipulation that they would not be teaching any accredited courses for the remainder of the semester and instead be given reassigned time — alternative assignments in lieu of traditional classroom teaching. Aghasaleh plans to use this time to work on projects and research, as well as continue to host teach-ins on campus. 

The teach-ins will be held as regularly scheduled, Mondays and Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., and are now located in Aghasaleh’s office in Harry Griffith Hall 223. Teach-ins are subject to moving to the student lounge on the same floor, depending on the turnout of attendees. Much like the community teach-ins Aghasaleh was hosting in the D Street Neighborhood Center parking lot, these too have a similar theme of touching on pressing issues such as gender, race, and class hierarchies. Assigned readings of feminist literature and room for open discussion are prominent components of Aghasaleh’s teaching methods in this environment. 

“Over the past four years, I have done plenty to uplift the name of Cal Poly and CSU, despite the critiques that I had,” Aghasaleh said. “I believe public institutions should serve the public for good. Those are not built and funded for the administrators’ convenience. I remain committed to [being] a proud member of this family. My case was — is — not about what I have done; it is about the discomfort my presence causes.”

While Aghasaleh has expressed their gratitude for being back on campus, they have also struggled with certain places, individuals, and environments triggering painful memories from last April. They describe being able to feel the gazes of those unhappy about their return, specifically from Provost Capps and from Academic Affair Admin. Still, many students and faculty have shown them kindness and welcomed them back with open arms. 

“Last year, I was celebrated for my research — receiving [the] McCrone Award — and I presented, Silence Breaking: A Story of Forgotten Bodies in the Classroom, where the audience, including deans and administrators, applauded,” Aghasaleh said. “The last line from the transcript of my presentation reads, ‘Schools as state institutions are particularly successful at producing docile bodies, or punishing the bodies that resist.’ But, when I embodied that very research, they turned against me.”

Since being back on campus, Aghasaleh has submitted their application for tenure and promotion. This is a seven-month process and the application must be reviewed by the Department Committee, then the College Committee, Dean, University Committee, and lastly, Provost. Aghasaleh will hear the final decision by June. However, they were informed that their reprimand could negatively affect their ability to receive tenure. In the meantime, they understand that their career is in jeopardy and are working towards healing and remaining human in such a time of uncertainty. 

“You may be waiting for the perfect moment to speak up, but that moment will never come,” Aghasaleh said. “You owe it to your students, your colleagues, your kids, and yourself. Otherwise, you are complicit in the dehumanization of this institution. I urge you to ask, ‘does this campus become better when scholars are pushed out? Does it become stronger when dissent is silenced?’ They might be able to remove our bodies from this campus, but they cannot remove the kinship we, as humans, have built. We do not make offspring, but we make kinship. That kinship remains, no matter what they do to us.”

Mia is a junior Journalism major and the Life & Arts editor for The Lumberjack. With an extensive background in music performance, she hopes to combine her love of music and the arts with her passion for localized news and activism to bring thoughtful and informed stories to the public. 

By Jordan Huber

EDIT: Updated with new information on the protest in the quad

Pseudonyms have been used for sources in this article.

On October 7, 2023, over 1200 people in Israel and its occupied territories were killed by Hamas operatives. It has been one year since the events that have taken place. With frustrations from both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel members of the community rising, both groups opted to mobilize on Monday.

March on the Plaza

A flyer was distributed both on campus and through social media platforms detailing a march to take place at noon Monday, Oct. 7. The group chose to meet at the recently painted David Josiah Lawson Mural at the D Street Neighborhood Center. By 12:30 p.m., the crowd had swelled to over 150 participants ranging from community members, students, and professors. Almost every person was masked, and those who were not were immediately offered a mask and a stick of chalk. The crowd varied in age from college students to elderly community members. They dressed in anything from all black clothing to colorful displays of rainbow garb.  Around 10 of the protestors donned high visibility vests to act as buffers between any possible counter-protesters, and to make sure any of the participants in the march would be safely able to cross any streets. Rick Toledo, a member of the Students for a Democratic Society of Humboldt, rallied the crowd with the use of a megaphone. 

“We are here today to rally together,” Toledo said. 

Protestors began marching up LK Wood Boulevard toward the university. Students carried signs written on Korbel Champagne bottle cases with phrases advocating for ceasing bombing in Lebanon and calling attention to the plight of Palestinians, since the inception of Israel and in the year since October 7, 2023. The crowd made their way to LK Wood and Sunset Avenue intersection. The Cal Poly Humboldt sign, subjected to frequent taggings of pro-Palestine messaging and even a car accident in the past, was graffitied with chalk linking the university with Israel and that the university is complicit in genocide. The crowd rested at the sign, and began erupting in chants directed at the passing vehicles.

“Judaism yes, zionism no,” the crowd roared over the blaring of horns and lunchtime traffic. 

Cars passing by honked in support, while some drivers gave a thumbs down to the actions of the group. The sun beat down as the protestors made their way back towards the mural, with the goal of reaching the plaza. A new leader of the march asked if the crowd wanted to begin chanting in Arabic. 

