The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Gabe Kim

  • Trailblazing into the future of HSU

    Trailblazing into the future of HSU

    Humboldt State is a small university in a small town. The idea of safety would seemingly be a given in such a tight-knit community but the truth is that for many HSU students, safety is the number one thing they are worried about when walking around the streets of Arcata.

    Through a recent grant from HSU, a group of students and professors from two different disciplines united to initiate the Wayfinder Project. This project, in collaboration with the City of Arcata, looks to establish routes between HSU and the surrounding community of Arcata using signage with the ultimate goal of enhancing student safety both on and off-campus.

    Whitney Ogle is an assistant professor in the kinesiology department and is looking forward to seeing students take advantage of the new trails.

    “I want students to engage with the community and feel safe doing so,” Ogle said. “I hear stories — anecdotal stories — from students who have never been to the marsh or haven’t been to the plaza or haven’t been into the community forest. And then other students who drive everywhere and it’s like this is a pretty small community that you can walk.”

    The proposed routes are slated to start near the Sunset Blvd. overpass, go through the Creamery District, circle around the Arcata Marsh area, barrel through the Plaza and then end back on the HSU campus.

    Ogle hopes that maybe the Wayfinder Project paths could turn into competitive endeavors for students, who might want to brag about how quickly they were able to traverse them.

    Coming at the project from another angle is HSU Recreation Administration Professor Ara Pachmayer. Having a background in the tourism industry, Pachmayer is glad to support her students in the novel work that they are doing.

    “I haven’t worked on a project like this before, but I had done a lot of tourism-related projects,” Pachmayer said. “So it’s interesting because we’re learning a lot as we go along with it as well just because it’s so new to me.”

    Ogle is confident that the community of Arcata will benefit from this project. To her, the more students getting out and about around town, the better because they will be spending more money and giving back to a city that is special to her in many ways.

    “That’s what makes our community so unique and really great,” Ogle said. “I think, to show students that they’re welcome here, that this town wouldn’t really exist if it wasn’t for HSU.”

    Mandy Hackney is a senior and a recreation administration student who is working on the Wayfinder Project. She is excited to be encouraging physical activity for herself and others in a time where we are all mostly stuck indoors.

    “Being outside and actually installing the signs on the trails — that’s what I’m really looking forward to,” Hackney said. “Like doing something in person outdoors.”

    Ogle and her team also plan to create orientation material for incoming freshmen this upcoming fall. These orientation-related packets will include resources for physical and mental health alongside a map of all the trails from the Wayfinder Project.

  • HSU community petitions to Push Pause on projected cuts

    HSU community petitions to Push Pause on projected cuts

    The California Faculty Association has received more than 3,000 signatures pushing for Humboldt State to hold off on making budget cuts during the current pandemic. The petition has grabbed the attention of many among the greater HSU community. On Feb 18, a meeting organized by the HSU chapter of the CFA was held over Zoom to discuss the ramifications of the class and faculty job cuts including the impacts that they would have on both students and faculty.

    Nicola Walters, a lecturer in the politics department and the organizing chair of the Humboldt CFA, spoke on her experiences over the years as both a student and now a faculty member at HSU. Frightened by what she is witnessing all around her, she wants to fight for what is right.

    “I’ve also sat in countless department meetings and watched the people who taught me, who I look up to, who make this university a place worth attending left bewildered and broken by administrative agendas that herald shared governance, but instead demand cuts to programs, classes, and jobs,” Walters said. “I’ve listened to my colleagues describe feeling disposable, exhausted, terrified, and traumatized while we grapple with overhauls to our campus.”

    Walters remarked on the contrast of HSU receiving lots of federal funding as of late against HSU slashing jobs and classes.

    “Putting profit over people’s jobs doesn’t fit with our university or our community,” Walters said. “Our campus isn’t adverse to change, it’s adverse to practices that violate trust and perpetuate cuts against our campus community. Implementing changes while faculty are unable to protect their interests is an administrative strategy and is not the way forward.

    Another key speaker was Dr. Cutcha Risling Brady, an associate professor and department chair in the Native American Studies department. Brady talked about the impact that any additional cuts would have on students. More specifically, she introduced the idea that students are feeling out of control because they are already dealing with family deaths and other hardships during the pandemic but to see faculty and staff that they rely on for support is next level unacceptable.

    One of these students, senior communication major Anastasia Tejada, is concerned that one of the closest allies in her department, lecturer Leslie Rossman, could very well have her position cut in due time. Rossman helped Tejada get into a graduate school at the University of Nevada, Reno, and secure funding for it.

    “That would not have happened without her support and guidance,” Tejada said. “I would not know where to start and in all honesty, I probably wouldn’t be headed into higher education if it was not for her.”

    Tejada was not surprised that HSU president Tom Jackson was not in attendance for the Push Pause meeting and thinks it is reflective of his entourage as a collective.

    “He has been very silent this entire time he has been missing,” Tejada said. “From almost every important conversation, the fact that he couldn’t even show up to listen just proves the point that the administration does not care about its lectures or faculty.”

  • Kinesiology department teaches students about at-home ergonomics

    Kinesiology department teaches students about at-home ergonomics

    Since the transition to a mainly virtual learning environment, people nationwide have felt the physical and mental tolls of it. Humboldt State students and faculty are no exceptions to this matter. A recent study by Dr. Whitney Ogle, a professor in the kinesiology department, found that HSU students were rating their mental health and physical wellbeings a three out of five or lower.

    But Ogle has done more than that — she and her kinesiology students have been making a series of short videos that inform on different ergonomic practices centered around working at home. It all grew from Ogle’s desire to find an adequate physical working space to make it so her body would not be aching all the time.

    Between switching out desk chairs and trying to work from different locations around her house, Ogle was doing everything she could to make her life more comfortable in a time where nobody could work in-person. But then it dawned on her — maybe she could turn her experiences into educational content.

    “I knew that since everyone was going to working from home, everyone’s ergonomic workspace was going to be totally different and I didn’t know that there was anyone on campus who was able to actually evaluate people’s home life,” Ogle said. “So I thought ‘Gosh, like I have a little bit of this experience and I’m part of the biomechanics lab’ and so I was like ‘All right — we could probably help out the university somehow with their understanding of the human body.’”

    Ricardo Sanchez is one of the students recruited by Dr. Ogle to help with this project. A first-year graduate student in the kinesiology program, he was tasked with coming up with a plan for executing such an endeavor.

    “I was like ‘Everyone goes on social media. That’s one thing that people kind of have a hard time putting down so if anything wouldn’t that’d be pretty cool to spread information through there,’” Sanchez said. “It’s quick, it’s easy, and you can get a good amount of information in a little bit of time.”

    Sanchez realized that creating informative videos to post on social media was the way to go. After presenting it to Ogle, he began working on the videos with other undergraduate kinesiology students like senior Lacey Bruhy-Jimenez, who most notably produced a video showcasing mini-resistance bands for your fingers.

    “It helps to build up the muscles in your hands, because when you’re typing and stuff and when you’re constantly holding a pen or something, your muscles — they stay in that same place all the time, so they’re not experiencing the other movements that they can do,” Bruhy-Jimenez said. “These things just kind of help with those muscles that aren’t being used all the time to help build them up so that way they don’t get weak and you can have them for longer.”

    Ogle stressed the importance of stretching your mind and body beyond the confines of a work station.

    “We need to get ourselves out of the positions that we’re typically in all the time, so if we’re at a computer we’re like kind of leaning forward all the time,” Ogle said. “So like thinking about how can we get out into this plane, how can we go into more extension anytime that we’re out at the desk.”

  • Updates on Testing and Vaccinations for COVID-19 at HSU

    Updates on Testing and Vaccinations for COVID-19 at HSU

    Coronavirus testing will be available for all HSU students and employees in a matter of days. Here are some details on testing and vaccinations for students at HSU.

