Walking through the Cal Poly Humboldt Student Activity Center quad, one might hear a voice singing spiritual hymns. Echoing up the stair of Founder’s Hall, the voice carries a sense of warmth. The singer Fred Bossman can be heard a couple times a week, usually in the mornings.
47-year-old Bossman studies physics at Cal Poly Humboldt with a focus in astronomy. He sings in public because he believes God told him if he sacrifices himself for the good of man, He will grant him unlimited power. Bossman wants to use this power to heal the world through singing.
He started singing at College of the Redwoods, but his favorite place to sing is the Arcata Plaza. He thinks it has a nice echo. Though he has no formal training, Bossman has traveled in states all over the west singing in public trying to spread warmth and joy.
“I have been singing for many years,” said Bossman. “It’s been a long time.”
Bossman has received mixed reactions from people about his singing.
“People have said that I sound beautiful,” said Bossman. “Other people have told me to be quiet.”
One day, he was singing in the quad at Cal Poly Humboldt and thought that a lady who was studying was irritated with his singing.
“I went up to her and told her I was sorry and she said, ‘No it was beautiful. Thank you,’” said Bossman.
Bossman said that he’s not trying to create problems.
“I’m just trying to do what I believe I’m supposed to do,” stated Bossman.
Bossman can get nervous when singing in public.
“It’s sometimes nerve-wracking because I don’t know what to expect,” said Bossman
Bossman used to wear sunglasses to help ease his anxiety, then, when the pandemic hit, he would wear a mask.
“Sometimes people would look around and not know who was singing until they got close to me,” said Bossman. “This was when I didn’t sound that good.”
“I used to scream,” said Bossman. “Over many years it turned into a harmony. At first, I didn’t know how to sing but I was just getting it out there.”
Now, Bossman takes the mask off so that his voice doesn’t sound muffled.
After struggling with a meth addiction, he found God at a low point in his life. He had woken up from being in a coma for seven days and was given a copy of the New Testament. It was just the sign he needed.
“The Lord has delivered me from methamphetamine, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and gambling for over four and a half years,” said Bossman.
Growing up in an agnostic household, he does not belong to any specific denomination. He simply follows Jesus. He receives messages from God through prayer, visions and dreams.
Bossman said God showed him a vision of him winning a Nobel prize and becoming an astrophysicist, and he knows this is something he will do.
His favorite passage is the 91st psalm of the Book of Psalms: “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Bossman has 38 songs in his repertoire. All of the songs that he sings, he hears on K-Love, a Christian radio station based in Sacramento, California.
“I would hear a song and go home, look it up on the internet, learn the words and put it in my repertoire,” said Bossman.
Bossman’s favorite song to sing is “Glorious Unfolding” by Steven Curtis Chapman.
This is an extended version of the story that was published Friday, September 29. This version was printed on Wednesday, October 4.
It was a misty Friday morning in Arcata. Fewer than 20 people met in person to discuss the budget reform for funded student groups on campus. Tensions were high and budget cuts were higher.
Faced with a deficit of more than $500,000, the Associated Students (A.S.) met to make huge cuts to student programs. There were over 20 funded program cuts that were approved.
A $500,000 deficit heightened the tensions between A.S. and core funded student groups on campus. With thousands lower in enrollment numbers than originally projected by the university, it left a sour taste in the mouths of everyone whose budget was about to be cut by thousands of dollars.
Associated Students Administrative Vice President (AVP) Andres Olmos facilitated the discussion for the necessary cuts of the budget. According to Olmos, because of lack of funds, they are essentially starting from the ground up with the bare minimum of only wages for student workers. That still leaves them over budget. The revenue is much less than predicted in the spring due to the high enrollment projections made by the university.
The original revenue number was $786,000. Using A.S. reserve funds, the number would have been $865,000. According to Olmos, the financial office told A.S. to get to $750,000, meaning the total number of funds cut were $528,717 because the approved budget when the university thought enrollment would be much higher, a whole $1.2 million.
A screenshot of the finalized budget of the funded student programs. The left column is the original budget approved in spring and the right column is where the budget is now.
Olmos acknowledged that it was important to A.S. that student workers were able to keep their jobs, and that the main priority was keeping each budget at least at their current wages, only so students could continue to survive.
Over 20 student groups like cultural centers, service organizations and more, saw cuts that ranged anywhere from $2,500 (Drop-In Rec Open Gym) to $186,498 (A.S. General Operations).
Some individual budgets were getting cut entirely because they have trust funds that they can survive on for the year; others were biting their nails to try and get more than just enough to pay student workers.
“The money that is now allocated to us is strictly for wages,” Isabela Acosta, the Fiscal Coordinator for the Women’s Resource Center said in an interview after the A.S. meeting. “Not for supplies and hospitality or events.”
A.S. President Samuel Parker said that the university told A.S. in the beginning of September that they would need to cut the budget. With less than a month to make the adjustments, it was difficult.
“It was pretty difficult to have to deal with in such a tight time frame,” Parker said. “Also we have a very limited amount of people at the moment, so it is hard to get the adequate amount of communication out to everyone to let everyone know and have them chime in with their perspectives.”
Marketing and Communications Director of News and Information Aileen Yoo said in an email statement that the budget office had informed A.S. about the budget shortfall on Aug. 30.
“One of the reasons for the budget deficit had to do with fee revenue estimates being lower than anticipated due to enrollment growth being more modest than initially anticipated during budget planning last spring,” Yoo said. “This led to needed adjustments to many of our budgeted operations across campus, including our main Operating Fund as well as our fee supported areas, such as AS.”
The Eric Rofes Queer Multicultural Resource Center (ERC) approved budget for the 2023-2024 school year was $42,500. It was cut to $30,000 after Ascher Marks, the fiscal director for the ERC, and AVP Olmos talked. Olmos told Marks that the ERC employees might not be able to work over summer and winter breaks.
“We cannot really consider that because our bills don’t stop during winter and summer break,” Marks responded. “We need to be working over the breaks because this is our job and how we make money.”
Other organizations like the Women’s Resource Center are struggling to do anything except pay their employees.
“We can’t buy menstrual products,” Acosta said. “Our sole responsibility as a resource center is to provide menstrual products for campus.”
Acosta explained that due to a law passed in California in 2021, that the university should be stocking the bathrooms with menstrual products, but they have not been.
“Our school should be [providing] menstrual products because of California Bill 367, which makes California public institutions required to have free and accessible menstrual products, and the school has not instilled this bill,” Acosta said. “So we have basically been taking out large portions of our yearly budget to provide menstrual products for campus when it is not even our responsibility to do so.”
Yoo responded to this in an email statement.
Photo by Kae Dennert. Ella Moore, Rose Co-Director, raises her hand during the A.S. meeting on Friday.
“This [law] has been funded previously by the university, through Student Health & Wellbeing Services and other institutional resources, with staffing resupply support through the Office of Student Life and other university departments. The Women’s Resource Center provided additional supplies and locations and has done so since before the bill was passed. A group of those folks plus Facilities Management are now meeting to streamline the process and ensure funding and coordination of effort.”
When asked about the backstock of menstrual products and when the center could possibly run out, she said that if they were to stock every bathroom regularly they would run out by next week. With the stock they have (about 20 boxes of pads, 100 menstrual cups and 18 boxes of tampons), she is hoping they will make it to the end of the semester.
Some organizations still have enough to sustain for the year, like the Waste Reduction Resource Awareness Program (WRAPP). The Program was cut by $9,200 leaving them below the A.S. recommendation of only wages, yet they remain optimistic.
“We are so excited to have $44,000,” Ella Moore, Rose Co-Director said. “It means we are going to be able to pay our employees and [have] a little wiggle room for basic operations.”
The Social Justice, Equity and Inclusion Center will still be open after their $16,500 cut. Frank Herrera, the Center’s Coordinator, is optimistic despite the small funds. Herrera said that the primary goal is to keep student staff, the secondary is to have high impact events. He understands that budgets change and the Center just needs to be more intentional with events.
Aside from the difficulties cutting a budget by this much, Parker is proud and optimistic, particularly of AVP Olmos.
“There were a lot of factors that made it pretty difficult for everyone. I am very proud of everyone for managing to pull it off.”
Sweaty students, creepy men, and lots of crappy EDM-remix music. That’s how I would describe the “College Night” hosted by the Arcata Theater Lounge (ATL). College Night, a fairly frequent event, is popular because it’s one of the few places in Humboldt County where people who are over 18 but not yet 21 can go to have a nightclub-like experience.
You may be wondering what my qualifications are. I’ve been to College Night at least seven times at this point. I have also been to several nightclubs in South Korea and a few in Europe, so this isn’t my first rodeo. I know it’s not quite fair to compare these foreign nightclubs with the ATL, but this does give me a good perspective about what makes a nightclub, well, fun.
So let’s address the elephant in the room – the music. While the ATL does feature some great songs, the experience often gets soured by the sheer amount of EDM remix tracks they play. It feels as though the remixes really drown out the best parts of the song that make you want to dance and let loose. It’s frustrating when I’m really enjoying a song then they completely gloss over the song with an awful EDM remix version. It’s important to note that music is a key element in any nightclub setting, and the ATL could significantly enhance the overall experience by having a more diverse playlist, with less remixes. After all, music has the power to elevate the atmosphere and make a night out all the more enjoyable.
I respect the concept of College Night. It gives the poor souls who aren’t 21 the chance to have a nightclub experience which, in Humboldt County, is extremely hard to find. Despite the issues I have with the music, I will continue to attend College Night (with a fair amount of liquid courage) because it holds a special place in the hearts of many, including myself. In fact, it was at College Night where I first met my current boyfriend over nine months ago, so even though these nights have very questionable music, I have some great memories associated with them. Is the music often questionable? Yes. Will I keep going back? Absolutely.