“Palestine hurra, hurra,” was heard as the protestors passed the library circle. Several of the protesters began splitting off to head back to campus, with the majority still determined to reach the plaza. The safety buffers helped escort protestors across the streets of Arcata, eventually reaching the Arcata plaza at 1:30 p.m. Speakers began addressing the crowd one at a time. Some read out handwritten stories, others implored the community to come together to care about Palestine and its citizens.

“What is happening to Palestine is what happened to indigenous peoples here,” Toledo pleaded with the crowd over the microphone. 

Around 2:00 p.m., the crowd began making their way back to the D Street Neighborhood Center, where they dispersed without incident.

Unrest in the Quad

A separate flyer circulated through social media that called for students to gather in the library circle on Monday at 11:15 a.m. The flyer advertised that students should, “Come have a pillow fight and give the admin a fright!” By 11:30 a.m., only four students had gathered by the tree, with one equipped with a pillow. This group eventually made their way to the Student Activity Center Quad at the heart of campus. They linked up with another small group of pro-Palestine protestors, who had already begun congregating in front of Siemens Hall. In the Student Activity Center quad, a table was set up earlier within twenty-five feet of the entrance to Siemens Hall in the afternoon by the Jewish Student Union. Each group stood in defiance of the other with flags of Palestine and Israel being carried by the light wind. 

Two signs sat on either side of the pro-Israel table: “I am an American Jew, ask me about October 7th” and “I am an Israeli, ask me about October 7th.” Both sides of activists did not cede ground to the other. Tensions rose as the clock moved past 12:00 p.m. Mentions of the growing crowds drew the attention of Dean of Students Mitch Mitchell, as well as other university administrators. Mitchell engaged with both sides and stood between both as frustrations climbed to a breaking point.

At 12:30 p.m., a person dressed in a yellow rain jacket began scooping red paint out of a crock pot with a ladle. Paint was splattered on Siemens Hall and the quad. Police were called due to a report of paint being thrown onto people associated with the Jewish Student Union. An email was sent out at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening by University Police asking for assistance in identifying the individual who was involved in the alleged assault with paint. 

A video posted last Wednesday morning of the protest in the university quad on Instagram by the account “humjews” appears to show the individual who the University Police are asking for assistance in identifying from Monday’s protest. A person dressed in black appears to tell another individual in a yellow jacket, who was holding a crock pot filled with paint, that they should get it on a nearby camera. Equipped with a ladle, the individual with a yellow jacket on began flinging paint in the direction of the camera.

“Don’t take pictures,” the crockpot holder said.

The individual wearing a yellow jacket claims that the red liquid is to represent Palestinian martyrs and blood of students from the protest in April. The video ends with still-frame photos of the camera that captured the video with paint on it, as well as another individual with visible paint marks.

Emotions remained high, and gradually subsided as the afternoon continued. Remnants of glitter and paint coated the quad and Siemens Hall for the rest of the day.

Reactions to Monday’s events

Two students, who chose to identify themselves as K and R, were involved in the march to the plaza protest. Both are sophomores at Cal Poly Humboldt and were motivated to participate in the event due to ongoing conflicts in Palestine and the Middle East.

“For me, I think it’s just important to stand up and not be complacent in genocide,” K said. “I think it’s imperative that we show that that’s not something that we align with, that we’re not comfortable with our tax money going to that, that we’re not comfortable with innocent Palestinian civilians dying, getting murdered.” 

“Yeah, and I think even though we’re such a small community, and a lot of people think that we are going to Humboldt and we’re kind of secluded and removed from issues around the world, it’s important to show that even in our isolation, we’re still paying attention to what’s going on, and we still want to make our voice heard,” R said.

Both K and R believed that holding the protest on October 7 was justified. 

“I think that it’s important to show that today marks the escalation from apartheid to genocide. I think resistance of people under occupation is always justified,” K said. “I don’t think that [the date of the protest] should be taken into account. I think it’s very important that we show that we’re upset that genocide is still going on.”

They believed that there should have been more radical action from the crowd.

“Personally, I think this talk of de-escalation needs to switch to talk of escalation,” K said. “I think once you have people put on vests and keep protesters in line, that’s like a volunteer police department. They’re just an extension of the state at that point.”

Other students felt that holding any kind of event on the anniversary of last year’s events was insensitive. Another student, choosing the name Ally, is a senior in the College of Arts and Humanities. Ally self-identifies as a practicing member of the Jewish faith. 

“I don’t think that that was the day for people to be protesting, either against or pro-Israel,” Ally said. “I don’t think it was appropriate to spend the day yelling and in conflict, being violent and aggressive towards each other.”

Ally felt that both the choice to hold the protest on October 7 and the actions of pro-Palestine protestors was counterproductive.

“The fact that they’re protesting on October 7 is a complete disregard to the amount of grief and violence that occurred last year, and the amount of grief and violence that occurred every day after to protest on October 7 is to disregard all the lives that have been lost now,” Ally said. “The actions directly — the notion of the pillow fight that was advertised, the paint and pretty much the conflict that ensued. The tension, all of that tarnished the memories of all lives that were lost.”