    Testing

    Beginning this month, Humboldt State, in cooperation with HealthQuest, will be offering free coronavirus tests on campus for all HSU staff, faculty, and auxiliary employees. An HSU ID will be needed when it comes time to take the test but HealthQuest will only bill insurance directly, so there is no need to worry about paying up-front.

    Students who are residing on campus will be tested when they move in and then again seven to 10 days later. These students will be contacted by Housing regarding arranging testing appointments.

    Athletes will be frequently tested as mandated by NCAA and County Public Health protocols.

    Vaccinations

    The University is currently working with County Public Health on plans to give out the vaccine to all HSU staff, faculty, and employees who would like to receive the vaccine when available. HSU aims to administer vaccinations to students when allowable based on state and county prioritization and vaccine availability.

    Additionally, all Humboldt County residents who want to be given the COVID-19 vaccine are able to submit their contact information through an online interest form to be alerted when doses are available for their tier.

  • New Covid Strain Touches Down in Humboldt

    New Covid Strain Touches Down in Humboldt

    Humboldt County is one of the most isolated counties in California. From this came low numbers of coronavirus cases, a luxury that other counties in the state didn’t have. That has all changed recently. Cases have shot up in every county in California and now there is a new coronavirus strain making its way around.

    Known as L452R, this variant largely remains a mystery to local health officials and there has only been one confirmed case for this new strain in Humboldt County as of publication.

    Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman believes that while the new variant may be unique, it is not necessarily more dangerous than other current strains.

    “I think from just knowing about the other variants, symptomatology should be the same. The UK variant doesn’t show any worse outcomes, it’s just more transmissible,” Hoffman said in a video interview with the Humboldt County Department of Human Health and Services.

    Clairissa Keesey, an HSU senior and a studio art and business marketing double major, is on edge about possibly contracting the new coronavirus strain given her job.

    “I’m a healthcare worker, I work with direct patient contact as a caregiver, so it definitely makes me nervous,” Keesey said. “But I just got the vaccine so I’m hoping it works.”

    The guidelines and practices surrounding coronavirus in Humboldt County remain steadfast.

    HSU’s Campus COVID Safety Coordinator Jennifer Sanford outlined some of the ways that HSU is readying itself for the onset of the L452R variant.

    “The campus emergency team, and advance planning team both meet twice weekly and continue to be responsive to new developments in terms of campus plans,” Sanford said in an email interview. “We are keeping an eye on the new strain and other happenings and these will be considered in plans concerning the current semester, summer, and fall.”

    On a county-wide level, Dr. Ian Hoffman doesn’t foresee any new rules being enacted, even with the arrival of this new strain.

    “There should be no change in our practices because the things that we do to prevent the new strains are the exact same things we do to prevent the old strains,” Hoffman said. “So that would be: distancing, masking, avoiding gathering, washing hands.”

    For Sanford and her group, the landscape of the situation is constantly evolving and thus they need to be ready for anything.

    “In a nutshell, plans adapt as new information comes to light,” Sanford said in an email interview. “Lots of on-campus testing will continue moving forward and we are looking now at how to get the vaccine out to the campus community in an efficient manner as soon as it is available.”

  • HSU students support science with Spanish

    HSU students support science with Spanish

    A bilingual HSU program encourages students to pursue the STEM field

    Ciencia Para Todos, known as “Science for All,” is a Humboldt State University program that hopes to bridge the gap between younger, grade-school students and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics careers through teaching English and Spanish in conjunction with local elementary schools like Fuente Nueva Charter School.

    Christian Trujillo, a senior environmental science and management major, is the founder of Ciencia Para Todos. He strives to elevate youth whose first language is Spanish.

    “We’re trying to destigmatize that idea,” Trujillo said. “Be like, ‘We are people who are bilingual, we’re in STEM, we want you to do that when you grow older, and hopefully you could become a scientist and also use your abilities and cultural lens to really help the science community.’”

    Ciencia Para Todos came from a desire to create an environment for budding Latinx STEM students. Feeling ostracized from many of the spaces on campus, Trujillo and his fellow Latinx classmates communicate in Spanish as a means of escape.

    An already-established refuge named Indian Natural Resource Science and Engineering Program for marginalized science students on campus, inspired them to create a refuge of their own.

    “We need to make our own space on campus since no one else is really going to do it for us, so we have to do it for ourselves,” Trujillo said. “And we’re like, ‘Oh, now that we’re doing this for ourselves, why don’t we do it for our communities.’”

    Different cultural centers at HSU have gotten their budgets slashed, Trujillo worked to combat the problem with student retention.

    “The stuff we do I think is very important to keeping student retention,” Trujillo said. “Because I’m one of those students that stayed here because of the centers and if it wasn’t because of centers, I would have been gone.”

    Odalis Avalos is an environmental science and management major and senior. She works as the liaison for Ciencia Para Todos and conducts outreach. Avalos is glad to have a space where she can flourish alongside Latinx STEM students, an opportunity she didn’t have growing up.

    “I’m really grateful that there is a program out there that’s able to provide this resource specifically for sciences,” Avalos said. “It’s a very lax subject within the Latinx community, so it’s not really normalized to pursue these types of careers.”

    Building off that, Avalos is glad to be able to feel a sense of community not only with the students she teaches, but also with her colleagues like Trujillo.

    “It means a lot that they’ve created the sense of community for me,” Avalos said. “So we sit together and we come together and we collaborate and we have a common mission and even with that, we also have common experiences together.”

    Diana Martinez recently graduated from HSU but continues to work for Ciencia Para Todos. Responsible for translating entire lessons between English and Spanish and managing the Instagram account for the program, Martinez has become more confident and optimistic in her future endeavors.

    “And I used to do English and Spanish, but then when I go up in Humboldt, it was just English,” Martinez said. “So I almost feel like my Spanish was just blocked, and having met this group of people, it was just like ‘Oh, I could just talk in Spanglish or I could talk in English and in Spanish fifty-fifty.’”

    Martinez is inspired by the children she’s worked with for Ciencia Para Todos and feels accomplished with what she has done for them.

    “Once you see the kids, especially the native kids that only speak Spanish, when you speak in the same language, there’s a huge happy face in their face and it’s hard to describe,” Martinez said. “But knowing that they’re able to communicate just fine and the fact that you know that you’re helping them and supporting them and empowering them, that makes me feel great as an educator, too.”

  • Humboldt State reconsiders spring break

    Humboldt State reconsiders spring break

    Proposal to move spring break to a later date generates controversy

    On Sep. 29, Humboldt State University’s administration announced an idea to move spring break for this academic year from Mar. 15-19 to Apr. 5-9, 2021.

    In the meeting, Jen Capps, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, explained the student and community health argument behind delaying spring break.

    “We face some challenges around making sure that our faculty, our students, staff, et cetera are safe, and how to bring folks from out of county into county, quarantine them, provide face-to-face instruction,” Capps said. “And then if they leave for spring break, what I’m hearing from facilities and different folks is they just don’t have the capacity to then require students to quarantine again.”

    A few suggestions for how to maneuver the situation were made by University Senate members including Cindy Moyer, an HSU music professor.

    Moyer pitched the idea to have break or rest days spread throughout the academic year to divert students from traveling and returning home.

    “Five carefully strategically spaced days off spread out over the weeks in the middle of the semester,” Moyer said. “So that students are getting some time off, but not getting enough time off that they will go home.”

    Monty Mola, HSU physics and astronomy professor, argued that spring break should begin a week later. The decision to move around spring break would have ripple effects on the greater HSU community.

    Giovanni Guerrero, a fourth-year environmental science management major, believes moving spring break to early April would be too much of an adjustment for students and faculty.

    “There’s a lot of stress on my back as a student, and I’m sure a lot of stress on the backs of teachers as well [as] our professors to meet deadlines and to carry out our rigorous university expectations,” Guerrero said.

    Guerrero added that the spring break would give everyone a chance to emerge from isolation and take a breather from responsibilities.

    “I think there’s a direct correlation with mental health. Right now we’re in a different sort of situation, virtual learning,” Guerrero said. “Sitting here at my desk inside my room for six hours a day, doing homework, attending classes and then doing my work with Associated Students. I have very little breathing room. Having a break, like a week break, where I don’t have to stay inside my room all day is super beneficial.”