So, my advice is if you’re looking to go to College Night at the ATL, pregame (drinks are expensive), go with people you trust and know you’ll have a good time with, and make some unforgettable college memories.
The Cal Poly Humboldt alumni dominated the 2023 women’s rugby alumni game on Sept. 30. Both teams played for the same university and put their all into the match. With an end score of 87 to 5, the alumni defeated Cal Poly Humboldt, whose team is mainly made up of newcomers, many who saw their first game on Saturday.
Cal Poly Humboldt’s team captain Courtney Campuzano caught a couple of breakaways in the game, meaning took off with the ball, escaping players trying to tackle her. Campuzano is a senior majoring in social work. Campuzano was excited to see so many alumni back to play in the match, stating it felt awesome to see alumni happy to come out. She noted that some new players played the most they ever had.
Rachel Gonzales runs with the ball to score during the Cal Poly Humboldt Alumni game on Sept. 30.
“I saw these rookies get stuck in,” Campuzano said. “One’s been here for maybe two weeks.”
Saturday was Ashlyn Broeland’s first game as a player for Cal Poly Humbolt’s women’s rugby team. A junior majoring in environmental studies with an emphasis in education, Broeland is number nine on the team. Her position on the team is scrum half, which is an important role because it forms the link between the forwards and the backs.
“I’m really excited for our new players to get out there,” Broeland said. “This is a really good chance for them to learn the game.”
Cal Poly Humboldt’s cheer team came to support Broeland, their cheer captain, who has been on the team for three years.
Sophia Nielsen played on the alumni side, having graduated in 2021 with a degree in wildlife.
Senior Courtney Campuzano avoids being tackled with the ball by Rachel Gonzales during the Cal Poly Humboldt Alumni game on Sept. 30
“[The most fun part was] being with my teammates I haven’t seen in over a year,” Nielsen said.
Wynnie Savageford graduated in 2023 with a bachelor’s in criminology and justice studies.
“[I like] the camaraderie of being around everybody and just being back in the pitch together,” Savageford said.
Head coach Catalina Leon was most excited for the team to put together the skills they’ve been working on in an actual game. Leon stated that the biggest part of their strategy was communication and putting those fundamentals to work.
“We were able to do that because we were able to get some breakaways and it worked,” Leon said. “It also showed us the areas that we still need to work on.”
Leon said that overall the girls played well, especially considering that the majority of the girls joined this September.
Lauren Bankerd, a junior majoring in kinesiology, scored the only try (goal) on Cal Poly Humboldt’s side. It was her third career goal, having previously played one semester.
“[The most exciting part is] sprinting down the line, the adrenaline pumping because you don’t know if someone’s behind you or not, and you’re just gunning,” Bankerd said. “The crowd screaming and everything.”
Cal Poly Humboldt made its annual Security Report under The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act public. The report details crime statistics that have occurred during the past three years, from 2020 to 2022.
The Jeanne Clery Act was signed into law in 1990. The act is a consumer protection law meant to provide transparency to the public around campus crime policy and statistics. Nicki Viso became the Clery Director in February 2022, heading up the Clery Compliance Team which is composed of representatives from many Cal Poly Humboldt departments.
The crimes reported are sorted into four categories based on where they happened. These include reported incidents on the general campus, on campus residencies, non-campus locations affiliated with the school, and public property near or adjacent to the campus.
There were no hate crimes reported during the three year stretch of 2020 to 2022 in the report. While there were no reports of murder or non-negligent and negligent manslaughter, there was a large increase in rape cases, from two incidents in 2021 to 11 in 2022. There were also increases in incidences of fondling, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, arson, and other crimes. Some were small increases (like robbery from zero to one case) and some were larger (like weapons law violations from three to seven).
The Clery Compliance Team noted these increases in the report. August 2022 was the point that campus opened fully, with an increase of people on campus and returning to in-person classes as the reasons. Another change the team cited was that Comfort Inn in Arcata, currently housing students, was included and classified under “Non-campus Property.”
It’s important to clarify that any allegation that fits the criteria of a specific crime and occurs within the geographical locations specified by the Clery report are included. Not every crime statistic included in the report is proof that a crime definitively happened. Furthermore, crimes are recorded under the year they’re reported, even if they occurred a previous year.
The Clery Act Report is available on Cal Poly Humboldt’s Clery Act Compliance webpage, as well as information to help understand it.
“I love stripper bitches!” the crowd yelled. This one-of-a-kind call and response was very much appropriate.
On Sunday, Sept. 24, Clubussy broke down barriers by being the first-ever pop-up strip club event in all of Humboldt County. The event was hosted at the queer-owned thrift store Krave in Arcata, continuing the theme of providing a safe space for all.
With help from volunteers, the store was transformed into an intimate and safe setting, with one pole centered in the room highlighting the seven talented performers throughout the night.
Setting the mood with what one performer described as bisexual lighting, casting blue, pink, and purple shadows across the room.
The excitement was building as the performers changed in the back room. Everyone reflected joy and felt proud to be in a space where they could be their authentic selves.
“As someone who felt bullied out of sex work, this space is super important to me,” said Baby Fontaine.
Fontaine, aka the “Dollar Daddy,” was a volunteer responsible for exchanging dollar bills with the crowd making sure everyone had cash to tip the performers.
Orange haired-diva Big Billy, a co-founder of the Humboldt based pole dancing group, LXIX Crew, began with an emotional and entrancing number, paired with a mix of opera and club beats. Next up was Felix Void, who was serving punk, with loud clacks from the stomping of their tall black heels. Dahlia was after, delivering androgyny in their performance to “But It’s Better If You Do” by Panic! at the Disco. Their splits and unbelievable spins continued to get hoots and tips from the audience. Big Billy took the stage again with their “Shreksual” performance of “All Star” by Smash Mouth, garnering laughs and cheers from the audience. Felix Void and Dahlia did one last number each before the group birthday dance in celebration of Kai Flores, the owner of Krave.
Krave’s owner, Kai Flores, even got a birthday treat. Six strippers danced on Flores’ lap, did handstands while shaking ass, and enveloped their face with their breasts, leaving Flores laughing with tears falling down their cheeks. It was their first strip club experience and they got the whole shabang.
The second half of the show started with Boofy the Clown. Boofy, a co-founder of the Foolish Kinks,performed their comedic version of “Oops I Did It Again” by Britney Spears. Channeling her inner bimbo, Boofy trotted on stage, fluffy nose first and ended by revealing a miniature pink rubber chicken from her bikini bottom. Following Boofy, Karma dropped it low at the audience’s feet before climbing back onto the pole to impress with their acrobatic spins. After Karma’s performance came Bunny with a flamenco inspired set. Once everyone performed twice, GUTTERPUKE, the organizer and MC of the event, surprised the audience with a last minute pole performance coming back from their extended hiatus.
The grand finale involved a sheet cake and balloon-boobs. Everyone cheered as Boofy and Dahlia dropped from the pole into the splits on top of the sheet cake, proceeding to lick the frosting off of each other and feed each other chunks of cake, eventually popping the balloon-boobs with Dahlia’s long black acrylics in honor of Flores’ birthday.
The performance left an impact on the crowd, leaving them curious what the event might mean for the future of Humboldt County.
“It’s going to inspire others… change the future of pole dancing in Humboldt,” said Patrick Shannon, an audience member supporting one of their performer friends.
“There’s so many people here who know people who dance at clubs and have wanted to support them, but are too afraid to go into the club because of violent homophobia and because of the transphobia we are seeing in our nation,” said GUTTERPUKE. “Not only is this radical and reseizing the means of our production, it’s also radical in a way of creating space for queer people to feel comfortable accessing sex workers.”
GUTTERPUKE has six years of experience performing, as well as experience fighting the constrictive systems that make being a stripper and/or sex worker difficult. This passion for creating a safe and equitable environment for sex workers and strippers stems from GUTTERPUKE’s own traumatic past. At one of the previous clubs he worked at, he was illegally fired. From that experience, he discovered Strippers United, an organization striving to dismantle whorephobia and decriminalize sex work. This organization provides financial and legal support for strippers and helped GUTTERPUKE win his case against the club. They were forced to hire him back and pay him for the days he wasn’t allowed to work because of the illegal termination.
Clubussy was created as the solution to this problem and the other issues strippers regularly face.
“Let’s do some problem-solving. Let’s make an event where sex workers are platformed and invited. Let’s make a space that celebrates us in a really joyous manner and it’s not degrading, it’s not fetishization or tokenization,” said GUTTERPUKE.
Along with the mistreatment of performers, the financial aspect of running a strip club is something GUTTERPUKE is passionate about improving.
“When you are a stripper, you have to pay the club to work. Part of Clubussy is that strippers keep 100% of their fucking money. Often performers are told ‘you will get a percentage of ticket sales,’ but they’re never transparent with their finances so you have no idea how much the event organizers are paying themselves, you have no idea how much the event actually made. So, as part of my ideals to be transparent and community-based with all of the performers and volunteers, the financial records will be made available,” GUTTERPUKE said to the audience.
The event followed the intentions of being transparent, encouraging and safe for everyone. It also was a chance for these local strippers and sex workers to represent themselves, share their art, and give credit where credit is due.
“Oftentimes, pole hobbyists get more opportunities to be performers, get more opportunities to go on tour, get more opportunities to do so much when pole is a craft that was shared by strippers with non-strippers because it’s something that brings us joy,” said GUTTERPUKE. “Being on the stage, doing your thing, it is positive for your body, it is positive for your mental health and we shared that gift.
On Feb. 25, 2023, I was transported to Mad River Hospital after Sergeant Andy Martin of Cal Poly Humboldt University Police expressed concern for me. I had lost my phone at the Student Activity Center, and after I got it back I told him and other officers that someone had bugged my phone, people were following me and there were recording devices in my dorm room. Because of Martin’s commitment to helping, I was later given a diagnosis that answered so many questions: schizophrenia and bipolar I. If it weren’t for Sergeant Martin, I don’t know what would have happened, or where I would be.