Jordan is a senior political science major and the president of the Politics Club. With a keen interest in current affairs and a passion for informed debate, Jordan brings a well-rounded perspective to their opinion column. Through their studies and leadership, Jordan is dedicated to exploring the complexities of political issues and fostering meaningful discussion.

By Brad Butterfield

From the initial police response, to the weeks-long “hard closure” of campus, and on to the busloads of police in riot gear which finally ended the pro-Palestine protest in April — the university administration’s decision-making during and after the protest has sparked confusion and criticism among many the campus community. Recently released public records, including body-worn camera footage and administrative communications, have shed light on how and why decisions were made this April.

Body-worn camera footage, April 22

“I don’t have any fears for my safety or anybody else’s safety,” said Chief of Staff Mark Johnson on April 22 during the first hour of Cal Poly Humboldt’s pro-Palestine protest, which received international coverage. 

“This is not a violent group … they’re just misguided,” Johnson said, responding to Sergeant Andy Martin’s offer for an escort out of the building. Martin’s body-worn camera (BWC) recorded this key moment during the protest’s infancy.

Among the first protesters in Siemens Hall on April 22 was Jack McCann, a senior studying environmental science. McCann described the initial protest plan as an “open occupation.”

“Business would continue to run, the university would be able to remain open — the people would be able to work in their offices and be in classrooms,” McCann said. 

The occupation would not be tolerated by Johnson, who directed Interim Police Chief Peter Cress to remove the protesters from the building around 5 p.m., according to BWC footage. Johnson emphasized that the protest group would not be permitted to “camp out” in Siemens Hall. “They are free to go out on the quad and voice their political opinion all day… and all night, as long as they’re not sleeping on campus property,” Johnson said while Martin’s BWC recorded.

At 5:06 p.m., Cress recommended the formation of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to Cris Koczera, Director of Risk Management & Safety Services. The protest group refused to leave Siemens Hall, prompting the University Police Department (UPD) to call for backup. Then, violence broke between protesters and a combined police force of at least four Humboldt County law enforcement agencies who had joined the UPD. Several protesters were arrested before nightfall. Law enforcement left the quad before 11 p.m., by which point the protest group had grown considerably.

Just before 9 p.m. on April 22, the university sent out an email referring to the protest as a “dangerous situation” and announced that campus would be closed through April 24.

Of the six known UPD officers who responded to the original call, only three officers’ BWC footage was released. Cress, who’s BWC footage was the most complete, had a 2.5 hour gap of missing footage beginning at 7:40 p.m. The university stated they did not have any responsive documents in response to a public records request for Lt. Janelle Jackson’s BWC footage, whose camera is shown to be recording in Cress’ footage. The university clarified that Jackson was —allegedly unintentionally— using an unassigned backup camera that was not registered to any officer in the BWC system. Despite contacting the vendor, the university was unable to retrieve any of Jackson’s footage, according to Joy Finney, a staff member in the president’s office. A 2020 receipt for Wolfcom BWC equipment shows a $1,595 charge for a 24 TB external harddrive, five technical support plans totalling $6,000, and an annual fee of $500 for backup and recovery service.

Three-letter leadership teams

Throughout the protest, the EOC made recommendations to the Policy Management Group (PMG). From there, the PMG made decisions, according to an email sent on Sep. 11 signed by President Michael Spagna. The PMG consists of the president, vice presidents, chief of staff, special assistant to the president for tribal & community engagement, the athletics director, university counsel, and government relations, according to the university-wide email. Members of the EOC have not been made public despite repeated inquiries to the university’s News and Information office. Aileen Yoo, director of News & Information, advised that members of the EOC are not revealed due to the evolving nature of its membership, as well as safety concerns. 

“The university has reason to believe members may potentially be harassed,” Yoo said.

Spagna’s Sep. 11 email also states that the university is committed to transparency and wants to clear up misunderstandings about, “decision-making and leadership during emergency situations.”

Spagna, Johnson, and Cress, along with five members of the PMG, were contacted for an interview for this article. None granted an interview. 

As the week wore on

Primarily, the university communicated throughout the week-long protest by Humboldt Alerts sent via email. A Humbodlt Alert sent on April 27 informed the campus community of a hard closure of campus. Of the decisions made by the EOC and PMG throughout the protest, the hard closure of campus was among the most controversial.

“It’s the escalation, from the initial attempts to dislodge folks from the building, right?,” said Tony Silvaggio, Interim California Faculty Association President. “The overreaction…. It started there, and then came the closure, the decision to close campus. It’s really hard to make sense of the decision-making of administrators at the end of the spring.” 

The CFA filed an unfair practice charge with California’s Public Employer Employee Relations Board in May due to the hard closure of the campus.