    Rich Alvarez, the Diving and Safety Officer in the HSU Scuba Diving program, is less concerned about the psychological impacts of a later spring break and more concerned about the practical implications.

    For his diving certification program, Alvarez typically takes his students to Mendocino for open water dives where the diving conditions are more stable than anywhere in Humboldt. However with COVID-19 restrictions, he is only able to travel within the confines of the county.

    “Traditionally, Trinidad doesn’t really get to the point where we would feel safe taking students into the water there until April and sometimes even late April,” Alvarez said. “So if they shift spring break to the fifth through the 12th, the question becomes, can we meet with them after spring break? And it kind of sounds like a no.”

    If Alvarez can’t meet with his students after break to finish their diving certification, they will be unable to partake in open water dives.

    “That takes that whole month of April out of contention, and then we were looking at trying to, either way, putting students into water conditions that may not necessarily be safe for what we’re trying to do, or having to get people most of the way through their certification, but not able to do the open water dives.”

  • House Hunting in the heat of COVID-19

    House Hunting in the heat of COVID-19

    Housing struggles at Humboldt State continue to be a problem for students

    Homelessness at Humboldt State University is a major issue. The mess is only becoming more muddled and students are left to fend for themselves.

    Senior at HSU majoring in history, Alfred Silva, is mostly living out of his car. His housing search has been limited because he owns a dog and because he’s a single male, which according to Silva is unattractive to landlords. Not having an address has proven particularly challenging for him.

    “I need to take medication all the time,” Silva said. “Now I don’t have anywhere for my medication to be mailed to my house. So, I gotta figure out other ways to get it. I gotta go to the doctor’s office and bug them there and it’s kind of hard.”

    Silva has been looking for alternative methods of living including camping, but hasn’t had any luck.

    “I can’t find anywhere to camp,” Silvia said. “The only place I found that will allow me to sleep is the back of the HSU parking lot.”

    If anything, Silva believes COVID-19 has attracted more people to Humboldt than in past years, and that’s become a big roadblock for him when it comes to finding a home.

    “I think the influx of people coming into town right now is just ridiculous,” Silva said. “It’s like you got people that are not even students – many, many, many people that are not even students – they’re just flooding the place right now.”

    On the flipside, Silva believes the landlords are as equally guilty in manufacturing the housing crisis in Humboldt County.

    “It kind of hurt their wallets a lot because they’re relying on HSU students to pay rent all this time and then when they took off and that happened, it really hurt them,” Silva said. “So now they’re just trying to survive like everyone else but charging rent. When one person’s drowning, they’ll do anything to survive. They’ll even drown another person.”

    In a similar situation, HSU senior and biology major Grace Rhoades, moved back up to Humboldt because of a job opportunity they got working for one of the labs at HSU. Landing secure housing has been difficult, but they’re grateful to be subletting a friend’s house until the end of the month.

    “There’s just a lot of applying for things, application fees,” Rhoades said. “With COVID, you don’t even really get to see anything or meet anybody in person, you just pay the fee and then like maybe a third of the time they get back to you about the status of your application.”

    Even with a roof over their head, Rhoades is still feeling the anxiety of not knowing where they’ll live next month.

    “I’m definitely a homebody, I like to know that I have a place,” Rhoades said. “I’ve kind of moved away from home and that’s not really much of an option anymore.”

    HSU Off-Campus Housing Coordinator Chant’e Catt recognizes how students are being affected by COVID-19 and finding housing.

    “What’s been really hard is students who moved out of town needing people to take over their leases and landlords not being really flexible sometimes with that,” Catt said.

    For Catt, another issue that arises is between roommates because of disputes over the extent to which they will abide by COVID-19 rules while sharing a communal living environment.

    “People have wanted to break their leases because their roommates don’t respect the restrictions around COVID,” Catt said. “Which puts them in precarious situations where they have to find a new place to live or find somebody to replace their roommate, which could put them into situations where they can’t pay rent.”

    Catt has her doubts surrounding the idea that COVID-19 contributed to homelessness at HSU.

    “I don’t know if COVID changed anything,” Catt said. “I feel like it’s all the same and that’s because it’s always been so bad.”

  • HSU Seaweed Farm sets sail

    HSU Seaweed Farm sets sail

    The first commercially-approved seaweed farm in California will be on the map.

    Humboldt State University is known for its cutting-edge science projects. One of these projects is an upcoming commercial seaweed farm in Humboldt Bay. A trailblazer in its own right, this project was spearheaded by HSU natural resource grad student Erika Thalman.

    “I went into grad school originally wanting to do fish pathology, so this was something different for me, but I also really love algae,” Thalman said. “I was like ‘I also really kind of want a farm of my own someday.’ And I was like ‘Oh! Algae! Farm!’ so I was excited to be able to say ‘I’m a seaweed farmer.’”

    Thalman has been growing seaweed at the HSU Marine Lab in Trinidad for the past year. This seaweed incubation process begins with sablefish, at the top of the food chain. The sablefish eat food from lower on the food chain and then produce feces that act as nutrients for the seaweed, which absorb them in turn.

    “The seaweeds act as part of a bio-filter, which then sends less nutrient-dense water back to the fish,” Thalman said.

    This bio-filter acts as kind of a recycling system with different levels of the food chain helping each other out.

    Bren Smith is the executive director of Greenwave, a nonprofit that assists with training environmentally-focused farmers, and is a big proponent of the seaweed farm. Smith is excited about the future of regenerative agriculture among the oceans in a world already seeing the effects of climate change.

    “There needs to be a transition in the oceans,” Smith said. “But what’s exciting about that is we get these opportunities to learn from the mistakes of land-based farming and the mistakes of industrial agriculture and really do it the right away. It’s all hands on deck.”

    Thalman would like to put her seaweed to good use, whether that be food for consumption or fertilizer for gardens. The grade of seaweed dictates what it will be used for. If the seaweed is a lower grade, it can only be used for fertilizer and fodder, but if it has a high enough grade where it is deemed edible for humans, then it can be commercially sold.

    Unfortunately, due to permitting issues, the seaweed is currently unable to be sold in any capacity, but when the time comes to sell the seaweed, Thalman plans to donate all the profits.

    Smith is mindful of the extent to which the farm is financially sustainable.

    “And the key from a farming perspective is how much grows — what volume do you get per meter,” Smith. “Because if you don’t get enough volume, then it is not a profitable farm.”

    Before anyone could even worry about making money from the project, they had to worry about finding the money to fund it first.

    Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe, an assistant professor in the fisheries biology department at Humboldt State, is another driving force behind the seaweed farm as he was the one that wrote the grant that helped fund the project. As Uribe explained, within the California State University system, there are a number of campuses that do agricultural research and subsequently get grants called the Agricultural Research Institute Grants to fund agricultural-related projects. Because HSU is one of the CSU campuses that is in that boat, it receives said grants, which are managed by Sponsored Programs.

    Uribe tried to get one of these grants but ran into a major roadblock along the way. As it turns out, he had to monetarily match 50 percent of the requested amount of funding.

    “And that was kind of an issue in our project and we thought that we had everything figured out and at the last day when the project was due, we found out that we did not have the match to do this project,” Uribe said. “And we were almost dropping the ball right there.”

    Also stepping in are a growing number of people and agencies interested in getting into the seaweed farming industry. However, as Thalman noted, there are a lot of heads being scratched.

    “People don’t know what to do,” Thalman said. “They don’t know how to get permit regulations, so we’re kind of the guinea pigs. They’re watching what we do and then they’re going to use what we learned to set up their farms in the future.”

  • Graduating Into Uncharted Waters

    Graduating Into Uncharted Waters

    HSU graduates attempt to navigate a world turned upside-down by COVID-19

    In May, Humboldt State University graduated hundreds of students, as it does every year. Unlike past years, graduates didn’t get to shake hands with their respective dean and receive a diploma on-stage in front of their friends and family. Instead, the class of 2020 was graduated over a mass-Zoom call.

