by Brad Butterfield

To date, $412,000 has been spent on renovations at Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center (HBAC) to allow for half of the University Advancement Division to move their operations into the Eureka waterfront building. According to Marketing and Communications for the university,  this transition, which began in the Fall of 2020, led to a change in management of the building from the non-profit ‘University Center’ to Cal Poly Humboldt. 

Marketing and Communication states that the relocation of the Advancement Division to HBAC has provided an easier landing pad for donors and Alumni to interact and opened up space on campus for the Associated Students to utilize. In effect, this move has forced many of the previous operations at HBAC to alter and many to exist as shells of their former selves. Additionally, the Advancement Division’s move to HBAC forced Center Activities employees out of their offices and workspaces without giving them a say in the matter. 

The money spent:

While Marketing and Communications Director, Aileen Yoo and Communications Specialist, Grant Scott Go-forth stated in separate emails that renovations and upgrades to the HBAC total $412,000 to date, public records requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, led to the release of only three construction contracts totalling $22,700, leaving $389,300 unaccounted for. 

In an effort to establish a complete framework of work done at HBAC, a second public records request was submitted on Nov. 16, asking for all publicly disclosable records related to renovations/construction carried out at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center from 1/1/2019 – 11/16/2023. This second request was denied by Records Access Officer, Michelle Williams citing, “Balancing Test. Records where the public interest against disclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Cal. Govt. Code §7922.000.” 

The Advancement Division moves into the HBAC:

Yoo wrote, on behalf of Marketing and Communications that, “The location improved accessibility for donors and alumni to interact with Alumni Relations, the Cal Poly Humboldt Foundation, and other areas of the Division. Having a more prominent presence in Eureka has helped improve community outreach.”

 There are now 16 University advancement employees working in the HBAC’s new cubicle spaces and pre-existing offices.

Under its previous management, the HBAC was focused on aquatic equipment rentals, scenic tours, OLLI classes, education on local wildlife and Humboldt Bay and, critically, water safety. The moving in of the Advancement Division led to some of the HBAC’s equipment being stored off-site and a diminished ability for the Aquatic Center to continue its services to students and community as a waterfront property.

Renovation’s cause chaos: 

An employee with direct knowledge of the reworking of HBAC spoke under the condition of anonymity fearing repercussions for speaking out. They will be referred to as J. Doe in this article. When word came that Center Activities was expected to vacate the HBAC offices, there was confusion as to where that left them to operate from. After initially vacating their offices, Sherie Gordon, Vice President for Administration and Finance, paid a visit to the building to assess the situation.

“Sherie Gordon came around to look at the situation on the waterfront. It was agreed that there is no reason why Alumni [Relations] would need a waterfront office when Center Activities was responsible for monitoring waterfront safety,” Doe said.

After Gordon’s visit Center Activities was allowed to maintain use of the office for a couple of months before being kicked out again.

Under HBAC’s new management, a creative solution was found for the employees who’d unwillingly forfeited their workspaces. 

“They took what used to be a maintenance closet, and they turned it into an office. So, Center Activities doesn’t have a front door office anymore where people can come up to a counter and ask questions. They have this tiny, hidden little space that used to be a closet that is now an office without access to any of the other rooms or lobby. So they can’t do community services, program coordination or classes in other rooms unless it is reserved out in advance,” Doe said.

According to Doe, Stephanie Lane, Executive Director of Alumni Relations, has the final approval on all reservation requests submitted for the building through 25Live.

Yoo, on behalf of Marketing and Communications wrote through email that in addition to adding cubicle spaces for Alumni Relations, they would also be occupying two offices that didn’t require any updates. According to Doe, one office went to Lane who was adamant about getting it.

“That’s one thing that never changed. She was gonna get that waterfront office.” Doe said.

The second office went to one of the Advancement Departments VP’s. 

Stephanie Lane declined to be interviewed for this article, deferring to statements from Marketing and Communications.

HBAC’s waterfront safety obligations:

Regardless of who occupies which office or what departments operate out of the HBAC, there are a few operational guidelines that HBAC must adhere to. These guidelines stem largely from who owns the land, who paid for the HBAC to be built, and who owns the building itself.

According to Scott-Goforth, the building is on land that is leased long-term from the City of Eureka, the HBAC was built with a grant from CA Boating and Waterways and it is currently fully owned and operated by Cal Poly Humboldt. 

Pat Hyland, who has been a member of the women’s rowing team coaching staff for 30 years as well as lecturer in Kinesiology, provided valuable context that the HBAC was originally one of three CA Boating and Waterways safety facilities. With that, came an obligation to provide waterway safety.
“[The university] may have been a little light on that,” Hyland said.

From the perspective of the city of Eureka, Miles Slattery, City Manager, points out that operations at HBAC have been ever-evolving and have always included ancillary conferences and classes unrelated to water safety.