Recently released public records give insight into the framework by which the university’s decision-makers orchestrated their response. Johnson, in response to a concerned faculty member, outlined a fundamental distrust in the campus faculty in an April 28 email. “These are crimes committed by young adults who have been misguided (at least in part by faculty at this university) into believing that their cause justifies this criminal activity, and that there should be no consequences for their actions,” Johnson said. “You must understand that the behavior of this faculty, outside of the little echo chamber that we live in, is seen as shameful and harmful to our students.”

In addition to the EOC and PMG, the chancellor’s office was in “constant communication” with campus leadership throughout the protest, according to Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office.

Governor Gavin Newsom did not respond to an interview request and neither the university nor his office would confirm or deny his involvement in the protest’s response.

April 30, the end

On April 30, Cress led an impressive force of police in riot gear onto campus in the early hours of the morning, putting an end to the historic protest. Where the initial police response on April 22 was marked by confusion and chaos, the second attempt saw a fleet of officers prepared for a fight, had it come their way.

“Remaining demonstrators have shown a strong commitment to their pro-Palestinian and anti-law enforcement ideology and there is a strong possibility of violence against responding officers,” read the SFPD’s tactical support document, obtained through public records.

In addition to the SFPD, at least six other agencies sent officers for the April 30 operation. Among the remaining protest group on April 30 was McCann, who described the lasting impact the tremendous show of force had.

“It made me feel scared, you know, scared for my own personal safety,” McCann said. “But, it really violated any trust that I might have had… that this was an institution that valued, you know, not necessarily truth, but open discourse. Any threat to their power is perceived as violent.”

For Silvaggio, the iron-fist response was both unsurprising and representative of former President Tom Jackson’s style of leadership.

 “It was emblematic, however, of the approach of the president and his administration of the last four years, right?” Silvaggio said. “It was emblematic of their approach to students, to student concerns and demands.”

This article is the second of a three-part protest follow-up series. 

By Brad Butterfield

The university-led police response to the pro-Palestinian protest on April 22 was unnecessary and operational planning was “regrettably deficient,” according to an independent review by the OIR Group, a police oversight and review firm. A week later, hundreds of California law enforcement officers marched onto Cal Poly Humboldt’s quad in an impressive stamp of authority. Public records show that on April 29 and 30 alone, law enforcement labor, catering, and lodging cost the university at least $475,872. In total, the week-long protest cost the university $2.9 million, according to the university’s news and information department. Adding to the protest response’s dramatic expenditures was a six-figure bill for unarmed private security who patrolled campus for 12 days in May following the protest’s conclusion.

Pandemonium at Siemens Hall, April 22

The ‘open occupation,’ as described by some original protesters, of Siemens Hall on April 22 devolved rapidly into total chaos by dusk. Before the sun had set that day, several students were arrested as tensions flared between law enforcement and the protest group. By 9 p.m., the protest group had grown considerably, but so had law enforcement’s numbers. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) was the first outside department to provide tactical support to the University Police Department (UPD). They were soon joined by 15 Arcata Police Department (APD) officers and 18 Eureka Police Department (EPD) officers, according to public records. At 10:40 p.m., after nearly six hours of failed efforts to gain control of the protest, law enforcement left the quad to a chorus of protesters shouting, “Cops go home.” An independent review by the OIR Group, commissioned by the city of Eureka, found that “operational planning was regrettably deficient,” and said that there was, “no urgent need for law enforcement intervention,” on April 22. The university’s new interim president, Michael Spagna, said in a recent school-wide email that the university is conducting its own review of the police response, which will be facilitated by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Law enforcement, by the hundreds

 After the protest’s dramatic opening night, an occupation of Siemens Hall began and barricades were constructed at entrance and exit points of the quad. Then, on the evening of April 29, hundreds of protesters braced for impact as Interim Police Chief Peter Cress’ dispersal order warning of the potential for kinetic projectiles and/or chemical agents echoed throughout campus. The message rang from 10 p.m. until the early hours of the morning. Around 3 a.m., hundreds of police in riot gear marched on campus, taking back control of the quad.

Of the six documented law enforcement agencies that provided tactical support on April 29 and 30, the most costly was the California Highway Patrol (CHP), whose bill totaled $266,255. HCSO’s tactical support totalled $39,471. The APD sent only six officers, costing the university $2,023 (assuming no benefits associated with the overtime pay). The Eureka Police Department (EPD) sent 11 officers who received a combined 75.75 hours of overtime pay in cash. EPD did not provide the hourly overtime rate of pay per officer and did not respond when asked. Lastly, the San Francisco Police Department’s bill totaled $70,684. “Thank you for your business,” the 42-page SFPD’s bill concluded.

Public records detailing the UPD expenses during the protest were requested on May 1 but have not yet been released. 

An itemized breakdown of all costs associated with the protest and its response, provided by the university’s Director of News & Information Aileen Yoo, quotes $267,000 for the CSU Critical Response Unit & Mutual Assistance, while UPD operations are quoted at $45,500.

In total, according to Yoo’s itemized list of expenses, law enforcement costs totaled $1,248,500 during the protest.

Cress, Chief of Staff Mark Johnson, Chancellor Mildred Garcia, and Governor Gavin Newsom were contacted for an interview for this article. None granted one.