    Claire Matulis graduated last May with a degree in psychology. She recalls the graduation experience as passable but regrets not witnessing it firsthand.

    “It was interesting to have the Zoom graduation,” Matulis said. “I still had my family on, we had a Zoom going on watching the slideshow and there was a part of me that kind of wished I had the in-person graduation.”

    For former HSU film major, Will Schorn, this was only the beginning of a long and winding road to finding a job. Schorn had an internship with the HSU football team as a videographer but got axed when the program was cut. He’s since gotten back on the market, looking for similar positions.

    “With COVID impacting so many sports, especially if you’re not playing at the top level – if it’s not professional sports – it’s been really difficult to find a job filming sports right now,” Schorn said.

    “It’s difficult for people to feel like they’re building community now because, like, I’m sitting here in my room by myself talking to a screen and even though I know I’m communicating to a person, there’s a different feeling to communicating this way than it would be sitting face-to-face.”

    Madison Hazen

    Other students have had less trouble finding work, even if it is remote work. Madison Hazen is one recent graduate who fits that bill. An anthropology and religious studies double-major, Hazen was able to land a job in English-language learning support and reading intervention support for elementary school students, through the AmeriCorps company. While Hazen feels very fortunate to have found a job at all, she’s not too fond of working in a virtual setting.

    “At the school I’m at, I’m going to have like forty-plus coworkers, who are people I’m not going to see face-to-face at all,” Hazen said. “I think it’s difficult to feel kind of like you’re fully becoming integrated into that work environment.”

    Although Hazen remains optimistic for the future of former students but admits that she misses interacting with other people in a physical space.

    “I definitely took it for granted as a student and having the physical community taken away or being removed from the physical community really helped me appreciate it,” Hazen said. “It’s difficult for people to feel like they’re building community now because, like, I’m sitting here in my room by myself talking to a screen and even though I know I’m communicating to a person, there’s a different feeling to communicating this way than it would be sitting face-to-face.”

    Like Hazen, Matulis was able to find a job in her field. Working as a child and family specialist for a non-profit called Evolve Youth Services, Matulis acts both as a mentor and a therapist for adopted kids. Unlike the others, Matulis is remaining in Humboldt for the time being.

    “I love Humboldt and I’m actually really grateful that I’m here in the time of the pandemic,” Matulis said. “My family is in much more populated areas in L.A. and Riverside and Ventura. Here out on the trail, I don’t have to worry about there being as many people and I feel like everybody is very conscious of wearing their masks and keeping their distance, so I feel grateful to be here.”

  • Humboldt State Students Stand Up And Stand Out Against Racism

    Humboldt State Students Stand Up And Stand Out Against Racism

    Actions are being taken to bring about change in a country dominated by racism and police brutality

    Fueled by the Josiah Lawson case and the George Floyd murder, Humboldt State University students are taking to the internet and the streets in protest of systemic racism. Students and community members alike are actively displaying their pent-up anger and fear surrounding being marginalized.

    Kiara Mixon, a fourth-year psychology student, has been trying to educate herself and those around her about what’s going on. Namely, she has been sharing different resources with people who are unaware of the Black Lives Matter movement and watching documentaries about racism to get a deeper insight into it.

    While she hasn’t really been going out in the streets and protesting, she has still seen both sides of the movement.

    “I see people who are of color protesting and, truthfully, it means a lot that those people are standing up when it’s an issue for them as well,” Mixon said. “But I’ve also had people who aren’t really speaking up or haven’t said anything or don’t really have a personal opinion on the matter and that makes me a little bit uncomfortable because you never know where they’re standing.”

    Senior psychology major Edwin Rosales has become more outspoken and animated in the wake of the revamped BLM movement. He lives with his mother’s side of the family and has gone back and forth with them about everything going on.

    “After talking with them, it’s kind of difficult to talk to them about it because they’re very, you know, still in the olden ways and are very ignorant about it,” Rosales said. “So, I’ve had to be outspoken about it and be like ‘You know what? You’re not understanding the cause’ or having to explain to them what it is.”

    Rosales has carried his new-found, forthright persona around racism into the land of social media as well.

    “I never really posted about that stuff,” Rosales said. “I’m not helping if I don’t say anything, and so if I am posting about something, maybe someone will read it and maybe someone will help in some way.”

    Julianne Blandford is a senior majoring in child development. She is feeling a lot of mixed emotions in the midst of the string of racist events that have occurred from the George Floyd murder to the leaked video of three HSU students making racist taunts toward Black people. She is attending protests and doing everything she can to move the conversation about racism along.

    “It is my time to sit down and listen and also stand up for those who can’t speak,” Blandford said.

    Blandford recognizes her own status but also wants to work with those who are being suppressed.

    “I’m seeing it as an opportunity to continue to create change, create a more peaceful place to live, create new systems that aren’t founded upon racism, and a world where no-one has to live in fear,” Blandford said.

    “We need to redistribute resources and really build communities.”

    Dr. Ramona J.J. Bell

    Dr. Ramona J.J. Bell, a critical race and gender studies professor, believes that there are a number of factors to look at that are feeding into a racist America.

    “We’re a country where we put so much money into our military, but there’s people without health care, so we concentrate on, you know, defending the country,” Bell said. “But we have to reconfigure and reimagine what that really means to defend the country, to defend America.”

    Bell emphasized the importance of unifying communities in a country where the opposite is happening at the hands of the police.

    “We need to redistribute resources and really build communities,” Bell said. “When you are killing black folks in communities and the police are killing us, that’s not building our community — that’s killing our community. So we have to look at ways in which we can build America because our country was built off the backs of Black people, particularly during the Holocaust of enslavement.”

    Bell recognized a need for change in America when it comes to race and embraced the protests that have spawned from it.

    “We have to revisit America’s notion of belonging and we have to revisit race in America,” Bell said. “There’s never been a real conversation about race and racism in America. And I think the protests going on all over the country, all over the world are telling us something’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.”

    More than anything, Bell emphasized that we are all in this fight together, no matter the color of your skin.

    “That’s part of the fight. That’s part of the struggle to get people to understand that Black lives matter,” Bell said. “It’s about letting us be free to live lives like America has promised.”

  • Humboldt State’s Hybrid Instruction Request Approved for Fall Semester

    Humboldt State’s Hybrid Instruction Request Approved for Fall Semester

    On May 21, Humboldt State University sent out an email announcing that it would be submitting a proposal to the CSU system requesting for a hybrid learning environment where there would be a mixture of face-to-face and online instruction. June 6, another email was sent out confirming that HSU would be able to operate virtually and in-person as needed.

    According to the official HSU email, “the University’s academic program has perhaps the highest proportion of courses with a hands-on component in the CSU.”

    About a quarter of all HSU courses involve labs and other activities and experiences that can’t really translate online and half of those course sections are able to be taught in-person this upcoming fall.

    Regarding all other courses that involve less tangible experiences, like lectures and seminars, they will continue to operate online.

    Following the acceptance by the CSU system, HSU can now ramp up its thorough planning process beginning this summer. HSU is also considering a return to a fully online learning environment if things worsen. For now, it will be a hybrid of face-to-face and online instruction.

    As for the details of HSU’s plan for the fall semester:

    Health and Safety

    Steps will be taken to ensure the health and safety of people on campus like limiting capacity and mandating face coverings for all who step foot on HSU turf.

    Social Responsibility

    Students and faculty will be expected to be socially responsible when returning to campus and remain vigilant in keeping themselves safe.

    Schedule

    Courses taught in a face-to-face manner will start and finish with virtual interactions to go over safety measures, and all face-to-face parts of courses will start after the initial virtual interaction and end on Nov 6. just in time for the second virtual interaction.

    Housing

    The combined capacity in HSU’s residence halls will not exceed 1000 students and students will be placed in single-occupancy rooms. Dates and times for moving in will be spread out.

    Dining

    Dining services will not be as frequent on campus. Takeout and food-delivery will be available to students but buffet-style and self-serve food will not be.