Martin knew me before the incident because he had picked up my knocked-over motorcycle for me. I brought him and the dispatcher, Jennifer Gomes, Harley-Davidson keychains and candy as a thank-you gift. Martin and Gomes knew that something was wrong with me because they knew me as a confident, Harley-riding girl – not a scared, paranoid kid.
“Law enforcement’s role in mental health is complicated, to say the least,” said Martin. “Mental [illness] is not a crime.”
Because my paranoia was high, the emergency room and the hospital in general was a scary place to be.
“Some of the [hospital] staff and I have had conversations. They know that it’s not the ideal,” said Martin.
Following the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, those under 5150 hold must be taken to a facility designated by the county, which is either the emergency room or county mental health, which has only been taking voluntary patients since COVID. To me, this is a shame. I strongly believe that they should be transported to an inpatient facility for those in immediate mental crisis.
“It’s designed for medical care, not psychiatric care,” said Martin, referring to the hospital. He recognized that there could be some overlap in the type of care needed for patients. In my case, my second hospital stay warranted medical care because I ran three miles barefoot thinking my hometown was littered with explosives, which tore my feet up. This happened the night after I was released from Mad River to my dad, who took me home to Redwood Valley.
College is a time in life in which mental illness often manifests. The American Psychiatric Association states that 75% of mental illnesses start by the age of 24.
“We see more than our fair share of it,” said Martin. I was given my diagnosis at the age of 22, which is right in that sweet spot for when such illnesses surface.
5150, also known as the Welfare and Institutions Code, is what allows police to detain a person if they are deemed a danger to themself or others.
“Those are actually very strict criteria, the idea being that law enforcement shouldn’t be able to detain somebody without good cause,” said Martin.
The way it works is that if an officer is concerned about someone, they’ll express their concern and give two options, voluntary admission to the hospital or 5150 if the case is severe enough. I was technically voluntarily admitted and I just learned after the fact that I could have left if I wanted to, but hospital staff repeatedly told me that I couldn’t leave.
If someone refuses admission to the hospital, UPD can put them in contact with an on-campus counselor or county crisis. UPD also works with the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities (OSRR), who work with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and Campus Assistance, Response and Engagement (CARE).
I have a great support system, and I’ve been told that by several people, including Sergeant Martin. I consider him and all of UPD to be part of my support system. I’m very blessed to have so many compassionate and caring people in my life.
If you are concerned about yourself or another student, please fill out “Reporting Students of Concern” at deanofstudents.humboldt.edu/CARE or call UPD at 707-826-5555. If it’s an emergency, call 911.
Finals week: a stressful, anxious time for all. During this time, Raymond Haeckel, a forestry major at Cal Poly Humboldt, had a public panic attack.
“It was really embarrassing and not the best on my mental health,” Haeckel said. “I’m thinking about how all those people saw me freak out. It sucks.”
After the panic attack, Haeckel decided to adopt a companion that would ease his troubles and calm his mind; he is now the owner of a beautiful cattle dog mix, Carolina. He is certain that having an animal companion has helped support healthier habits.
“It’s a really good, big motivator to keep on a healthy schedule in my life,” Haeckel said. “When I’m feeling depressed, I have trouble keeping up with my daily habits. Having a dog to calm me down when I’m feeling anxious is really important for my mental health. It’s thanks to her that I was able to overcome my inability to sleep through the night.”
Vanessa Hidden, a leadership studies major at Cal Poly Humboldt through the College of Extended Education and Global Engagement, believes having a pet or emotional support animal can be one of human’s deepest connections.
“Our pets can stimulate the healing process within ourselves,” Hidden said. “They can help us look forward to tomorrow and get out of bed.”
Hidden is the administrator for the Co-Sheltering Collaborative, a peer-to-peer support network by My Dog is My Home. The organization is a national nonprofit focused on supporting people experiencing homelessness and their pets.
Having had pets most of her life, Hidden feels a certain sense of comfort and safety from having animals around. She has struggled with depression and anxiety disorder, and her pets were a core part of her healing process.
“To this day, [they] provide the connection and consistency I need to get through new challenges,” Hidden said. “Being fully remote for school and work… is a challenge that I don’t know I would be able to sustain without the company and emotional stability that my pets provide for me.”
Maia Ryan, a Counseling and Psychological Services therapist and campus outreach coordinator at Cal Poly Humboldt, provided some insight on how emotional support animals can improve their owner’s mental health. Social connection is crucial to overall wellbeing and there is ongoing research to prove that the positive interactions with animals offer psychophysiological and psychosocial benefits like lowering anxiety, alleviating loneliness and normalizing heart rate and blood pressure.
“People who may have difficulties with medical or emotional conditions exacerbated by stress could potentially benefit from having an emotional support animal,” Ryan said.
Mental health is heavily influenced by social connection and animals can provide that necessary companionship. The unique bond between humans and animals is a powerful source of comfort and healing, underscoring the vital role animals play in bolstering our emotional resilience and overall mental health.
Isabel Perez-Zoghbi is a 2nd year student from Merced, California. Perez-Zoghbi was a long distance runner throughout her whole life, running cross country and track. She thought her career would be done after highschool and was planning on attending Cal Poly Humboldt in Fall 2022. While scrolling through social media, she came across a video of Cal Poly Humboldt’s very own Joy Hano running the 60-meter hurdles.
“I saw Joy and I thought she was amazing, and I was just like clearly they must have some good hurdles coaches there because Joy’s doing fantastic,” Perez-Zoghbi said.
Once realizing there was a track program, she took it upon herself to direct message Hano. According to Hano, Perez-Zoghbi asked about the program, what Hano’s favorite part about running in college was, and how she wanted to get better at hurdles. Perez-Zoghbi had only started running hurdles her junior year of high school, so she saw this as a learning opportunity. This direct message on Instagram led to a recruitment visit with the track coaches, and Hano was able to meet her in person for the first time.
“Meeting her for that first time, it got me excited about hurdles again cause I could just feel her pure love for the sport, and at that point in my season I was, not going throughout, but it was just a low part of season,” Hano said. “Having her energy around, even just on her recruit visit, brought up my energy, brought up [my] team’s energy, and I just had a great feeling about her.”
Hano was right about that feeling, because during Perez-Zoghbi’s first year at Cal Poly Humboldt she made huge waves in the program. She qualified for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships after running a personal record of 1:00.54 in the 400-meter hurdles. At Nationals in Colorado, she finished nineteenth overall.
During her 2023 campaign, she did face some setbacks. Dealing with a hamstring injury, she was kept from competing in a couple of races. Hano recalls a moment at the 2023 Stanford Invitational where Perez-Zoghbi was scratched from the weekend last minute due to her hamstring. Hano and Perez-Zoghbi took walks around Stanford’s facilities and reminded each other about the amazing opportunities they both have.
“Isa’s really good about remaining grateful, and it was just during that weekend that I just had to remind her we are in an amazing opportunity to do the thing we love and if anything, missing this right now is just going to make you want it more,” Hano said. “Sure enough after that point in season she continued to rehab her hamstring, she continued to play smarter not harder with her hamstring and made the most out of every day she could.”
The knowledge that her coaches bring has helped grow her obsession with the sport. Her teammates contribute to this as well. They inspire her daily with their dedication to training and work ethic. She sees how happy people are just to be given the opportunity to participate. What keeps Perez-Zoghbi motivated through it all is her love for pushing herself to her limits.
“I am always trying to improve and get a better time, and push myself to where I am like dying at the end of practice and I’m like on the floor, can’t breathe,” Perez-Zoghbi said. “Just like that physical challenge and mental challenge of pushing yourself to your limit that’s why I do it.”
Her teammates feed off of this mindset as well. Hano views her as a role model, despite Perez-Zoghbi being younger. Hano knows that whenever they train together, there will be no slacking of any kind. This has only pushed Hano mentally and physically. Her coaches see this determination as well. Cal Poly Humboldt Assistant Sprint and Hurdles coach Kate Eilers expressed Perez-Zoghbi’s tenacity on the track and compared her competitive drive to that of a veteran.
“I love coaching Isabel. She recognizes the value of the time she has here as an athlete and uses every second of it. She is always looking to improve, asking questions and diligently implementing feedback,” Eilers said. “She’s a joy to coach, a supportive teammate and an all around incredible person who knows how to pursue success.”
Perez-Zoghbi expressed her goals for this upcoming season, which are becoming an All-American and breaking the school record. The current record holder is Alyssabeth DeJerez with a time of 58.68 in 2017. The main goal this season though is winning the conference. Currently Perez-Zoghbi is training for the 2024 season which is set to start on Feb. 18.
Two-and-a-half miles north of campus stands the seven-figure “temporary solution” to Cal Poly Humboldt’s current housing crisis. However, this fall semester did not bring the thousands of additional students that had been expected, and 331 bed spaces remain vacant in the on-campus dorms. Despite the difficulties presented by living out of a hotel room, students spoke – mostly – positively about life at the Comfort Inn.
Cal Poly Humboldt’s lease agreement with the Comfort Inn commenced on Aug. 11 and will expire May 12, 2024, for a total of 275 nights. The 49 rooms at the hotel cost the university $100 per night. By the end of the lease, the university will have paid $1,347,500 to the Comfort Inn.
During normal hotel operations, the city of Arcata charges a ‘transient tax’ of 10% the cost of the room. With the university’s lease, the city of Arcata will not earn its normal 10% tax from the Comfort Inn for the 275 nights that students will call it home. Representatives from the city of Arcata were not immediately available for comment regarding the loss of tax revenue.