All expenses paid

Mobilizing hundreds of law enforcement officers from across northern California is the beginning of a large bill. According to the SFPD bill, obtained through public records, food, lodging, and fuel costs were covered by the university. In total, lodging for the legions of out-of-county officers cost the university $59,526 spread between eight hotels across Humboldt County. The university has not yet fulfilled a May 1 public records request for gas compensation costs during the protest.

Business was booming for Humboldt Dining during the week of the protest. From April 26 to May 1, the university spent $56,339 on catering, according to public records. This included $4,819 in Emergency Operations Center (EOC) meals and beverages. The April 29 and 30 alone cost the university $37,913 in catering expenses. In fact, a single work order dated April 30 totals $13,185 for 125 breakfasts, 150 lunches, and 175 dinners.

Punctuating the exorbitant spending surrounding the protest was a $203,730 charge for unarmed security for 12 days in May, through a private security firm called AX9 based out of the Bay Area, according to public records. 

Footin’ the bill

The university estimates the total financial impact at $2.9 million, but expects the number to grow as repairs continue, according to Yoo.

 “That cost includes approximately $1.6 million in physical damage to the campus, in addition to emergency operations,” Yoo said. 

Work orders detailing repair work done to Siemens and Nelson Halls since the protest were requested in August, but have not yet been released by the university.

Additionally, emergency, admin & overtime pay is quoted at $198,741, according to Yoo. The university claims $60,091 in revenue losses, $80,000 in call center expenses, and another $71,112 in additional costs for the off-campus commencement ceremonies.

 According to Yoo, the university is in the claims process to determine which costs will be covered through insurance and which will be the university’s costs to bear. 

Following the protest, Cress resigned from the UPD, as did Tom Jackson Jr from his presidency. Jackson’s resignation, according to the university, had been planned since spring. His resignation was described as a, “transition,” by the university, as he’s now a tenured faculty member. Johnson, who’d been a key decision-maker during the protest, was appointed as interim vice president for university advancement — in addition to his role as chief of staff. 

The financial spectacle generated by administrative decisions has frustrated and confused many in the campus community.

“If it was a business, a truly cut-throat corporation, all of those administrators would be fired because of the cost to the taxpayers for their poor decisions,” said Tony Silvaggio, Interim California Faculty Association President. “They took that extreme measure for something that wasn’t extreme.” 

This article is the first of a three-part protest follow-up series. 

By Barley Lewis-McCabe

On Tuesday, Sept. 14, a man named Keith Darrell — who identifies himself as the Campus Preacher — visited the Cal Poly Humboldt campus. Campus preachers aren’t uncommon, or even unexpected given the school’s proximity to several churches, but Keith’s from Idaho, and his fellowship is located in Ohio. He explained his plan of driving down from Seattle to preach in San Francisco, he said he was drawn to our university due to its open-minded reputation, and he came to have a dialogue. Keith has visited a number of campuses around America, including Cal Poly Pomona. He began preaching in the quad around 12 p.m., near Nelson Hall East, and a large group of students quickly began to form. As he continued talking, he began to say things students took offense to.

“Homosexuality is unnatural,” Keith said. “Men, you are not meant to have something put in your anus … I should be allowed to drop N-bombs!” 

This event called into question whether preachers should be allowed on college campuses, especially if they are making inappropriate remarks toward students. Some students began challenging his beliefs, either with their own logic or their personal knowledge of the Bible. 

Despite his claims to be here simply to talk, he continued to preach on topics the crowd found to be shocking and offensive, at one point going on an unrelated tangent about how cannibalism isn’t wrong. As he began to make more eccentric claims, students began to protest in more comedic ways, such as singing Les Misérables, handing out phallic balloon animals, and waving pride flags at him. About halfway through his sermon, some representatives from the Eric Rofes Multicultural Queer Center (ERC) showed up to counter Keith’s homophobic rhetoric and to hand out Narcan, safe sex supplies, water, and pride flags. 

Jesse Benefiel, Volunteer & Resource Director of ERC, was one of those handing out supplies to students. 

“Just, make sure that they know that our voices are here too,” Benefiel said. “While there may be people like that out there, there are also people on the other side willing to support everyone here.” 

Some people chose more aggressive measures, getting up-close with Keith and yelling in his face. The person who got the most aggressive with him did not appear to be a student, did not give any other information and insisted that Keith is just a troll, and students shouldn’t give him attention. 

Administrators and police officers were monitoring the scene to make sure it didn’t get violent. When asked if his sermon, which extended past lunchtime, violated the new Time, Place, and Manner regulations, admin representatives declined to give a statement. 

Cal Poly Humboldt is a public campus, which allows Keith free speech. He’s allowed to preach his beliefs, but students are also within their rights to respond to rhetoric they disagree with. Students saw a man spreading, what they believed to be, hateful messages against women, BIPOC and queer people, and the Cal Poly Humboldt community, and took a stance against it.

The students unified in response to the speaker.