    Faculty and Staff

    A majority of employees will continue to telecommute. Workers deemed essential will come back to campus to work more regular hours. Employees over the age of 65 will continue to telecommute as well.

    Athletics and Recreational Activities

    HSU will enact a four-stage plan intended to gradually allow student-athletes and related staff to come back to campus. The availability of recreational activities will increase in conjunction with the availability of recreational activities in the county.

  • Telehealth Looks to Fill Gaps Left by Pandemic

    Telehealth Looks to Fill Gaps Left by Pandemic

    Telehealth has a chance to make a name for itself in the US

    Many physicians and patients aren’t likely to want to or be able to do face-to-face appointments for now and into the foreseeable future. In the midst of this, a potential solution lies in telehealth.

    Telehealth—also known as telemedicine—involves the interaction of medical practitioners and patients through virtual means. Doctors and other physicians can attend to more serious matters in-person while remotely prescribing and treating other, less critical patients.

    “I think people are gonna be more and more open to going to the doctor full-time via telehealth if not doing a follow-up visit. I think that we’ve made more progress in the last six months than we have in the last six years and I think it’s only gonna go this way forward.”

    Jacob Horn

    Jacob Horn is the managing director at Vivo HealthStaff in Dublin, California. A Humboldt State University graduate, Horn now contracts with various medical clinics and offers immediate telehealth solutions for more rural communities. He projected a lot of growth for telehealth.

    “Before this COVID-19, it was very meager, to say the least—it was underutilized,” Horn said in a phone interview. “I think people are gonna be more and more open to going to the doctor full-time via telehealth if not doing a follow-up visit. I think that we’ve made more progress in the last six months than we have in the last six years and I think it’s only gonna go this way forward.”

    Horn detailed what he sees to be the benefits of telehealth.

    “I think it will address provider burnout,” he said. “I think it will increase patient satisfaction because now they have a wider access of care. I think it will also make the insurance companies happy because follow-up visits might not cost them as much. But also, the patients will see, hopefully, a savings by seeing their doctors at home for low-acuity visits.”

    Kate Schiff, a physician assistant in the HSU Student Health Center, is trying to incorporate telehealth into her practice in a multitude of ways.

    “For the most part, we are utilizing the phone for triage, evaluation of new problems, and management of existing problems and conditions,” Schiff wrote via email. “We are also managing most of our medication refill requests this way.”

    Schiff also uses Zoom video calls to conduct business.

    “We do have the capability to have Zoom visits which we are primarily using for mental health visits at this time,” she wrote. “Counseling and Psychological Services is using the phone and Zoom to provide individual and group therapy for students.”

    Dr. Caroline Connor, a local physician, wasn’t sure how regular telehealth would become in the future.

    “I think it’s gonna bring more accessibility to healthcare, especially for seniors, in Humboldt County but also to the HSU students.”

    Jacob Horn

    “The question is—how regular it’s going to be—is gonna be a very interesting story that has not yet been written,” Dr. Connor said. “If I was still in practice, how many of my patients would still be coming in? Now, most patients, if they had the choice, would rather see you in person, I think. But you wonder—busy millennials, if they want to get an appointment, will they just start making telemedicine appointments? And how is that gonna be incorporated into the daily life of a physician? I have no idea.”

    Speaking of busy millennials, HSU students are no stranger to the lack of healthcare in Humboldt County. Horn said telehealth could help fight that shortage.

    “I think it’s gonna bring more accessibility to healthcare, especially for seniors, in Humboldt County but also to the HSU students,” he said. “We have a massive shortage, we have long waitlists and a lot of people are leaving the county for certain specialty care. I think in the next year, that will switch up—you’ll be able to have more resources at your disposal in Humboldt County due to telehealth.”

    Connor said nursing students in HSU’s revitalized program could take advantage of telehealth to connect with remote specialists.

    “Let’s say somebody is going through nursing school and they have to learn a little about the intensive care unit—there might not be enough educators in Humboldt County about nursing intensive care units,” Connor said. “So, maybe they’ll have telemedicine education.”

  • Rain Returns to Humboldt This Weekend

    Rain Returns to Humboldt This Weekend

    A moderate rainstorm will make its way through Humboldt County

    A storm is hitting Humboldt this weekend will bring a considerable amount of rain.

    Jonathan Garner, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Eureka, gave us a preview of what to expect.

    “All in all, maybe up to two inches of rain over the weekend,” Garner said. “I’m also expecting accumulated snow across the mountains for elevations mainly above 3500 feet. We could get a little bit of small hail and stronger showers and perhaps a thunderstorm as well.”

    The rain is mainly forecasted to fall on Saturday but will linger in showers on Sunday. Expect high temperatures to be in the low to mid 50s with lows in the lower 40s.

    “It will put a very small dent into our deficit. We’re about 10 or 11 inches below normal right now.”

    Jonathan Garner, meteorologist for National Weather Service in Eureka

    Garner said the storm won’t resolve our rain deficit for the year.

    “It will put a very small dent into our deficit,” he said. “We’re about 10 or 11 inches below normal right now.”

    Emily Read, a junior environmental studies major, is still around in Humboldt amidst the coronavirus outbreak. With the rain looming, she planned on not doing much this weekend beyond trying to learn a new program for an engineering class.

    “I typically am fine with rain,” Read said. “I like it most of the time—but right now, since we’re stuck at home anyway, I kind of just am tired of it and I just want it to stop raining so it can be nice and warm.”

    Jared English, a junior film major, also planned to remain indoors this weekend even though he was initially looking forward to getting outside and doing the one thing he can do in Manila—frisbee golf.

    “It does kind of make me a little sad,” English said. “Because that means even more time inside and even more time isolated in this quarantine, and the rainstorm kind of takes that one thing away.”

  • Humboldt Mold Manifests in Moisture

    Humboldt Mold Manifests in Moisture

    HSU students are under-informed and unprepared for the beast that is mold

    It accumulates like there’s no tomorrow, unleashing its inner animal at every turn. No damp area is safe from the monster of mold. What can students do to fight it?

    The rainy season is still around in Humboldt. Lurking amidst the hundreds of buildings students live in—and may be stuck in—is a hidden and nasty phenomenon—mold.

    Mary Gaviglio, a freshman business administration major, has had first-hand experiences with mold, from seeing it grow on a bowl of cereal she left out overnight to meeting someone who was severely affected by it.

    “He’s actually allergic to the mold spores here, so he gets really excited because they’re in the air,” Gaviglio said.

    Gaviglio also remarked on how it’s easier to breathe in Humboldt than where she is from in Southern California.

    “I usually get sinus infections when the Santa Ana winds come in because of all the pollutants, and now that I’ve moved here, I actually breathe a lot better,” Gaviglio said.

    Dr. Miriam Peachy, an accredited practicing naturopath in McKinleyville and a mold expert, gave a breakdown of the ins and outs of mold and mold illnesses.

    There are five different kinds of mold and the mold that humans can see is called active mold. Mold reproduces through spores, which get in the air, fly around, settle on surfaces and eventually begin to grow as moisture emerges.

    Mold toxins, the waste products of mold, are what can get people sick. Most people aren’t affected by most kinds of mold, but for those with weakened immune systems or allergies, extended exposure to some mold can cause nausea, headaches and cold sweats.

    “I’ve had people literally sleep outside because they didn’t have anywhere else to live.”

    Dr. Miriam Peachy

    Colton Trent, an environmental science senior, talked about how he’s dealt with mold in his apartment. His bathroom is in the middle of his apartment and has no window and an old ventilation fan, which makes for a messy situation in the winter when humidity is high.

    “Whenever me or my roommates take showers or if we leave the door closed for too long, the condensation collects on the ceiling and the walls,” Trent said. “And we have to clean the walls and the ceiling pretty frequently because mold spots will start to grow.”

    No matter where you stand in the mold illness spectrum, there are steps that can be taken to treat it.

    The first step is distancing yourself from the mold, which means permanently leaving the environment in which the mold is taking over.