“Our whole thing was the original permit for that [HBAC] needed to make sure that they did maintain a certain aspect of the boating safety requirements,” Slattery said. “From what I can tell on the outside – I’m not working there anything – the operations don’t seem to have drastically changed,” Slattery said.

Center Activities struggles to continue operations:

From the outside, HBAC sure does look peachy with her extensive (and currently unsafe for use) balconies and expansive windows which reflect the bay’s glistening, choppy waters. However, the situation within the building is much more complicated. Doe said the University Center’s space is down to about an eighth of the building, and approval is required before using any other part of the HBAC.

“Our whole department was kind of being gunned for, and we felt very threatened. So, you know, we had to focus a lot on explaining to the university over and over again, through all of the different administration changes that we’ve had, there’s a valid reason for us to be a part of this campus community,” Doe said. “A lot of time was spent just justifying what we do and how we do it and why it’s important.”

This constant fight to validate their right to exist took away from their ability to teach waterway safety and keep eyes on the dangerous waters of Humboldt Bay.

Though the transition has been painful for some, there are some important silver linings. Most notably, Men’s Rowing has now joined Women’s rowing at HBAC. Hyland said that with the available space at HBAC, a good job has been done to optimize it.

“Both rowing teams use it early and late. They don’t use it in the middle of the day. Then the center of the day is primetime and advancement uses it the whole time then.”

Additionally, from the University’s standpoint, taking over management of the building has been a major victory.

“HBAC is available at no cost for ad hoc meetings and events put on by campus and community groups,” Yoo wrote in an email.

 Previously, under the management of the University Center, the university would be charged a nominal fee to host events in the building in order to support the work that the non-profit was doing. Naturally, losing that income and the management of the building has been a huge blow to Center Activities.

“When the Center Activities department would ask questions regarding funding to replace lost income, they received mixed messages and unclear guidance on what they should expect from the Athletics Department, which Center Activities is now managed by,” said Doe.

With renovations yet to be completed at HBAC, Scott-Goforth provided a look into the usage of the building thus.

“There have typically been two or more events occurring each week in the space. Examples include: multi-day placement orientation activity by the Social Work program; program meetings by the California Center for Rural Policy; one-day retreat for areas including Intercollegiate Athletics, Enrollment Management, University Advancement, Advising Center, and Financial Aid Office; Nursing alumni gathering; CSU,” Scott-Goforth wrote in an email on behalf of Marketing and Communications.

Apparently the upper echelon of Cal Poly Humboldt wasted no time in using the waterfront property for one-day retreats.

Who drove for this change?

With budget cuts widespread at Cal Poly Humboldt, it seemed an unorthodox initiative, to Doe, to spend nearly half a million dollars to renovate the HBAC for the benefit of Alumni, Donors, and the University Advancement Division.

“We were told that the changes at HBAC were happening due to initiatives set forth by President Jackson using presidential funds,” Doe said.

Jackson’s involvement was corroborated by Hyland, answering who he thought drove for the changes at the HBAC.

“That was all President Jackson.”

Further, Marketing and Communications provided extra context for HBAC’s expensive facelift.

 In answering the question of which administrators had driven for the renovations at HBAC, Goforth wrote through email, “Frank Whitlatch, VP for University Advancement, in close consultation with colleagues and with President Jackson.”

The winners and losers:

The renovations at HBAC benefitted many people and departments, while hurting many others. It is, of course, a very nuanced topic. What can’t be overlooked is the effect this had on those involved. Of which, feelings are mixed.

For Slattery and the city of Eureka, all developments that increase Cal Poly Humboldt’s presence in Eureka are beneficial.

“The presence of the university here in the city of Eureka is extremely important,” Slattery said. “I think that having that influx of not only just people in general, but the diversity of that is something that Eureka would benefit from extremely and I think that Cal Poly would benefit from it as well.”

Hyland said that practices for Women’s Rowing have not been interrupted because of the renovations and explained that the space is being divided as best as possible.

“The men’s team would love to have more space, just as Center Activities would. I’d love to have more space and I’m sure that Advancement would love to have more space, but we’ve got a finite thing and I think we’re playing nice as far as sharing goes,” Hyland said.

Unfortunately, for students and faculty who grew and learned through the courses and services provided by HBAC under its previous management, the renovations and addition of the Advancement department has been quite negative. 

“This has seriously impacted students’ abilities to learn and have viable professional careers before leaving school. They used to hire a lot of students who would come down to work at the Aquatic Center, get professional experience and do internships down there,” said Doe. “They still try to have internships but they are not the same, people aren’t getting the same out of it. They’ve kind of pulled back on doing student based programming at the same level we used to because we just can’t function with less space, less ability to manage a building. There’s less for them to do honestly.”