“As you stand here, you are the minority,” Jacob Carter, a freshman, said. “We are the collective, we are unified.”

By Andres Felix Romero

For the first time, Cal Poly Humboldt’s acting and prospective interim President Michael E. Spagna sat down with Lumberjack reporters for an interview to discuss his character and leadership philosophy. This Q&A took place on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Welcome to Humboldt! Is there something you connect most with the campus?

“I have to tell you — the larger mission of this university. I love the fact that there’s forestry, there are fisheries, it’s very unique for this campus. [What I also] really love about this region is everybody’s so engaged: civic politicians, the students, alumni, everyone that I meet has either gone here or knows somebody that went here. So, this is a unique opportunity at Humboldt. When I was down in Los Angeles, you’re one of seven Cal State Universities. So, you know, people have different kinds of affiliations. But, here at Humboldt State, now Cal Poly Humboldt, [the community] is unique to this region.” 

The Board of Trustees Votes next week to confirm your position as interim president. Do you want to be our interim president? Why?

“I absolutely want to be interim president …  I’m a long-time educator, and so I know how important it is when you have these rare opportunities at a university to transform what the university is about.”

What have you done so far to integrate yourself into the community? What do you plan on doing in the future?

“First and foremost, I want to spend time in community with the faculty, the staff and the students. So, everything that I’ve tried to do over the first three weeks is to be in community with, especially, the students.” 

“I also had the great honor of going to the student Experimental Film Fest this past Friday. It was great, it was 90 minutes of student films. And one of the assistant professors there invited me to a film, invited me to come and sit in and I just loved it. My wife was up visiting from Los Angeles, and we sat and saw all the student films.”

“The second thing is being in community with faculty. So, one thing that I’ve done there is I’ve really paid attention to being with the University Senate, and I’ve been to Senate exec meetings, and I’ve also been to full University Senate meetings with the faculty.” 

“That’s what a modern president needs to do. You know, presidents in the Cal State system, you need to do both. You need to be in community with students and faculty and staff, and you also need to be in community with the outside leaders in the cities that we serve. I have a rule, which is; if I’m spending more than 30 minutes at my desk, I’m not doing my job.”

You have a lot of constituents to answer to. How do you plan on trying to hear everyone?

“I can’t do it alone, so I’m going to have to be in a community with other leaders on the campus. If you try and do it just by yourself, you’re never going to finish that. It’s going to be overwhelming. But if you wind up relying on others as part of leadership groups, then you can help.” 

“So, for instance, this morning, I actually met with the head of Associated Students, the head of the Staff Council, the head of the University Senate, and the heads of a whole bunch of other groups on the campus. As a group together, we’re going to have to work together to repair relationships and restore trust in [the community].”

Last semester was a monumental event in our campus’ history. It resulted in some mistrust across campus. How do you plan to address this and rebuild trust within the community?

“My philosophy is, you’re going to have to do it at some level, one student, one staff, one faculty member at a time. You’re going to have to be in spaces where you’re supporting them. You’re listening to them. It all starts with active listening. ‘What was your experience? How did you experience it?’ We need to acknowledge [the individual experiences of the community].” 

“Then we need to talk about, structurally, what do we need to do as a university to make sure that we honor the fact this university has a great history of advocacy and activism? The thing that was different in April was that I think communication broke down. Communication didn’t exist amongst all these groups; faculty, students, staff, leadership, and administration. So [communication] is going to be a big thing for me.” 

“Recently, we had a situation where students had a vigil. There’s no substitute for being in community [with people], so I was there in case they have questions. At the end of the day, my job is as an educator, and so I’m there to try and be there for support.”

Being the campus President comes with lots of responsibilities. Most of all, people look to you regarding challenges on campus. How do you take care of yourself in preparation for these challenges?

“My regular therapy is really taking incredible joy in what the students are doing. And I just love that I don’t need respites from [education]. At the end of the day, we’re serving, in many cases, first generation students. This is transformative. So I celebrate with their families. It’s gonna sound weird, but I take such joy in those stories and what happens with students. That’s why I’ve never left teaching.”

Who would play you in a movie?

“I’ll tell you a funny story. In West Side Story, there’s a character named Tony. He was played by a guy named Richard Beamer. Richard Beamer later came to fame as the hotel owner in the show Twin Peaks. But, when I first went to Los Angeles, I walked into a flower shop and the person there said, ‘Can you please sing to me, Maria, because you look just like Tony from West Side Story!’”

What is your favorite food?

“I grew up on cheesesteaks and hoagies, so I love everything. My wife has a palate a millimeter wide. She won’t eat anything. I eat all foods; Thai food, Indian cuisine, sushi, sashimi, you name it. I’ll try and eat it.”

What is a place you would travel to if you didn’t need to worry about budget?

“Somewhere really off the beaten path, somewhere where I would not otherwise …  I would probably say Tibet, just because in my mind, it’s this historical spiritual place. I’d love to just go and be there [rather than] other places that might be more opulent, more touristy, but I’d like to just get the energy from Tibet.”