    Unfortunately, in Humboldt, the lack of housing is a known factor that is doing the mold illness treatment process no favors.

    “Too many people are afraid to rock the boat or lose their rental and they don’t have anywhere to go and they don’t know if the next place they go will be moldy,” Peachy said. “It’s almost impossible to find a place that’s not moldy here.”

    The next step in treating mold and mold illness is remediation. That is to say, removing and replacing anything and everything that might’ve contracted mold from kitchen wooden cabinets all the way to furniture.

    “I’ve had people literally sleep outside because they didn’t have anywhere else to live,” Peachy said.

    The final step in the process is washing and cleaning everything that can be wiped down or otherwise cleaned like clothes and metal surfaces.

    Above all, Peachy stressed the importance of getting a dehumidifier, as it can work wonders and is the most basic way of combating the spread of mold.

  • Here Are the Refunds Students Can Expect from HSU

    Here Are the Refunds Students Can Expect from HSU

    Refunds for various fees are available for Humboldt State students in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak

    With closures and cancellations occurring left and right, many Humboldt State University students are wondering what kinds of refunds they can receive from the university. Here’s a list of them.

    Tuition and Fees:

    • Tuition and campus-based fees will continue on as normal for students that are taking courses from their professors to receive grades that factor into graduation.
    • If a student wants to withdraw from all spring semester courses, they must act by April 5 to be eligible for a prorated refund of tuition and fees.
    • Classes that students with financial aid are withdrawing from will be looked over and potentially adjusted based on the amount of days enrolled.

    Housing and Parking:

    • If students leave on-campus housing, they will get prorated refunds for both housing and dining fees once they check out.
    • Student parking permits will be automatically refunded back to student accounts to the tune of $78.75, 25% of the initial permit cost.

    Commencement:

    • Automatic refunds will be doled out to students graduating in spring or summer 2020. For more information, email HSU-cash@humboldt.edu
    • For unopened and unused regalia, refunds will be issued using the same method the order was placed with.
    • For the Graduation Writing Proficiency Exams on March 28 at 9 and 11 a.m. and April 11 at 9 and 11 a.m., all charges will be returned to the students’ accounts and refunds will follow if the student doesn’t have outstanding charges. Keep in mind that the GWPE is still required to graduate, and will be held online for the time being.
  • Students Bused Back to HSU Met with Mixed Messages

    Students Bused Back to HSU Met with Mixed Messages

    Locals react to HSU students bused back to Humboldt from coronavirus-afflicted areas

    A bus chartered by the Humboldt State Homeward Bound program picked up 31 HSU students March 21 from San Francisco and Los Angeles—two cities where the coronavirus has become more and more prominent—and brought the students back to Humboldt.

    Lost Coast Outpost posted an article about the bus March 24. The Facebook post for the story has 433 comments as of March 29, many of which are critical of HSU.

    “This is beyond irresponsible of HSU,” one comment reads.

    “And one more reason we feel GREAT about not sending our kids to HSU,” reads another.

    Sarah Ray, an environmental studies professor, defended the students.

    “Quite a few of our students live here and have moved here and have their lives here and they were visiting family,” Ray said. “So, just like we would expect and hope that kids and students who are from Arcata and the area—we would fully respect and appreciate that they would want to come home and be home with their families once their classes got cancelled in this really frightening moment—it’s reasonable that students would want to go where they’re most comfortable and feel at home.”

    She went on:

    “There’s also a lot of research out there about how many students across the nation going through this exact problem are not safe at home, and this might be a safer place for them,” Ray said.

    “I feel like it’s not a simple solution to just say, ‘Go back there,’ because many of these students live here.”

    Xochitl Andrade, HSU English and biology major

    Grant Scott-Goforth, communications specialist for HSU, explained the precautions implemented on the buses returning to HSU.

    “The buses were partially full so that people could have social distancing on the buses while they rode,” Scott-Goforth said. “And then, obviously when they return, we’re asking everyone to shelter-in-place, to quarantine if you’ve been exposed or been to an area with exposure, and to contact the Student Health Center or hospitals with concerns about health.”

    As much as HSU wished it could’ve been in command over which students came and which students left Humboldt, there was no way to do that. Of course, as Scott-Goforth asserted, the coronavirus situation is nothing to sneeze at.

    “I think it’s terribly unfortunate and I’m very sad for them and I feel very protective of students because it’s what I do.”

    Sarah Ray, HSU environmental studies professor

    Xochitl Andrade, an HSU senior majoring in English and biology, said the situation is complicated.

    “I feel like it’s not a simple solution to just say, ‘Go back there,’ because many of these students live here,” Andrade said. “They may have no where else to go if they were told to go back. We don’t know if they were just visiting friends or family. And for those who don’t have any family to go back to, what are they supposed to do?”

    While Andrade agrees that the students should be quarantined, she said she thought HSU knows what it’s doing.

    Ray hoped the harsh words toward HSU students from the Lost Coast Outpost article weren’t representative of the Arcata community.

    “I think it’s terribly unfortunate and I’m very sad for them and I feel very protective of students because it’s what I do,” Ray said. “I would like to think that it’s only an extreme, fringed, vocal, internet types of social media people who are saying those kinds of things. The vast majority of the university, especially the community and many people in the community—that’s not the kind of sentiment I see.”

  • Retention Rate on the Rise at HSU

    Retention Rate on the Rise at HSU

    More Humboldt State students are electing to stick around, but there’s still work to be done

    Corrections: a previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Casey Park as saying “We’re absent as an institution.” The quote should have said “We were absent as an institution.” The story also wrongly included “interim” in Jason Meriwether’s title.

    Humboldt State revealed more students were staying on its campus rather than taking off for other schools or ventures in a Jan. 31 press release.

    Tracy Smith, the director of the HSU Retention through Academic Mentoring Program, said she was proud of the work she and her peer mentors have accomplished over the years.

    “I think Humboldt sincerely believes that whether students decide to stay at Humboldt or not is really a product of our entire campus community and off-campus community,” Smith said. “RAMP really is designed to support incoming students and them finding a place where they feel a connection.”

    “85 percent of new first-year students said if they were given the option to choose a college again, they ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ would attend HSU again.”

    National Survey of Student Engagement, spring 2019

    A study done in conjunction with HSU by the National Survey of Student Engagement in spring 2019 provided some data on student perceptions of HSU.

    “85 percent of new first-year students said if they were given the option to choose a college again, they ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ would attend HSU again,” the study said. “And 89 percent of first-year students said their overall experience was ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, compared to an overall CSU system rate of 84 percent.”

    Jason Meriwether, Ph.D., vice president for Enrollment Management, said a few things have contributed to the increased retention rates, including Enrollment Management staff and related faculty streamlining the registration process and connecting students with support services—all in an attempt to create a sense of belonging for students.

    “It’s the experience but it’s also the listening and packaging it into one,” Meriwether said. “So, all of that is about looking at the students and giving them what they’re asking for first, and using the resources that we have to create an experience for the student.”

    Meriwether said his staff’s hard work has paid off by meeting student needs.

    “We have to be aligned with what students are expressing that they need and putting ourselves in a position to support students,” Meriwether said.

    “There wasn’t attention given to the most affected and traumatized students. And those are the students who went back to where we recruit from and said ‘Humboldt is not a place for me,’ and ‘Humboldt is not a place for you.’”

    Casey Park, HSU alumna

    He noted a growing trend at HSU of transfer students outnumbering first-time freshmen. HSU has needed to move around campus resources to accommodate the influx of transfer students.

    “It’s about being nimble and seeing where the student population is going and meeting those needs,” Meriwether said.

    Meriwether added that in recent months, the Student Disability Resource Center and cultural centers have received major face-lifts, which, in turn, have opened up more doors for students.

    Casey Park, an HSU alumna, was glad for the rising number of retained students, but said the campus administration’s past actions around retention shouldn’t be ignored as a new wave of measures are enacted. Park is an Associated Students coordinator, but gave her perspective only as an alumna.