Given the fact that 331 empty bed spaces remain vacant on campus, the Comfort Inn lease could appear like an ugly $1.3 million stain on the university’s management of funds, but perhaps that’s not fair. Enrollment was expected to jump by 2000 students this fall and the university had an obligation to plan for every scenario. Additionally, the university allowed students who were accepted this fall to defer enrollment until next spring, creating a potential housing shortage come spring. The Comfort Inn lease was kept as an insurance measure by the university.
“To meet the needs of our students and prepare for a possible influx of more students, the university provided the option of living in university-managed off-campus bridge housing like the Comfort Inn,” said Aileen Yoo, Director of News & Information in a statement. “It’s meant to be a temporary solution as we move forward with building additional housing facilities over the next several years.”
In spite of the price tag and lower-than-predicted enrollment, the university kept the Comfort Inn as a housing option, in part because they had to. They had advertised the hotel as a housing option for many students.
“We also sought to honor the fact a number of students specifically chose to live in the Comfort Inn, even when offered the option to move back onto campus,” Yoo said. “Continuing our contract allows us to not only plan for the future, but to reduce uncertainty and disruption of housing locations for those students.”
Importantly, all students currently housed at the Comfort Inn are there by choice.
“Students who are currently residing in the Comfort Inn have chosen to stay there, even when the university offered them the opportunity to move back on campus and live in residential halls,” said Yoo.
Neither Sherie Cornish Gordon the Vice President of Administration & Finance, Donyet King the Senior Director for Housing & Residence Life, nor Steve Relyea the Executive Vice Chancellor responded to interview requests.
The money spent is particularly concerning on the backdrop of the recent CSU tuition hike. Regardless, the students of Cal Poly Humboldt that have been caught in the crosshairs of the university’s rapid expansion, should be the number one priority. Happily, it seems that students now housed in the Comfort Inn are quite content, one might even say they are… (relatively) comfortable.
“It’s not a shitty place, it’s really not. People are like, ‘Oh that sucks you guys are living there,’” said Luis Castro, a student living in the Comfort Inn. “I’m like, ‘No, it’s chill. It’s our own thing.’ In my opinion it’s better than living on campus.”
In fact, there are a number of notable benefits to life in the Comfort Inn that students are stoked on.
“It’s quiet. You don’t have the loudness of the community on campus,” said Dylan Harrison, another student who resides in the hotel. “We have our own community here. We have breakfast every morning. We got a pool downstairs if I want to go swimming, or go to Jacuzzi. We have our own laundry as well.”
In addition to the jacuzzi and laundry, students housed at the Comfort Inn have cleaning services twice a week, free breakfast, and gated parking. Still, there are drawbacks to making a hotel room a home. Namely, the absence of a kitchen. Fortunately, the university has crafted a creative compromise for the students living without a kitchen.
“They got a deal with this diner called Pepper’s and we use our meal exchanges there, or flex money,” Harrison said. “If I want a burger, instead of going and getting a burger that some student made on campus, who just wants to get paid – I could go to a diner where these people want to make burgers. And they like making burgers. And they got good burgers.”
In addition to top notch burgers, students are relishing the first floor snacks provided by the hotel.
“If you want to get something to eat – let’s say you want snacks on campus – then you have to go to the marketplace and pay for it. And here you just go downstairs and just get a yogurt that’s already stocked,” Castro said.
Naturally, the perks of life at Comfort Inn must be weighed against its inconvenient undesirable location miles from campus.
“There is a little bit of a disconnect, socially, you know, between big events that are going on [on campus]. But, I mean, the people that I have met here are pretty cool,” said Andres Arteaga, another student resident of the hotel. “Seeing as it’s my first year here, I did actually really want to be on campus. I do like the vibe on campus, but at the same time, It just feels like our own area here in this section of the town.”
All things considered, the situation seems decent for students living at the Comfort Inn, but it is far from an ideal college housing arrangement. Directly across the street from the Comfort Inn stands, ‘The Grove,’ a hotel recently converted to a homeless shelter. Behind that, in an undeveloped stretch of land that backs up to highway 101, a small community of homeless folks have put up shop and don’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.
“It’s like a 15 feet deep pool and 20 feet diameter wide and there’s tarps and there’s like, people just living over there,” Harrison said. “It’s crazy. You see it off the 101, they’re always burning fires. There’s a lot of people over there. You hear them at nighttime, [and] they’re always screaming.”
Logistically, it appears the university has set students up for success with multiple options for transport to the campus grounds. Working in tandem with Arcata Mad River Transit, the university created a new route that runs 7am to 10pm to transport students, for free, to and from the campus. The bus does not run on Sundays, but students have the option to call the University Police Department for a ride at any time, if need be.
“I take the bus to school,” Harrison said. “There’s three options every hour. If you miss all three buses, you’re a dumbass.”
It was an overcast morning at Moonstone Beach in Trinidad, California on the morning of Sept. 17. A group of Cal Poly Humboldt students ran out into the waves, surfboards under their arms and wetsuits on their bodies. For some, it was their first time surfing. For others, it was just one of many sessions. All of the students had signed up for the surf class through Center Activities, which also offers classes in climbing, backpacking, kayaking and more.
The intro surfing class on Sept. 17 was Hannah Doran’s first surf lesson. At the beginning of the class break, she emerged from the water with a wide grin on her face and her hand displaying a shaka sign. Doran has previously surfed in New Hampshire, Maine and Scotland. Doran is a junior at Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in oceanography with a diving minor.
“Surfing is cool and Humboldt’s the place to surf,” Doran said. “I’m having a great time.”
She was most excited about getting more comfortable in the water, the Pacific specifically. She was also stoked to get solid advice from good instructors. Plus, $40 for five hours of instruction is a great price.
Grady Hechd was the assistant instructor for the class. He has been working at Center Activities on campus since Feb. 2022.
“It’s really rewarding watching people that have never surfed before get out there and watching them learn,” Hechd said. “It kind of clicks for some people.”
Chris Isola, an environmental science transfer student, had gone surfing six times in Humboldt before the Sept. 17 class, but it was his first lesson. Throughout the lesson, Isola caught several waves with a smile.
Alumna and lead instructor, Annalisa Rush, has been teaching surf lessons for over 25 years.
“[The best part of the job is] sharing the joy of being on the ocean and watching people get super stoked on the thrill,” Rush said.
Students and the surrounding community came together to celebrate creativity and strive for social change at the 49th annual North Country Fair in Arcata Plaza on Sept. 16 and 17.
The North Country Fair strives to recognize the eccentric beauty of Arcata and the vibrant people who call it home; celebrating healthy community, environment and cooperation. According to northcountryfair.org, nearly 200 vendors were in attendance to sell their art or deliver their messages to the public. This year’s fair revolved around the theme of ‘Creating The Flow,’ referring to the process for which artists develop their work and embodying the sentiment: you must be the change you wish to see in the world.
According to North Country Fair Director Alex Ozaki-Mcneill, there were roughly 4,000 people in attendance throughout the weekend. Ozaki-Mcneill explained how the event focuses on the creativity of local artists, as well as a desire to spark environmental change in the community with the event’s responsible waste initiative. Every year, event staff and volunteer groups weigh all of the trash, recycling and compost, keeping tally of totals and focusing on keeping as much as possible out of the landfill. Ozaki-Mcneill also touched on the friendships formed as one of the stand out aspects of this event.
“All of the friendships that are formed between [the] community who have favorite vendors that they look for every year,” Ozaki-Mcneill said. “One of our vendors describes it as a giant community hug and I’ve really adopted that, I really like that.”
Each year the North Country Fair features two parades, the All Species and Samba parades, which bring hundreds of community members together to witness the creativity of their neighbors. With this year’s theme focused on positive change, the main component of this year’s All Species Parade was a depiction of the demolishing of the dams along the Klamath river. Parade participants wore fish heads and carried decorated cutouts of salmon and sturgeon, which were created with the help of Arcata Playhouse Arts and the Yurok Tribal council.
Photo by Alex Anderson | Tom Szanto dons a 10 ft. tall owl for North Country Fair’s All Species parade on Sept. 16. The owl is a piece that is over 20 yrs old, having been apart of the parade in years past. Photo by Alex Anderson | Zeta Fusion Dance Groups Tani Serene (dance name), performing on the plaza as part of the many North Country Fair activities.Photo by Alex Anderson | Samba da Alegra Dance Leader, Rocio Talavera (center) heads the Samba parade down H St. on Sept. 17.Photo by Alex Anderson | HSU golden alumni Robert Thoman, rocking a chicken head for this years All Species parade.Photo by Alex Anderson | Jen Hildreth (right) dressed as a bear for this years All Species parade.
Cal Poly Humboldt students were in attendance taking in the vibes of the North Country Fair. Rize Oliveira, a Cal Poly Humboldt student studying forest hydrology, characterized the fair as a fun place to see the community gather. Not knowing that the event was taking place, Oliveira stumbled across the fair with a friend to see what all the commotion was about. She explained her favorite part of the event.
“For me: everyone’s energy,” Oliveira said. “It’s a good way to see everyone come together, gather around with similar interests and appreciate local artists and their work that they’re doing.”
Other Cal Poly Humboldt students saw the fair as a special way to signify the changing of the seasons, gearing the community towards the coming shift in weather. Nicole Pastori, a critical race and gender studies major who grew up in Humboldt, described the event as a nice way to wrap up the summer and celebrate the coming of fall. The parades featured in the event are very characteristic of Arcata, according to Pastori.
“I think it’s so quintessentially Arcata,” Pastori said. “It’s in your face about it. I think anyone who wasn’t from here would have a hard time understanding, if they weren’t themselves on the plaza. It’s a hard-to-describe event, but it was good this year.”
The track is vicious and painful, and Aris Valerio was ready because he has dealt with vicious pain. He ran a half mile in less time than it takes to get out of bed, a minute and 49 seconds to secure a spot at the National Championships back in May of 2023; the only man sent from Cal Poly Humboldt to race in Pueblo, Colorado. The evening shadows were long on the track as the 800m final was due to start, and Valerio lined up in the pole position on the inside lane.