How Cal Poly Humboldt plans to enforce Time, Place, Manner Policies change

by Savana Robinson and Eli Farrington

After a historic week-long protest and occupation at Cal Poly Humboldt, activism, which is at the heart of campus culture, may be impacted. On Aug. 15, less than two weeks before the start of the fall semester, the California State University (CSU) system adopted a systemwide change to the Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) policy.

TPM is a set of rules that determine the time, place, and manner in which expressive activity may be conducted on campus. On the first day of the semester, Cal Poly Humboldt announced its recruitment for the Community Engagement Team (CET). The team was created to support a nonviolent, accessible, and inclusive campus environment, and to educate the campus community on freedom of expression in compliance with TPM Policy.

All CSUs have their own addendum of the TPM Policy — a version of rules that apply in the context of each university. These addendums were also updated to reflect the TPM changes. For example, Cal Poly Humboldt’s addendum requires approval prior to distributing or posting informational material, which includes signs, chalk, and posters. It also specifies that campus is closed to the public from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., prohibiting overnight camping or encampments without permission beforehand. According to the Dean of Students and Associate Vice President of Student Success Mitch Mitchell, administration has been working on TPM for more than a year.

“Our focus is more of an educational approach,” Mitchell said. “It’s not a point that we’re trying to minimize or censor free speech. We just don’t want it to become a situation where it becomes unlawful.”

Such situations include last semester’s pro-Palestine protest and occupation of Siemens Hall from April 22-30. Former University President Tom Jackson Jr. and his administration made the decision to bring law enforcement onto the campus to restore order, according to an email from Cal Poly Humboldt Marketing & Communications sent to the entire student body on the final day of protests.

“The operation’s objective was to establish control of the site; protect the rights, safety, and health of students and employees; eliminate the threat of violence and criminal behavior; and reestablish control of buildings and other property,” the email stated.

Mitchell’s priority is to optimize the way in which students and community members advocate on campus. 

“As far as starting to build the structure and format for the Community Engagement Team, we kind of had an ad hoc team that we were trying to develop, and we were behind the curve at one point in time, and then we saw a need and a gap … and we figured out how we could accommodate that and support students,” Mitchell said. “Students may not know their rights and their privileges.”

Mitchell explained that the TPM Policy shows students how to express themselves safely on campus.

“It gives a format or guideline,” Mitchell said. “ I don’t know if students are knowledgeable, aware of how to go about expressing and advocating and communicating how they feel broadly.”

Another notable aspect of the addendum is that it does not allow for amplified sound that disturbs regular campus activities. The previous University TPM Policy allowed amplified sound on the Upper Quad from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

Rick Toledo, founder of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) — a registered student organization at Cal Poly Humboldt — expressed his concern about the changes. Toledo took issue with the removal of the amplified sound policy. 

“They’re saying there are really no approved times when you can have a rally or a protest with amplified sound,” Toledo said. “That’s a huge problem for us. They’re completely gutting the one thing we still had in the old policy that allowed us to do that.”

Toledo explained another problem that this poses to campus activism.

“It restricts us from being able to have an effective protest because the whole point of a protest or a rally is disruption — it’s to make a lot of noise on the campus to disrupt things that are happening and to get the word out to people,” Toledo said.

Toledo said that the SDS is trying to figure out the best way to go about activism without breaking policy.

“We have students who were arrested during the occupation and who were suspended, who are now in danger of having worse consequences if something else were to happen,” Toledo said. “So, we have to consider the safety of our activists, the safety of our faculty advisor, and their job.”

Backlash among the campus community about the policy change is likely.

“It seems like there is a greater movement forming that’s CSU-wide since this is a CSU-wide policy so that we can actually act against it, systemwide,” Toledo said. “It seems like the actual fight for that will be a little while in the making, and it’ll probably end up being something that is happening across most of the campuses at once when there is eventually full-on pushback against that.”

As an established campus and community activist, Toledo is passionate about freedom of speech and the right to assemble and is worried that the new TPM Policies will impede that.

“At this point, what they’re doing is preventing us from having our voices heard, from gathering, from truly gathering and having, like a rally together, from having these protests together,” Toledo said. “There’s nothing unlawful about a protest or a rally. It’s really just that they don’t like it. They don’t want it, so they’re shutting it down.”

By Andres Felix Romero

On July 11, 2024, a message was sent to the Cal Poly Humboldt community that the campus’ eighth president, Tom Jackson Jr., would be stepping down from his position in August 2024 for a faculty position. In his stead, the California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia appointed Michael E. Spagna as the acting President of Cal Poly Humboldt as of Aug. 26, the first day of classes. In the CSU Board of Trustees’ September 22-23 meetings, they will decide whether Spagna will remain acting President while they search for a new president over a 12-month period.