    “We are still going to need to reconcile the years where we were neglectful of students,” Park said. “It’s going to take a lot of really good decisions to hold ourselves accountable for that and kind of be like, ‘We were absent as an institution.’”

    Park said the HSU administration’s inaction regarding the Josiah Lawson case and other events affected previous student perceptions of HSU.

    “There wasn’t attention given to the most affected and traumatized students,” Park said. “And those are the students who went back to where we recruit from and said ‘Humboldt is not a place for me,’ and ‘Humboldt is not a place for you.’”

  • Students Stressed and Frustrated Going into Somber Spring Break

    Students Stressed and Frustrated Going into Somber Spring Break

    Students react to in-person class cancellations due to global pandemic

    As spring break arrived and the COVID-19 pandemic continued its tear across the globe, many Humboldt State University students wondered what to do as HSU canceled face-to-face instruction until at least April 17. Some students stuck around while others went home. The pandemic, directly or not, has affected all students.

    “I feel like it’s a very serious outbreak and people need to take it seriously. I do think it’s getting blown out of proportion in some ways and people are panicking before they need to, but it’s just something I’m kind of trying to roll with, essentially.”

    Ashley Bailey, molecular biology major

    Ashley Bailey, a junior molecular biology major, planned to travel home. She admitted feeling stressed.

    “I feel like it’s a very serious outbreak and people need to take it seriously,” Bailey said. “I do think it’s getting blown out of proportion in some ways and people are panicking before they need to, but it’s just something I’m kind of trying to roll with, essentially.”

    Kiera Price, a junior journalism major, also said she would travel home. She thought both academic and national leaders should be more vigilant.

    “I feel like instead of limiting social interaction, they should do more to prepare for it,” Price said. “Like, for example, the fact that there isn’t more of a stricter way to limit survivors from coming in.”

    Price recognized there isn’t a lot to be done, but still expressed a longing for something more.

    Tim Arceneaux, a senior English major, looked forward to staying in Humboldt. With a sigh, Arceneaux said he understood the measures taken by HSU.

    “I think the precautions that the University is taking here and all around the country make sense, but at the same time, I find them to be really frustrating,” Arceneaux said. “I hope that this issue will bring the global community together and allow people to realize the importance of universal healthcare.”

    • Journalism major Kiera Price on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim
    • Film major Norbert Rodriguez on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim
    • English major Tim Arceneaux on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim

    Arceneaux said there was one key thing HSU could do to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.

    “They could try to alert students more about the health resources on campus,” Arceneaux said. “Because I feel like at this point, it’s almost an inevitability that someone is going to contract the coronavirus, and I’m not sure exactly what health resources are going to be available to students that contract the disease.”

    Norbert Rodriguez, a junior film major, had planned to travel to Southern California to visit family, but decided to stick around once the coronavirus broke out. He said he thought HSU took too long to respond to the pandemic compared to other universities.

    “At the moment, there aren’t any test kits [in Humboldt], so there’s really no way of knowing that there are any confirmed cases,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like it should’ve been a bit more proactive.”

    Editor’s note: St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals have set up screening tents for patients with COVID-19 symptoms.

  • Chemistry Professor Picks Up $100,000 Award

    Chemistry Professor Picks Up $100,000 Award

    Claire Till of HSU receives lucrative award to aid her research and academics

    Humboldt State University’s top-ranked chemistry program is home to a professor researching how plankton in the ocean interacts with heavy metals in the water.

    “There are lots of people who are doing fantastic research and have awesome awards and grants on campus. So I’m glad for the opportunity to highlight some of the work that we’re doing at HSU and lots of people are doing lots of great work at HSU.”

    Claire Till

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry Claire Till recently won the Cottrell Scholar Award, a $100,000 award honoring trailblazing science professors or researchers who have made large strides in their respective fields.

    “There are lots of people who are doing fantastic research and have awesome awards and grants on campus,” Till said. “So I’m glad for the opportunity to highlight some of the work that we’re doing at HSU and lots of people are doing lots of great work at HSU.”

    Till looks forward to allocating the funds toward her personal research and her classroom. She’s using the funds to support field trips to gather more data and to hire student researchers.

    “We’re going to go sample some rivers this summer,” Till said. “And then we’re going to do a couple of day trips on the research vessel, the Coral Sea, next summer, and some students will be hired throughout that.”

    Till’s research is about iron, a vital nutrient for humans and phytoplankton in the ocean. Unfortunately, in the ocean, there are extremely low concentrations of iron, and as a result, phytoplankton are not growing as much.

    “It’s really interesting—I think at least—to study how the iron gets there and how the phytoplankton uses it,” Till said. “What I proposed, and the work that we’re going to be working on, is to study iron using a new tool, which is another element called scandium.”

    Till elaborated on the relationship between scandium and iron and what she hopes will come out of her research in relation to that.

    “Scandium and iron have some parallels in chemical reactivity,” Till said. “There’s no real reason to expect them to behave similarly based on their chemical properties, and so I’m really interested in figuring out exactly in what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different.”

    The second area Till will be putting funding toward is academics, specifically in her own classroom.

    Ben Freiberger, a senior research student for Claire Till, has worked under her for a considerable amount of time.

    “The money is now helping us to be able to get more accurate numbers and be able to determine more about scandium.”

    Yasmin Zambrano

    “We collect seawater samples, pre-concentrate them, and then measure them,” Freiberger said. “We just finished measuring all these samples from a cruise that went from Alaska to Tahiti. I started measuring those samples at the beginning of summer and I’m just getting finished with a couple hundred of those.”

    He also went on a cruise last summer and is measuring samples he collected on the trip. His research may benefit from Till’s award.

    “It’s good for the research group and it’s great that Claire can get money to keep doing this,” he said.

    Yasmin Zambrano, a junior undergraduate research student for Till, was recently hired to work with her on her iron research.

    “Right now, we’re just reading a lot of articles and trying to find how the treatments change within the different temperatures to see when it’s the best time to do the experiments and stuff,” Zambrano said.

    Zambrano, too, is hopeful for the outlook of the chemistry program with the arrival of the award and subsequent funding.

    “The money is now helping us to be able to get more accurate numbers and be able to determine more about scandium,” Zambrano said. “And again it’s going to be for at least three more years, so that’s three more years that she can do stuff, especially during the summer when students want to work in this field —and it looks good.”

  • Major League Marijuana

    Major League Marijuana

    Why I don’t think marijuana is everything it’s cracked up to be in baseball

    Major League Baseball is an organization that prides itself on having great talent on and off the field. Players are drug-tested fairly regularly and subject to different levels of punishment if caught with opioids or other banned substances. That is all changing with the legalization of marijuana in baseball.

    Marijuana graces the covers of magazines and virtually everything in sight in modern culture like a groundbreaking scientific discovery. Seemingly everyone will go to great lengths to defend the devil lettuce’s honor if one attacks it. In general, marijuana is looked at like a god. Sure, people have benefited from it, but its usage has gotten out of control and the relaxed restrictions of marijuana in baseball are just more nails in the coffin.

    With the increase in American marijuana users comes the increase of ramifications. While there are many compelling arguments for normalizing marijuana usage, there are also legitimate health concerns around it.

    As a matter of fact, marijuana-induced emergency room visits have jumped up, particularly in more left-leaning states.

    According to the Colorado Hospital Association, a collection of more than 100 hospitals in the state of Colorado, “the prevalence of hospitalizations for marijuana exposure in patients aged nine years and older doubled after the legalization of medical marijuana,” and “emergency department visits nearly doubled after the legalization of recreational marijuana.”

    That is scary stuff. Maybe marijuana can wash away anxiety or depression temporarily, but to risk the added side effects is foolish.

    Returning to the realm of Major League Baseball, we find ourselves in the midst of an organization that is trying to appeal to a younger audience by making games more enjoyable and watchable. After all, the kids are the future of the sport.

    Yet the idea that loosening the grip on marijuana in baseball will do no harm couldn’t be more wrong. It is common knowledge that youth look up to ballplayers as role models in many different facets.