It was already a long shot to get there. One of the fastest Division II 800m runners in the nation couldn’t compete because of a family emergency, allowing Valerio to take the final qualifying spot after the prelim races. The next 110 seconds were going to hurt, even without the added stress of a fast prelim the day before and the knowledge that a victory was unlikely. Valerio felt dead tired and scared. But there was no room to think about any of that when the gun boomed and the race started. A journey that started with failure and random chance went a little further.
Valerio picked up distance running his freshman year of high school, only after his mom wouldn’t let him play football because he weighed about a hundred pounds. He had always been fast as a kid, so he figured he’d give it a shot after a neighbor told him exactly what cross country was. It wasn’t love at first sight. Valerio still isn’t sure why he stuck with it. Training is boring to him – racing is what makes it worth it.
“I just love the anxiety of the races,” Valerio said. “I think it’s fun. It makes it more exciting because that’s what everyone’s feeling. Makes you show that you’re just more locked in than everyone else when you win. I think that’s exciting.”
His legs churn, eating up ground at a pace of over 18 miles an hour. The first 200 meters are gone in less than 26 seconds, and he’s still at the back of the seething pack. The screams of the crowd are loud, but it’s lost in the rhythm of pounding feet and gasping breath. His mind is blank. It always is at moments like these.
Valerio’s first brush with greatness came his senior year at Murrieta High School in 2019, when he ran 1:53 in the 800m and ended up being ranked in the top 20 high schoolers in the nation that year. He didn’t even really understand that it was a big deal right when he crossed the finish line. Someone had beaten him.
It was a huge margin of improvement from even a month before that, over six seconds in an event that separates a talented collegian from the world’s best. He spent a year training at California Baptist University before transferring to Humboldt in 2020. One of his high school teammates had gone to Humboldt and recommended him to head distance coach Jamey Harris, who gladly accepted him on the strengths of his past races.
Valerio’s career has had its ebbs and flows in his time in Humboldt. He’s one of the fastest 800 runners to ever compete for Humboldt, but he’s also suffered from hamstring injuries that left him unable to train and compete for far longer than he would’ve liked. Harris doesn’t regret recruiting him.
“With any injury, anybody’s going to have a setback in their enthusiasm, and he was not immune to that,” Harris said. “But whenever he would have a little bit of a setback, he would climb out of it. He’s persistent in that way…on race day, he always brings everything he’s got. I never doubt that we’re going to get a full effort…he may not always be at 100% confidence, but we always know we’re going to get 100% effort.”
It’s hot, and the guy in front crushed the first half of the race in 50 seconds. Valerio is a few seconds back. Shoes thin as ballet slippers slam on hard rubber, the metal spikes grabbing the track. Reverberation swims up his legs. It hurts, but he’s had worse.
It wasn’t easy getting to Nationals. Setbacks weren’t solely those of muscle, bone and sinew. Some came from the brain.
For a while, a bout with depression during the track season made Valerio consider not racing at Nationals at all, but after running 1:50.3 at the conference meet he reconsidered. He is open about his struggles with mental health. He said his depression comes from the death of his little brother, who passed away when he was in high school. Running, and the team surrounding him, has been one of the things that helped him get through it.
“I’ll go through spurts of being super unmotivated,” Valerio said. “And it’s super hard to catch myself and get back on my feet. [Coach] Jamey [Harris] and [the team] know all that. They’ve been super supportive about it.”
Valerio is a lot more than just an athlete to Harris.
“He’s a complicated beast,” Harris said. “It could be easy to see his consistent success on the track and think that things have come easy for him, but they definitely haven’t. He’s had a lot of difficulties that he’s had to work through and challenges that he’s had to overcome. I think that’s probably the greater accomplishment than being an All American and All-Conference a couple of times and being the second fastest 800m runner in school history. What’s more impressive is what he’s gone through and what he’s overcome to get there.”
600 meters have come and gone, and the time has come for a last, desperate drive to the finish. There is no more sun in these last moments, the light blocked by the stadium seating full of screaming spectators. Way ahead, the front runner is run down like a deer in the dying moments of the race. Valerio is still in the back, driving for a First Team All-American spot. A thousand miles away, people watch.
Valerio’s role on the team goes far beyond simple competition and point scoring. One of his closest teammates and a roommate during the track season when Valerio went to nationals, Sebastian Vaisset-Fauvel considers Valerio a crucial part of the team, although not necessarily always beloved.
“He’s just really down to the point,” Vaisset-Fauvel said. “He’ll tell you what’s up. He’ll tell you the truth, and sometimes people can’t take the truth… I think that’s what helps him stay true to himself.”
Although Valerio does sometimes take the abrasive role, Vaisset-Fauvel stresses that that’s not nearly the entirety of Valerio.
“Aris can seem like an intimidating guy, but once you get to know him, he’s like a little baby,” Vaisset-Fauvel said. “He’s like my little child, even though I call him my dad sometimes. He’s a really good guy. Really good athlete. 1:49? That fits him, you know? That just fits him.”
Despite the incredible accomplishments on the track, Harris and Vaisset-Fauvel make it clear that Valerio is a human just like everyone else on the team, and that makes his appeal to his teammates that much more potent.
“This is a regular guy,” Harris said. “I’ve seen this guy spill milk. This is a fallible human that I’ve ran with, that is running really fast, and that makes those accomplishments seem more attainable to me.”
Valerio crosses the finish line, his hands going to his knees as he bends over the track. Last place, but still Second Team All-American. Next year will be better, he thought later. Next season will be the last, the best. It wasn’t just for him.
“I’m trying to go to Nationals to represent our team, our school in the middle of nowhere,” Valerio said. “‘Who is this Humboldt guy? This is crazy.’ I think you should want to run for everyone, not just yourself. You’re not going to get that far, only running for yourself.”
I lived on campus for two years without a car. I am now currently living off campus, in another city actually, with a car and I can say without a doubt, to me, living on campus was actually a very nice experience. I will explain why, and I promise it will make sense.
I miss the convenience of living on campus. I could walk across the grounds in ten minutes, which is good because if it’s late at night, and I want to visit a girlfriend, it is not a problem. I felt safe and confident walking long distances across campus.
It’s just about accessibility and location to me; I could easily rest after class, it’s been a long class day but I still have another couple to go. I could chill in my room, change my clothes, eat, maybe get to watch an episode of my favorite TV show and still make it to class EARLY. Campus is also centrally located, making it easy to walk into town or go to the grocery store. You can explore and get in some exercise, two birds with one stone.
Living off-campus makes me long for the redwoods. Living on-campus allowed me to go on a hike between classes. I am in the redwoods after all, and it is amazing that we have trails here in our backyard when living in the dorms.
I also feel like most on-campus quarrels begin with sharing a room. For many, it’s their first time doing so. I’ve been used to sharing a room my whole life, so it was never an issue for me. Having an older sister really prepared me for any roommate, as I learned how to communicate efficiently, calmly and just learned to let some things go. Yes, you may get a bunk, or a roommate, but at least if you’re locked out, someone can let you in.
Of course, living on-campus does require you to make some compromises, like the fire alarms. They do not stop unless an RA comes and calls someone else. With maintenance requests, they did do good work when requested, with the work being done quickly and efficiently. Also one of the maintenance men was really cute. I miss that.
Okay, hear me out on this one, in a way, you save money, because you have to buy less. If you are anything like me – I sincerely hope you are not – then a trip to Target for one thing turns into buying so much that I need a UHaul to bring it back, and guess what? There is no room in the dorms for all of that stuff. So, it keeps me from buying an insane amount of junk, which I have been doing since moving off-campus. I apparently need 6 pillows and 40 wooden bowls, because I’m into the look of wood currently. I love wood, wooden bowls, wooden plates, just wood.
At the end of the day, for me it is all about nostalgia. Campus was the first place I lived by myself, without my parents. The convenience and accessibility campus gave me makes me miss it now.
I hated living on-campus. The mold, the roommates, the noise? I only lived on-campus for a year, but I could never go back. Don’t get me wrong, if you have no other choices, I get it – I really do – but other than that, no thanks.
I don’t get why anyone would want to put themselves in a situation where they have to slum it with a shit-ton of other people when they could have their own space. I’m not paying 10k+ a year to live in half of a room with no private bathroom for 7 months, when I can pay half that and have a house year-round (AND MY OWN ROOM).
I lived in campus apartments on the ground floor, which meant I would wake up with ants crawling on me, and get sick at least once a month from the mold. Not to mention my roommate had the opposite schedule as me, staying up until 3 A.M. laughing and talking while I was trying to sleep, because I had practice at 6am the next day.
It was nearly impossible to fit all of the things I needed into my dorm room, considering we’re given such little space for our objects. Sharing a regular sized closet between two people and having no other space besides under our beds was obnoxious, and anytime I needed anything new I had no idea how I was going to fit it.
Off-campus is significantly nicer because I’m able to be in charge of my own spaces, I don’t have to share a room, and I have a private bathroom. I also got to choose my own roommates (shout out to them), which means no more randoms that make life extremely more difficult.
I will end by saying this: I spent my last 3 months of on-campus living on my friend’s couch walking a half mile each way to school so I didn’t have to share a room with my roommate and deal with the dorm space. It isn’t worth it to live on-campus.
Under the indie music umbrella lies the popular eccentric duo, Sylvan Esso. The band fuses electronic, folk and pop. Originally from Durham, North Carolina, singer Amelia Meath (35) and producer Nick Sanborn (40) played in Humboldt County for the first time at Cal Poly’s Van Duzer Theatre on August 28th. The band formed in 2013 and released their debut self-titled album a year later. Since then, they married in 2016 and have released five albums.