Previous to becoming the Interim President for the Humboldt campus, Spagna performed the roles of provost and vice president of CSU Dominguez Hills. Spagna’s resume primarily consists of academic leadership roles. He began his career teaching middle and high school students with learning disabilities. He eventually earned his doctorate in special education from the UC Berkeley and SF State joint doctoral program. President Spagna also appears to be making efforts to involve himself with the Cal Poly Campus. Friday, Sept. 13 at the Redwood Bowl, Spagna and his team plan to host the annual College Colors Day. Spagna will start the event at noon with a few words, and attendees of the event can expect food, giveaways, and the second faculty kickball tournament.

By Mia Costales

It was an unusually warm Thursday in Arcata and the hum of cars speeding past the D Street Community parking lot were reminiscent of the buzzing of cicadas. Nestled in the shady spot beneath the eyes of the Josiah Lawson memorial mural, community members, students, and the occasional canine friend gathered in anticipation for today’s lesson. At noon, Rouhollah Aghasaleh opened the discussion with an anecdote about their perception of toxic positivity — a concept so normalized in the American learning system. Aghasaleh invited the group to question why a classroom learning about genocide should remain positive in light of such cruelty. They questioned why students should remain optimistic when there are chalkboards in Palestine covered in blood instead of chalk. 

“It’s okay to be mad, it’s okay to be angry, it’s okay to be depressed, it’s okay to be stressed, anxious,” Aghasaleh said. “All of those are valid emotions. We need to acknowledge them.” 

Aghasaleh first got their foot in the door in 2009, teaching in higher education professionally in Iran. However, their career can be traced further back to teaching in afterschool programs and summer camps in high school. In 2011, Aghasaleh immigrated to the U.S. to get their doctorate degree in educational theory and practice at the University of Georgia. They have been teaching at Cal Poly Humboldt as an assistant professor since 2020. Here, they have taught seven courses, including; multicultural special education, bilingual theory and methods, integrated math and science in elementary school and queer across cultures. However, due to their presence on campus last April during the Pro-Palestine protests, the university has placed them on a temporary suspension which prohibits them from being on campus and communicating with students. 

“We don’t have to seek happiness all the time,” Aghasaleh said. “‘Oh, let’s do something fun.’ Why? Let’s do something not fun. Let’s do something, you know, for reflection” 

This suspension is expected to last until Oct. 28, but a decision on if it should be prolonged is still up in the air. It is also important to note that while Aghasaleh was on campus during the Siemens Hall occupation, their role was not to protest but instead to ensure the safety of the students that were protesting. Because of their suspension, Aghasaleh has been holding community teach-ins at noon on Mondays and Thursdays since Aug. 26. They are able to interact with students during these lessons as they are considered community members in this setting. 

Over the course of the lessons, Aghasaleh has assigned readings like Living a Feminist Life by Sarah Ahmed to inspire discourse on theory and its applications in the real world. Last Thursday’s topics of discussion included conversations about the implicit and explicit sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia that dress codes perpetuate and what feminism means to us. They also touched on binary oppositions, pairs of related terms that are opposite in meaning, and the dichotomy between self and other. Aghasaleh encouraged attendees to share examples of binary opposition created by patriarchal, capitalist, and colonial structures, such as the dichotomy of man versus woman. When the group wasn’t discussing theory, they were in smaller groups sharing things that were on their mind or exchanging resources. 

“Education is a very conservative spot, is a very conservative structure,” Aghasaleh said. “That’s the nature of education. Governments have been using it to socialize, to keep the class and other hierarchies and privilege systems that they had. What I’ve been doing is to work within and against [the structure] and that’s so exhausting and that’s so tough. And you are all familiar on some level with that, working within and against.” 

These teach-ins have gained some traction in the Arcata community, partly in thanks to social media accounts like @humboldtforpalestine and @calpolyhumboldtmemes on Instagram, both of which have posted information on Aghasaleh and their teach-ins. Some professors have also encouraged their students to attend the teach-ins in solidarity with Palestine and Aghasaleh. Staffers for the Toyon Literary Magazine (ENG 460) attended last Thursday’s session with the goal of getting inspiration for their newest volume of the magazine. The theme for this upcoming volume of Toyon is Dispatches from the Global Intifada. 

“I really think it’s a powerful model for what a decolonized classroom could look like,” Chrys Furrer said, an editor for Toyon. “There isn’t a hierarchy between student and teacher. It’s really open and fluid, and it’s more conversational and less about having someone lecture or talk down to someone. There’s a lot of invitation for discussion and reflection.” 

According to posts circulating online, Aghasaleh’s teach-ins will continue until their suspension ends. Their end-goal for the teach-ins is to foster a safer and less harmful learning environment, as well as aid people in the critical analysis of lived experiences. They hope to teach with cultural and personal relevance to students and encourage people to think about the ways we can all lift a little bit of burden off of the shoulders of our peers. 

“Just because I have read a few thousand more pages and I have done twenty more years of teaching doesn’t make me right,” Aghasaleh said. “You could be right. And I listen to you and I’ve made corrections; I’ve made serious adjustments in my teaching. Many teachers, many schools want obedient students. I’m not one of those.” 

All quotes attributed to Aghasaleh were not spoken directly to Mia Costales or any student journalists. All quotes were transcribed from their lectures at the teach-ins.