    If marijuana is more debilitating to one’s health than beneficial, we should be making it clear that any, and I mean any, drug or substance will not be tolerated in baseball no matter how harmless it may be marketed as. I certainly wouldn’t want my kids to form the idea that they can get away with smoking weed like it’s no big deal. Marijuana and e-cigarettes are already being passed around like packs of gum in middle and high schools and it’s only getting worse.

    “Drugs work very well, at first, for mentally ill people. If you’re anxious, it’ll go away with a couple of hits, a beer. It’s like magic. But then, the tolerance sets in. So, not only do they need to drink more to relieve the anxiety, but every single time they try to stop, the underlying anxiety comes back worse.”

    Dr. Alex Stalcup

    Beyond setting a bad example for the younger generation, people are using marijuana for non-medical purposes and leaning on it like another shoulder. Especially in Humboldt County, people are socially smoking marijuana and claiming it’s saving their lives.

    I recognize there are some individuals who actually need it to function, but nonetheless, it’s spread like a wildfire and now it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t smoke it or consume edibles.

    Mental health issues affect the extent to which people get addicted to marijuana or other substances, according to Dr. Alex Stalcup, medical director of the New Leaf Treatment Center in a 2016 interview with Healthline Magazine.

    “Drugs work very well, at first, for mentally ill people,” Stalcup said. “If you’re anxious, it’ll go away with a couple of hits, a beer. It’s like magic. But then, the tolerance sets in. So, not only do they need to drink more to relieve the anxiety, but every single time they try to stop, the underlying anxiety comes back worse.”

    Stalcup went on:

    “Fifty to sixty percent of the people with an addiction to marijuana whom [my] clinic treats have some sort of underlying mental health condition,” he said.

    Granted, it is only one clinic, but the point is an overwhelming amount of people across the country who abuse weed are dealing with a mental health crisis of some kind.

    I will admit that I am in the same boat with a lot of these folks, but I will never use weed as a solution to my problems. There is an abundance of other remedies and treatments available to cure internal issues.

    I can’t control what you do. I can’t control what Major League Baseball does. But I hope that baseball will go back to looking at marijuana as a banned substance that could incur fines and treatment.

  • Chico State Softball Dominates Doubleheader vs. Jacks

    Chico State Softball Dominates Doubleheader vs. Jacks

    Chico State softball lived up to the hype in daytime doubleheader

    The Chico State Wildcats got their game going right away in the second inning when, after loading the bases and scoring two runs, third baseman Drew Rodriguez hit a bases-clearing double. The momentum shifted to Chico State in that moment, and they didn’t look back for rest of the day, culminating in back-to-back losses.

    Head Coach Shelli Sarchett reflected on her team’s performance.

    “Our team is too good to be playing the way we’re playing,” Sarchett said. “We’ve got to figure something out. We’ve got to turn it around right now. We have our moments of brightness, but they’re overshadowed by the moments of darkness.”

    Sarchett said their pitching has been struggling and it needs to get better if the team wants to compete.

    In the third inning of the first game, Chico pitcher Brooke Larsen clobbered a two-run home run to left field. The Wildcats followed this up with an onslaught of additional offense.

    Following five straight runners scoring, Rodriguez hit another bases-clearing double in the fourth inning. This felt like the exclamation mark on the game. The mercy rule came into mind as things were falling apart fast.

    Fast forward to the fifth inning Chico had a 17-0 lead. The Jacks didn’t get shut out, though, and managed to squeeze out a run when shortstop Adriana Chavez reached first on an error by Chico shortstop Kristin Worley, and third baseman Izzy Starr scored on an unearned run.

    • Sophomore shortstop Adriana Chavez makes a play during the Jacks game against Chico State on Feb. 22 at HSU Softball Field | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Junior second baseman Danica Grier slides into third during the second game of a double header against Chico State at HSU Softball Field on Feb. 22 in a game where the Jacks stole 5 bases. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State outfielder Lauren Lipe runs into to make a catch off of a pop fly during the Jacks game against Chico State on Feb. 22 at HSU Softball Field. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    Unfortunately, the Jacks also ran themselves into an out on the very same play as right fielder Mariah Kalamaras was tagged out at third base to end the game.

    Jacci Crowe notched the only hit for the Jacks.

    The first game was one to forget, but the second game, while also a loss, was more engaging.

    Again, Chico scored first. But rather than fall flat, the Jacks managed to tie the game in their half of the first on a RBI bunt single by junior Danica Grier that scored catcher Micaela Harris.

    Pitcher Lexee Sheiring was a workhorse in the second game, going almost six innings in relief of starting pitcher Megan Escobar, who got tagged with five earned runs early on.

    “I think I just had to take a minute, regroup,” Sheiring said. “Then go out there and really dig through it and be there for my team and show up.”

    After trading runs in the following few innings, Chico blew the game wide open in the seventh when shortstop Karter Williams drove in two with a single and right fielder Amanda Metzger brought in Williams on a two run bomb to right.

    In their last half of the seventh inning, the Jacks put up a fight when Grier drove in Harris and Starr, and first baseman Anna Brondos followed with an RBI single of their own to bring their team within striking distance. But like the first game, Chico pulled out a victory and swept Saturday’s doubleheader.

  • New MLB Rules Come Out of Left Field

    New MLB Rules Come Out of Left Field

    MLB rule changes go against what the game is all about

    America’s pastime. The phrase has become synonymous all over Major League Baseball. As baseball evolves into new seasons, rules are being implemented in an effort to quicken the game and appeal to a younger audience. Many of the rules aren’t too debilitating to the way the game is played, but several key rule changes will do more harm than good.

    There are the more radical, long-term rules like getting rid of the shift or implementing a pitch clock, and then there are the more pressing rules like forcing pitchers to face a minimum of three batters and totally changing up the structure of the postseason.

    Three-batter minimum rule:

    Baseball is all about strategy. One of these strategies involves using a left-handed reliever to get one or two batters out and then bring in another reliever to close out an inning or game. A new rule, which will go into effect beginning this upcoming season, will make it so all relievers need to face at least three batters before being able to leave the mound.

    On its own website, MLB called the rule an effort to reduce the number of pitching changes and cut down the average length of the game.

    On the surface, it seems MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and his entourage are making the game run more smoothly. Digging a little deeper reveals that this is far from the truth.

    Again, baseball revolves around strategy. To mess with the strategy of the game is to play with fire—a big, multi-billion dollar fire. As Sports Illustrated put it, “Messing with strategy to attempt to solve a pace of game problem is a wrong-headed approach.”

    Take the San Francisco Giants for example. In the 2010s, they would frequently use left-handed relievers like Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt to get critical outs against left-handed batters.

    If the three-batter minimum rule was ushered in back then, it would’ve been a different ballgame for all involved. The Giants may not have even won all three of their World Series titles.

    Bringing in the new rule would not only be a strategist’s nightmare, but also would fail to accomplish the initial goal to make the game go faster. It’s an odd rule all around, and other stats weren’t taken into account before its inception.

    Altered postseason structure:

    The details of the new postseason format are very intricate, but to put it in broad terms, the number of teams in both leagues making it to the postseason would increase from five to seven. Opportunities to automatically advance to the next round and manually pick their opponents on a live television show would come to fruition.

    No words can describe the sheer ridiculousness of these new postseason rules. It seems as if Rob Manfred has lost his mind.

    Baseball is already becoming a money-grab reality TV show. The powers that be don’t need to add insult to injury.

    The point of the postseason is only a select few make it in, and an even smaller number move on to higher rounds without weird caveats. Luckily, these new postseason rules are just proposals, as they would destroy baseball from the inside out.

    Yet again, baseball has been and should continue to be about enjoying the game for what it is and not trying to throw curveballs into the mix. These rules are ambitious, but aren’t beneficial to anyone except the people at the very top of the totem pole. It’s in the best interest of Rob Manfred and his cohort to leave the game alone and stay faithful to the notion of baseball being America’s Pastime.