I was beside myself when I heard them playing “Die Young” from their second album, “What Now,” as I walked through the doors during soundcheck backstage. Being the fan I am, I immediately started singing and dancing on my way to my seat.
People of all ages – from kids to adults – were there grooving along. The stadium was packed. A lady tapped me on my shoulder and asked if her daughter could stand on my seat. I was happy to give her a better view, so I grabbed my things and b-lined to the balcony.
At the balcony, my favorite song, “Dress,” off their first album, started playing. The theater’s acoustics emanated the howling songbird of Meath’s voice and the crunching technicolor synth of Sanborn.
The funky duo that makes up Sylvan Esso fits in perfectly with Humboldt’s eccentric culture. Meath sported a bleached mullet and wore a leather two-piece and accompanying mesh gown at the beginning of the show that gave her an appearance similar to a singing phantom. Sanborn’s brown khakis and oversized long-sleeved shirt reminded me of the outfits you’d see freshman wear in the Canyon dorms. At one point, Meath disappeared backstage during one of Sanborn’s solos, only to reappear in an outfit that resembled a giant multicolored loofah, in which she danced happily.
Meath’s dance moves showed her skills not only as a singer, but a performer as well, invoking infectious feelings of freedom. There was a lovely moment between the married artists where Meath couldn’t help but smile as she sung their songs and stared into her partner’s eyes.
The set had a delightful amount of variety. It could be loud and poppy or could slow down and swoon the audience hypnotically. The dreamy kaleidoscopic lights and visuals kept up with the mood of the set.
Concert-goer Mike Hanson and his partner were visiting Arcata for the first time from Brooklyn, NY. Hanson has been a fan for a decade.
“Since it was at a college, we didn’t know what we were walking into,” Hanson said.
He was giggling while scanning the crowd of students and realized he was the same age as them ten years ago, when he would blast Sylvan Esso’s first album in his car smoking a blunt.
Nostalgia is why Allison Walstrom came to the show. “Die Young” brought tears to her eyes as it reminded her of her ex. She cringed and laughed.
“When you think about it, what a twisted relationship song,” Walstrom said.
Walstrom moved to Humboldt County in 2005 and pointed out how this was the first time it felt like a show from back in the day in Humboldt. I couldn’t agree more. Once the black market cannabis industry began its descent around six years ago, the big names in music rarely came anymore because Humboldt’s economy declined.
The university is finally reawakening Humboldt’s music scene again. At the end of last semester, I was excited to see a long-time favorite band, Portugal the Man, in the parking lot behind the Gist Hall. Another big name, Thundercat, will be playing soon at the Van Duzer Theatre on September 29th. Safe to say, people are looking forward to crushing good music again in Humboldt County.
What is schizophrenia? According to the American Psychiatric Association, schizophrenia affects less than 1% of the population. It is a chronic brain disorder with symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and disorganized speech.
I got lucky. I got my diagnosis at the young age of 22, and the mental health system worked in my favor. This is not the case for most, and I want to raise awareness of that. Oftentimes, people suffer from symptoms for years without a diagnosis. Often they are gaslit or belittled. Being called crazy isn’t fun. That’s what I heard the lady next to me in the psych ward at Mad River Hospital say. She was right. It’s not fun, but getting help when you’re not in the right headspace is important. The stigma around mental health, schizophrenia specifically, needs to change. We should be treating those in distress with compassion because mental health can be a difficult topic to approach, especially if it’s regarding a loved one.
The first time I was put on a 5150 hold was because Sergeant Martin of the university police noticed that I wasn’t acting like myself. I misplaced my phone at the Student Activity Center, convinced someone had stolen it. I was telling him things like the person who took my phone put recording devices in my room, and that someone was out to get me. He transported me to Mad River Hospital, where I was put on a 5150 hold; involuntarily held there for my own safety. They ran some tests to make sure I wasn’t on drugs; my paranoia was high and I thought that the oxygen tank in my hospital room was going to explode. I could hear a ticking coming from a camera on the wall that was in sync with my heartbeat. They released me to my dad after one night.
The peak of my psychosis was the night after I was released from Mad River. I took a sleeping pill – never again. I walked and ran three miles from my house barefoot, thinking that someone had planted bombs all over Redwood Valley and that everything I loved would be blown to smithereens. Thank goodness a kind samaritan saw me hopping the fence to the freeway and called the authorities. My dad is a first responder and he told me that was the most fucked-up call he’d ever been on. I tore up my feet and traumatized my father that night.
The next day my parents took me to Ukiah Adventist and they put me on my second 5150 hold. I believe I should have gone straight to a psychiatric facility, but my feet were hurt pretty bad. I guess it made sense to keep me in the hospital for a couple of days, but the hallucinations I experienced there were unsettling. It felt like I lived through a horror movie. I could hear the happenings of what I believed to be a torture chamber in the room next to me. When I was finally transported – without my consent – I believed my whole family had been cut up and sewn into a big wad of flesh, and that I was being “saved” and sent away to start a new life. It took me about five days, and a lot of sedation, to realize that I had been in psychosis for over a week, having been in a manic episode for months. After months of therapy, I fully realized that what I experienced in the hospital was one big hallucination. When the psychiatrist told me I was schizophrenic and bipolar, everything finally made sense.
In total, I was put on a 5150 hold twice and 5250 once. A 5150 hold lets the facility keep you for 72 hours and 5250 lets them keep you for 14 days. I will say this until I die: 5150 patients should not be kept in hospitals unless they have severe injuries. In my experience, hospitals can be very triggering. It’s an unfamiliar environment; the sounds of the machines and people talking can make someone suffering from psychosis spiral into a worse condition.
Now that I have my diagnosis, have been on medication for six months, been in therapy, I look back on all of my delusions and hallucinations, and I don’t recognize that girl. She needed help, lots of help, but she got it. I’m very thankful for everyone who helped me when I wasn’t myself. I’m also appreciative of myself for being vulnerable enough to admit that I need help and accepting the help that was offered to me.
If you take away anything from my experience, please let it be this: listen to the people around you when they’re trying to help you. Say something if you notice a loved one is behaving strangely. No one has all the answers, especially not a manic college student, but that’s okay. The world is a scary place and sometimes our brains make it scarier, but we have each other and that is what’s most important.
A giant stood on LK Wood. It was twice the height of the men around it, armed with a massive hammer and a demonic scowl. It pointed with a long, curled finger at every soul underneath its gaze, framed by a wooden wig and caterpillar eyebrows. It was a judge, and judge it did.
Photo by Alex Anderson | Members of the carpenters union placed a tall judge statue in front of the Cal Poly Humboldt entrance sign to protest Calyco
“Judgment day is coming,” it said. “Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame!”
No ogre was laying waste to Arcata. It was built as a protest by Local Carpenter’s Union 751 against Clayco, one the companies in the running to bid on the Cal Poly Health, Housing and Dining Infrastructure project, also referred to as #PLY106. The Union and their main goal is to bring the company’s legal issues and history of malpractice to the attention of the campus committee that awards infrastructure projects, and to the community in general.
THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Construction on the Housing, Health, and Dining building is set to begin fall 2024. The new facilities include a new health center and dining hall, and will be able to house roughly 450-500 students. The facilities are planned to be operating by August 2026, or summer 2027 at the latest. The direct construction will cost at least $108.9 million and the guaranteed maximum budget is $131.9 million. The winning contractor will be announced in October of this year.
MALPRACTICE AND WORKING CONDITIONS
In a legally fact-checked letter from Union Local 751 to the CSU Board of Trustees, there is a list that cites Clayco’s history of legal issues due to allegations of malpractice. Clayco has been a defendant in at least 22 cases since March 2000. Since 2010, they have had at least 17 OSHA violations brought against them, resulting in fines around $81,336. Clayco’s legal issues include an active investigation by the Federal government concerning allegations of violating worker’s rights and harassment of union members, a pending case concerning allegations of wage theft, and a wrongful death lawsuit concerning a worker’s death that was settled last year.
OSHA Citation against Clayco documents details on Kirk Smith’s accident
In August 2017, Kirk Smith, an employee of the subcontractor Watson Companies Inc., fell 35 feet to his death while working on the construction of an Ulta Beauty warehouse in Fresno CA. The fall was a result of a weakened roof not being fixed for employees to safely work on, as well as a lack of warnings concerning the stability of the roof. Smith left behind a wife and children, who then sued Clayco along with Ulta and Watson for wrongful death in April 2018. Clayco, along with the other defendants in the case, eventually settled with the Smith family for $5 million in 2022. Attorney Brett D. Beyler, representing Smith’s family, wrote in the court settlement document that the incident was entirely avoidable.
“On August 9, 2017, Kirk Smith (the decedent) arrived at the Project,” Beyler wrote in the settlement document. “He was directed by Watson [Companies Inc.] foreman, Mr. Rabideau, to cut out the membrane and insulation on top of the metal decking. As Mr. Smith was cutting the membrane and insulation out with a hand knife, the weakened metal decking gave way like a trap door, causing Mr. Smith to fall nearly 40 feet to his death. This incident was entirely avoidable. Unfortunately, due to the negligence of Clayco and NDBS [National Design Build Services], Mr. Smith is no longer alive.”
WAGE THEFT
Decision by US District Judge John Mendez gives background info on allegations of wage theft
Clayco is currently in an active case regarding wage theft. These allegations are brought forth by labor rights organization, The Workforce Defence League (WDL), representing laborers who worked on Amazon Fulfillment Centers in Sacramento and Tracy who say that they have not been compensated for their overtime work or use of their own tools in the construction project.
According to the WDL, the laborers worked 58 hours a week and were promised $20-24 an hour. They weren’t fully paid for their regular or overtime hours, and they didn’t receive their work breaks and only got one meal break. They also didn’t get compensated for the missed breaks.
