The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: comfort inn

  • Comfortable at the Comfort Inn

    Comfortable at the Comfort Inn

    by Angel Barker

    Dorm life is an important part of the college experience, but what happens when your university does not have adequate housing for its population? They turn a hotel into a residence hall. The Comfort Inn in Arcata, located in the Valley West area, is now home to almost 100 upperclassmen students.

    The housing shortage is nothing new in Arcata. For students like Gabriela Mendez, a transfer student majoring in psychology, finding off-campus housing was unsuccessful.

    “I was hoping to find last minute housing off campus,” Mendez said, “but there was nothing.” 

    Mendez has a roommate in the hotel, as all rooms are double occupancy. Each is supplied with two beds, desks, and dressers.

    When asked her opinion about what it is like living in a hotel, Mendez said, “People can say ‘you don’t get the full college experience,’ and like, the college experience might be cool because I am a transfer student, but I am just grateful to have housing.”

    Osiel Palomino, a returning sophomore majoring in environmental studies and management, had the same reaction. 

    “If it wasn’t for that room, I would have held off on going back to school for another semester,” Palomino said. 

    Palomino lived on campus his freshman year in 2019-2020 right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and moved home and took a break from school until classes were back in person.

    Sarah Neumann, a business administration exchange student from Germany, is Mendez’s roommate.

    “We made a good situation,” Neumann said. “I like it because I think we have more space and privacy, especially with our own bathroom.”

    “One thing that I really love is each room has their own shower and bathroom. You don’t have to share one bathroom with the whole halfway, you avoid those problems,” Palomino said.

    In addition to each room having their own bathroom, they also have free amenities like linens, a minifridge, a microwave, TV with cable, housekeeping services, continental breakfast everyday, Wi-Fi, and pool and gym access.

    Compared to living in a freshman dorm on campus, Palomino said that living in the hotel still feels relatively the same.

    “You still feel the college experience because everyone living there is students,” Palomino said. “You still feel like you’re on campus even though you’re not.” 

    A large banner welcoming Cal Poly Humboldt students and the friendly front desk staff also help with that feeling.

    Staying connected can be difficult, but the RAs and the Office of Housing and Residence Life are hard at work to help the students feel included in campus life.

    “The RAs have little events, to make it feel like the real dorm college experience,” Mendez said.

    Neumann and Mendez even bought a whiteboard for the outside of their door.

    “People can just write anything, so we can still communicate with others when we don’t always see them,” Mendez said.

    Overall, students are satisfied with the University and the Comfort Inn solution to the housing shortage.

  • Students are hounding for housing

    by Ione Dellos

    If you are on campus this semester to physically pick up this copy of the Lumberjack, then you know how rough the housing market is in Humboldt. On-campus housing is at capacity for the 2022-2023 academic year, leaving students hard-pressed to find housing elsewhere. 

    The solution our glorious polytechnic has come up with for solving the housing crisis includes housing students at the Comfort Inn in Arcata, where the familiar “HOUSING MOVE-IN” signs can be seen planted outside… the Patriot gas station on Giuntoli? For incoming students, will  moving them into a hotel for the year really give them the classic Humboldt experience? How will they go on a campus tour to the woods at 10 pm to engage in some completely legal activities in the forest? Will they still be able to experience the joy of traversing half a mile every morning from their dorm to the JGC for some subpar tater tots for breakfast? 

    There’s the additional hardship of inexperience in finding housing among the college age demographic, as this is many people’s first time leaving home, or really living on their own. I was just living on campus last semester and eating donuts from the J for breakfast every morning, now I’m expected to magically be responsible enough to get an apartment? If you don’t have previous rental experience, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, and there are some predatory property management companies in Humboldt that capitalize on that. With the reality of mainly in-person classes for this school year, the pressure to find housing near campus is on like never before. 

    Don’t even get me started on owning furniture! You will never realize how expensive a couch is until you have to buy one for yourself. Tables are also very expensive, but I could talk about how expensive furniture is all day. When hunting for housing, furniture is the least of your worries. Having an actual apartment to put it all in is priority number one, and with the aforementioned problems with the Humboldt housing market, it can be a tall task to tackle. 

    There are some helpful resources that the university does provide, like the off-campus housing liaison, who provides one-on-one support and advice to help you on your journey to find housing. Also, in case you abruptly lose housing or cannot find any in time, Humboldt does provide the Emergency Housing Program. This program is subject to availability, and they can be reached at dos@humboldt.edu. 

    Now, this isn’t supposed to be all doom and gloom. While it can feel impossible at times to find housing, it will only feel that way for a while. With the help of another roommate to scream with when the third property management company you’ve reached out to doesn’t get back to you, a few co-signers to make up for that 750-point credit score you do not have at twenty years old, and a small miracle, you too can find housing!