HARASSMENT OF UNION REPRESENTATIVES
NLRB charge against Clayco for allegations of harassing Union members
Clayco is also under current investigation by the federal government for allegations of violating workers’ rights as well as harassment of union representatives. Two separate documented charges brought against Clayco by the National Labor Relations Board were filed as recently as November 2021. They claim that the contractor unfairly fired a subcontractor from their position, and attempted to prevent the Carpenter’s Union from conducting their activities by barring them from Clayco properties and instructing Clayco employees to limit contact with Union representatives. Additionally, videos on the Local 751-run website, Claycofails.com, show alleged harassment of Union organizers. One instance alleges that a Clayco foreman followed and videotaped an organizer.
“[Clayco] interfered with the exercise of protected rights by firing a Union signatory subcontractor when Union Agents tried to access the site,” one document read.
“[Clayco] interfered with the exercise of protected rights by calling the police when the Union tried to access the job site, surveilled and videotaped Union agents and ordered workers not to talk to the Union,” according to the other document.
CLAYCO’S RESPONSE
In an email, Clayco’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sarah Green forwarded a statement from Clayco’s legal team. The statement said that Clayco is the target of a campaign of Union harassment. The statement made the case that the Union has no legal right to access any Clayco properties and that the Union’s ultimate goal is to get Clayco to sign a collective bargaining agreement with them.
“Since 2021, [Union members] have filed 11 unfair labor practice charges against Clayco with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB),” according to the email. “8 out of these 11 charges have either been withdrawn or dismissed, and the remaining three charges will go to hearing in October [2023]. Nor does the [Union] report that the NLRB matters arise from the [Union] and/or its members attempting to forcibly enter two Clayco California projects despite having no legal bona fide right to enter those projects – resulting in them having to be removed by police.”
Labor Counsel for Clayco, Andrew Martone, adds that no one affiliated with Clayco has brought charges against the company through the National Labor Relations Board, and that any Federal investigation against Clayco is a result of Union actions only.
“No Clayco employee and no employee at any Clayco worksite has filed a complaint with the NLRB,” said Martone. “Charges brought are by the [Union], and they don’t represent any Clayco employee.”
Court document provided by Clayco that has been given a red flag by Westlaw
Green also stated that the Union has been misleading in their campaign.
“The [Union] misleads the reader to believe OSHA citations were issued against Clayco that were in fact issued to other entities,” said Green, “and reports OSHA Citations without informing the reader that OSHA found no violations existed.”
However, Lumberjack reporters were able to find OSHA violation documents concerning the death of Kirk Smith. Clayco shared a court statute with Lumberjack writers that documented tactics by the Union. However, the statute was labeled as “amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or part” by Westlaw, a legal research company. Unfortunately, since Lumberjack writers were unable to gain further access to Westlaw files, we are unable to say why it was labeled as such.
UNIVERSITY INVOLVEMENT
Lumberjack writers reached out to Procurement Specialist, Addie Dunaway of Contracts and Procurement department of Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as Humboldt Director Planning, Design & Construction, Kassidy Banducci of the Facilities Management Department. Both expressed a desire to comment, but were limited in their ability to speak as the bidding process is still active. Any comment on Clayco’s involvement from Cal Poly Humboldt staff and admin could violate legal obligations, as well as compromising fairness to the other three potential contractors.
University documents confims that Clayco, Sundt, and Swinerton are three companies on the shortlist for the #PLY106 contract. A fourth potential bidder is currently unconfirmed. The Union has also sent a letter to the Board of Trustees concerning Sundt’s history of malpractice.
Communications Specialist with the News and Information department, Grant Scott-Goforth, shared some information on the infrastructure project, though he was unable to comment on any allegations brought against potential contractors.
“The Committee remains diligent in their work towards a fair and equitable evaluation process governed under the provisions of the law in the state of California,” according to a statement released by the University. “Cal Poly Humboldt is committed to its responsibility under California regulations for public work projects and the better good of the construction industry. Any information regarding the performance or behaviors of proposing firms will be considered against CSU policies and State regulations.”
UNION AWARENESS
Union Organizers from Local 751 spread awareness to the campus community about where their money may be going—especially the funds that students give to the school as part of their tuition.
“How has a contractor with this history got this close to a major project?” said Harvey McKeon, a field representative for the Union. “Which, at the end of the day, is [funded by] public money, and it’s also by extension student’s money, and [the students] should have some sort of control and say over how that money is spent.”
The organizers from Local 751 want to make it clear that although they are a union, their endgame isn’t to try and have a union-backed construction company be awarded the contract. Rather, they want to ensure that a company with multiple legal issues and allegations of malpractice isn’t able to gain a foothold in the community and public works projects, and to try and create a better and safer working environment for all laborers.
“As a union, our recent track record has been to lift standards for workers whether they’re union or non-union,” McKeon said. “The reason why we are seeking to generate awareness about Clayco is because we want to draw attention to what Clayco does to workers that we don’t formally represent, but we care about their working conditions.”
Beyond a desire to bring Clayco’s past and current legal issues to light and try to create safer environments for workers, some organizers such as McKeon feel a personal responsibility to ensure a safe working environment for both contractors and the community at large due to their personal experience as a worker without union support. The union also wants those at Cal Poly Humboldt that awards infrastructure projects like #PLY106 and potential contractors that there must be precedence for companies rooted in ethics.
“I’ve been in jobs before I was a labor union organizer where I didn’t have anyone looking out for me because I wasn’t in a union, and I don’t think that’s a reason why you shouldn’t have people not look out for you,” McKeon said. “We’re trying to represent [all laborers] even if they’re not currently union members. It’s like trying to plant a tree whose shade you may never sit in.”
Editing note:
On Sept. 6, this article was edited to clarify that Clayco’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sarah Green shared Clayco’s statement from legal team with a reporter via email. The statement made the case that Clayco is the target of a campaign of Union harassment and that the Union has no legal right to access any Clayco properties and that the Union’s ultimate goal is to get Clayco to sign a collective bargaining agreement with them.
The article was also edited to remove reference to a contractor who’s bid on the project could not be confirmed.
By Peyton Leone and Carlina Grillo and Christina Mehr
The California State University Board of Trustees will vote on the Multi-Year Tuition Proposal on Sept. 13. If passed, tuition at all CSU campuses would rise by 6% for five years starting fall 2024 until fall 2028.
On Thursday Aug. 31 Cal Poly Humboldt’s Associated Students held a meeting to inform students about the tuition increase proposal. There were more than 30 people in attendance.
Photo by Jillian Wells. Students and staff gather at the Tuition Increase Town Hall on Aug. 31.
“The 6% increase covers all of the different levels of education,” said Amber Blakeslee, Executive Director of Finance and Budget at Cal Poly Humboldt. “So that’s undergraduate, credential and graduate student tuition. It also covers in-state tuition, out-of-state tuition, and the graduate business professional fees.”
For example, the proposal would raise the tuition rate of an in-state full-time undergraduate degree from the current $5,742 to $7,682 in fall 2028, a 34% increase over the first five years. This does not include the fees for each campus, which vary. This semester full-time student fees at Cal Poly Humboldt totaled $2,170.
The CSU system is funded from two main sources: tuition and state funding.
CSU reported in a document titled the “Sustainable Financial Model Workgroup Report” that there was a nearly $1.5 billion gap between money the system received and the costs to keep the CSU system running in 2021-2022.
The same report concluded that “even with aggressive assumptions about increases in-state general fund and tuition” would not be enough to close the gap.
The California State Student Association, a nonprofit group representing nearly 500,000 CSU students, unanimously voted to oppose tuition increases according to AS president, Sam Parker.
“The proposal lacks measurable outcomes, a clear termination date, and fails to articulate plans for generating other revenue sources,” CSSA said in a July 11 press release.
According to the Multi-Year Tuition Proposal, 60% of students at the CSU system would not be affected by increases. Their attendance is covered by the Cal Grant, Pell Grant or tuition waivers.
The proposal notes that increases will exceed the maximum Pell Grant award by over $280 by the 2028-2029 school year, and that Cal Grant may not rise to cover tuition raises into the future given.
Photo by Jillian Wells. Peggy Metzger, Director of Financial Aid, (left) addressing questions by Nova Presley (right) at the Tuition Increase Town Hall on Aug. 31.
“It discourages me from even wanting to continue through school,” said sophomore Sonny Buckner after the town hall meeting, noting that affording school and finding housing were affecting his time as a freshman. “…I barely even passed all my classes. It’s ridiculous that these are the things I have to put my priorities on when I came here to be a student.”
Cal Poly Humboldt’s Lacrosse team is celebrating its 40th year as an official club on campus. The team has grown in size to be the largest they have ever been, with nearly 30 members. They practice three days a week, yet still ensure that their athletes can prioritize school and keep the sport fun.
Head Coach Danny Eggert has been a part of the team for the past three years and is excited about the growth of the team. He’s looking forward to the improvement of the team and wants to see the players do the best they can.
“[The] goal [is] to win,” Eggart said. “To do better than before.”
Eggart is proud of the team’s club status and has no plans to push for the team to be a part of the NCAA sports. For now, their club is to hang out and have fun, and not be a job for his athletes.
Sophomore geology major and athlete Luca Ricci has been on the team since he came to Cal Poly Humboldt. Going into his second year, he is excited for the prospects of the upcoming season.
“I’m on the lacrosse team because I love the teamwork,” Ricci said. “We have a brotherhood on and off the field.”
Assistant Coach Gus Johnson himself used to be on the team from 2008-2011 and has been coaching since 2020. Though they are still early into their pre-season, he is excited for the competition coming into their upcoming season.
“It’s early, it’s the off-season,” Johnson said, “but playoffs are definitely the target this year.”
The team only had four athletes graduate out last year, and have eight to ten coming in. Their main goal for this season is to make it to the playoffs, try their best, while still having fun and making sure they aren’t overloading their students.
“We try to respect that they’re students first, it’s college and we want them to have fun,” Johnson said. “It means a lot. These guys have been here forever and to be consistent and still fill the team, it really speaks to how much these students care about it and want to play.”
With 40 years as a club, the team has made a name for themselves, continuing to grow and enjoy the space they have on campus. Anyone is welcome to join the club and can apply online under the recreational sports section of the Humboldt website.
“Hopefully, we come out as a winning team to represent 40 years of hard work.” Eggart said. “We have possibly 30 right now on the roster, so having numbers on there is amazing.”
One morning, I was finishing up one of my mundane tasks at work when I overheard a discussion between my manager and a customer. The customer was a travel nurse and was stationed up here for the summer. Of course, the follow-up question to that information was, “Where are you from?” in response she goes, “Florida”.
That answer was a bit shocking to me. I’ve met people from New Jersey, Texas and even Canada up here – but Florida? My manager asked her how she enjoyed her time up here and through a slight chuckle she responded, “Well this is the most Florida place I’ve ever been to in California.”
At this point I had to laugh with her. I was never posed with a comparison that happened to be so spot on. It’s remained on my mind since then, so today I ask myself, is Arcata really the Florida of California?
I mean to start with the first difference: Arcata will never ever be comparable to the Sunshine State. Our muggy, gray clouds in August will speak for themselves. Although, there are some similarities if we want to look at the landscape. Starting with the lush vegetation, the Everglades and redwoods are quite synonymous. Same with our apex predators, like gators and black bears. We also share the same sandy beaches at close proximity.
I mean, Arcata is no girl’s spring break trip to Miami, but we do have lots of tourists coming through and even some hotties, if you’re into ecological preservation and bare feet – another shared similarity between the two vacation destinations but for completely different reasons. If you’re not near a beach, I don’t want to see those toes.
There seems to be many more similarities between the two; crazy amounts of drug peddling and always being able to count on the most insane conversation to be initiated between you and some stranger that approaches you on the street. Can’t forget the wannabe rappers that seem to be coming out of the woodwork all the time. Also, how both destinations seem to be a top pick for retirement communities.
I believe that one of the biggest similarities you can find between Florida and Arcata is that you can almost always expect the local headlines to hold the same zany crime bookings that are shared between the two coastal regions.
Any headline beginning with ‘Florida Man’ or ‘Humboldt Man’ can always promise the most insane crime story you’ll ever read. Must have something to do with the beaches and far right extremists that shack up on both coasts.
A quick peruse of Orlando Fox 35’s website under the keywords ‘Florida Man’ brings up cases such as a man dunking a woman’s head in tar, another throwing a barbecue at deputies and one stealing a hearse from a funeral home. You may think these are as crazy as it can get, but have you seen the recent headlines in the Lost Coast Outpost?
Let me entertain you with a few: The confiscation of 2,400 tabs of acid, a man setting fire to another man in Eureka, and my personal favorite, the man found with a handgun that was the size of a credit card along with drug paraphernalia.
Along with the crime, we can’t forget about the universities. Although there’s a few more to choose from in Florida than the small city of Arcata, I think they hold the same results of anticipation for students – to only be let down once they arrive. We can also count on the humidity to ruin your cute outfits and hair in both places.
All in all I think that anonymous travel nurse was right, Arcata is the most Florida place in California. Fresno may be the runner-up in reference to the crazies, but who vacations in Fresno?
Pink, yellow, black and blue—these aren’t the colors of the rainbow, but they are the colors of bathrooms, kitchens and showers in dorms all over campus as residents attempt to deal with the mold that almost inevitably springs up in Arcata’s damp climate.
Experiences vary; when Environmental Science major Elizabeth Lachman moved into her dorm in Campus Apartments last year, she noticed what looked to her like spores in her ceiling that eventually made bubbles in the plaster.
“The ceiling was kind of rotting,” Lachman said. “It came from a leak above me, and it took a while for the school to come out and actually fix and make repairs to it.”
The side of Campus Apartments that faces the library, where Lachman lived, is particularly susceptible to being moldy. The only windows that allow the sun to get into the rooms are the sliding glass doors that only offer privacy when the blinds are shut. The small amount of sun that does make it to that side is often shut out by the blinds.
Lachman also struggled with food molding after only a few days in her kitchen, a problem she blames on the room.
“In no other occurrences have I gotten groceries and they’ve gone bad so fast,” Lachman said. “Not only [did] I feel like I was breathing gross air, but I felt like I was wasting money because I kept buying food and it kept getting all moldy and gross.”
Shower mold was also a problem for Lachman as well as many people in the dorms. Another student, Robyn Pedersen, lives in Creekview and often brawls with mold in the vents in the ceiling of the bathroom, as well as on the walls. No matter what product he uses, whether it’s the university-provided mold killer, vinegar, bleach, or any other chemical concoction, nothing gets rid of it entirely.
“It’s a daily task,” Pedersen said. “You get in there and you see different types of mold growing around the bathtub, so you have to get down on your hands and knees and scrub, but the stuff that grows in the tile and on the ground is a lot harder to get into, so you really got to really spray it down and get in there with a scrub brush. It takes a lot of elbow grease, but even that doesn’t get rid of it all.”
Mold in the lockers in shower rooms is also widespread. Business major Gino Grier, who lived in Tan Oak last year, said there was a lot of gray mold growing behind the paint in every locker in the shower room on his floor. It smelled like spoiled milk and despite his best efforts, as well as the toils of everyone else on his floor, it never went away. He also had to clean out mold in his bedroom, but that went away with some vinegar.
Almost universally, every student that has had to deal with mold has done it alone. Despite pleas to the Housing or Maintenance departments, students are left to their own devices when it comes to dealing with mold. When Pedersen, his roommates and even residents in other dorms in Creekview complained to the school, the only help they were offered was a flyer about mold prevention that Pedersen said was completely unhelpful.
“It’s really disappointing,” Pedersen said, “because you really wouldn’t expect this from college living when you’re paying so much to live in these dorms.”
Lachman had a similar experience. The only assistance she was given was a list of cleaning products that she would have to buy herself.
“I just felt like they didn’t really care,” Lachman said. “[They said] ‘these are the things you can do to help yourself,’ but it’s literally you investing into products to clean their room. I’m not going to get any of that money back. I just wish they would have supplied me with more help.”
Grier feels the same—cheated.
“I’d prefer it if they gave a shit,” Grier said. “I wish they weren’t seeing students as dollar signs. Mold isn’t very expensive to fix in the [beginning], but once it gets bad, it’s incredibly costly. And the fact that they ignore that problem and just let it do whatever is kind of concerning.”
Every Tuesday, Word Humboldt takes over Northtown Coffee to host their free open mic nights, where anyone is welcome to join and perform. From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., you can expect everything spoken word, from poetry, song, and rap to short stories and improv. The nonprofit builds a thriving poetry scene through safe, supportive, and accessible events for new and seasoned writers of all ages.
The beginning half of the night is saved for the community to share, and the second half of the night is for seasoned staff writers. To wrap up, everyone writes a line of poetry to add to a collective group poem.
Word Humboldt was started six years ago by co-founders Dylan Collins, Wil Gibson, and Susanna Gibson. Eureka poet laureate Wil Gibson prides the organization on curating a radically inclusive environment, where people feel safe in expressing themselves and being vulnerable.
“The basis of Word Humboldt is to reach out to the community to make poetry accessible for everybody; to amplify and uplift underrepresented voices,” Gibson says. “You can’t be a poet in a vacuum.”
Gibson lived many years as a traveling poet and has performed at enough open mics to know what works and what doesn’t. This informed his belief that open mics should be free so that they are accessible to all, to encourage people of all ages and walks of life to attend and share so that everyone has a chance to feel seen. The love that permeates this community is what makes it special.
“We built this community wanting love to be the main focus,” Gibson says. “You can feel the love between the crowd and the poet.”
Bamidele Menchu Hotep has been attending the open mics since 2019 and is now on the Word Humboldt board of directors. He sees this community as family.
“The importance of a writing community is that we’re able to inspire each other through our work,” Menchu Hotep says. “Through our writing we heal, so this is a community of growth and healing.”
For Julie Avina, an environmental science and management major at Cal Poly Humboldt, Word Humboldt open mics were her first time performing a poem.
“Everybody was so supportive even though I was so nervous,” Avina says. “They cheer extra loud for you once they know it’s your first time.”
The crowd is eager to engage with the poems. They snap and stomp for powerful lines, echoing around the small cafe space. They shout ‘rewind!’ when it’s so good they want to hear it again and ‘new shit!’ when the poet shares something new.
The room is animated and electric, far from the solemnity that some people may associate with a poetry reading. Susanna Gibson, the executive director of Word Humboldt, starts the night off by hosting the first half with energetic charm and attentiveness, making each poet feel heard and seen by uplifting their performance.
Beyond the open mics, Wil Gibson hosts three poetry workshops throughout the week: Sundays 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Epitome Gallery in Eureka, Mondays 6 p.m.-7 p.m. at Fit Coast in Sunnybrae, and Thursdays 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at The Thing in Arcata. Each workshop is a $3-$5 donation, but no one is turned away for lack of funds.
“We believe every poet has value in the future,” Gibson says. “Every poet deserves to learn.”
On the second Saturday of each month starting at 6:30 p.m., Word Humboldt hosts the Redwood Poetry Slam at The Thing. Poetry slams are competitions with a cash prize, using elimination rounds in front of a panel of judges and a lively, engaged crowd.
Word Humboldt is also co-organizing the second annual Redwood Poetry Festival taking place April 23-29 which boasts performances from local and national award winning talent, as well as workshops and community building.
Whether you’re looking to dip your toes into poetry or are a seasoned writer, Word Humboldt hosts an array of events to make you feel at home in a community.
“Poetry saved my life,” Gibson says. “I just want to give back.”
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