The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: scholarship

  • Earth First!

    Earth First!

    Two free events promoting a new HSU scholarship in memory of slain environmental activist

    A new scholarship is available for HSU students in memory of slain environmentalist David Nathan “Gypsy” Chain. Chain was was a young forest activist killed in 1998 while trying to prevent illegal logging near Grizzly Creek in the Van Duzen River valley.

    On the 20th anniversary of his death community leaders, friends and fellow activists established the David Nathan “Gypsy” Chain Memorial Scholarship to provide an annual $1,000 scholarship for students who have demonstrated commitment to issues of forest ecology through volunteer or academic projects.

    Environmental activist Rabbi Naomi Steinberg said the idea started from a conversation between friends who were active in the Headwaters efforts 20 years ago.

    [perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”Rabbi Naomi Steinberg” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”17″]”We don’t want anyone else to lose their life, God forbid. Students need to understand making change requires great effort, dedication and certain kinds of sacrifice.”[/perfectpullquote]

    “Gypsy’s death practically happened in my backyard…it was heart wrenching,” Steinberg said. “When I realized it was going to be the 20th anniversary of his death I said to my friends we should do something positive to immortalize him.”

    Gypsy moved to Humboldt County in the 1990s from Texas to join Earth First! in the midst of the timber controversy. He learned non-violent protesting tactics and how to climb 200 foot redwood trees, and participated in tree sittings.

    In 1998 Gypsy and other activists were in Grizzly Creek National Redwood Park to persuade tree loggers to stop cutting down trees and to wait for the California Division of Forestry. This is the state agency charged with overseeing timber harvest plans on non-federal land throughout the state, to assess the land for endangered species.

    Pacific Lumber Company logger Arlington Earl “A.E.” Ammons argued all morning with activists and decided to start cutting down trees that were positioned on slopes. The last tree Ammons cut fell directly onto Gypsy, killing him on Sept. 17, 1998.

    “We want this scholarship to keep Gypsy’s story alive because he was a wonderful idealist and young person,” Steinberg said. “We want students to understand 20 years ago a young man was willing to put his life on the line at great risk to prevent illegal logging. We don’t want anyone else to lose their life, God forbid, students need to understand making change requires great effort, dedication and certain kinds of sacrifice.”

    Two upcoming events will be taking place to benefit the scholarship. The first event is part of HSU’s Social Justice Summit on March 2 with a showing of “Who Bombed Judi Bari?” followed by a workshop and singing. The second event will be a benefit show at the Arcata Playhouse on March 9. Local activist and musician Darryl Cherney will be hosting both events and playing music.

    [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”Judith Mayer” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”17″]”It was a nonviolent movement and remains so, yet many of these activists had been labeled as eco-terrorists.”[/perfectpullquote]

    Judith Mayer, environmental planner and HSU lecturer in environmental science and management, said that the benefit is meant to honor Gypsy’s memory and the forest defenders.

    “This is to support local students at HSU and CR who are pursuing further studies and have a commitment to environmental activism and protection,” Mayer said.

    Mayer organized the event for the Social Justice Summit and said Gypsy was emphatic in his forest defense and one of hundreds of young people in Humboldt at the time involved in the movement.

    “It was a nonviolent movement and remains so, yet many of these activists had been labeled as eco-terrorists,” Mayer said. “The bottom line is to see the defense of the forest in our ecoregion of the north coast not only in terms of environment, but social justice and sustaining life on Earth.”

    Mayer wants to encourage students to apply for the scholarship soon. She said the scholarship is for students who are graduating from any Humboldt high school and planning on attending HSU or CR. The scholarship is also available for first year students at HSU or CR who are planning on continuing.

    “The people who established the scholarship initially conceived it as an academic landing pad for environmental activists in college,” Mayer said.

    One of the creators of the scholarship, Marion Nina Amber, wanted the scholarship to bring awareness of environmental issues and help students understand activism. Amber’s son was friends with Gypsy and said it could have been anyone else at that time getting killed due to the high tensions between activists and loggers. Amber said students are unaware of the timber wars that occurred in Humboldt County and this scholarship will help teach history.

    “Those ancient redwoods cannot reproduce themselves, we are planting more but the conditions are not like they were back then due to climate change,” Amber said. “People need to know about the value of the natural landscapes. Gypsy is a symbol and was willing to put his life on the line and defend this. We need to teach about him and people should know about him.”

    More info on the scholarship: http://www.wildcalifornia.org/about-us/who-we-work-with/david-nathan-chain-scholarship-fund/

  • Unclaimed property goes to auction

    Unclaimed property goes to auction

    Objects get set down, forgotten and lost. Owners search high and low, their heads turn from side to side, frantically tracking down their lost objects. All lost and found items eventually end up in the University Police Department.

    UPD evidence technician Zan Mendonca uses an ongoing online auction website called Property Room to sell the unclaimed property after being held for a period of three months.

    “People bid like eBay, and then once they get their funds, they take a portion of it and send the check to us,” Mendonca said. “I think it is great. They have saved us a lot of money.”

    Mendonca said that the check, which is received from Property Room, doesn’t normally come in a large amount, because there are not too many items of value that are turned into UPD.

    “A lot of people think it goes to buy bullets and badges and stuff like that, but it actually goes back to the students, which is awesome,” Mendonca said.

    Sandy Wieckowski, student financial services manager, explained that previously the money went to a HSU Short Term Student Loan Fund.

    “At one time, the state told us, and the Chancellor’s Office said, you could either do it in short-term loans or in scholarships,” Wieckowski said. “We were putting some of it originally in the short-term loan fund, so we could give short-term loans, but we have enough money in short-term loans.”

    According to Wieckowski, it was decided to switch the funds to HSU’s Emergency Scholarship about a year ago, with the reason being short term loans have to be paid back.

    “If you truly have a financial crisis, a lot of the time, you can’t pay it back,” Wieckowski said. “Financial aid monitors that scholarship fund to help students out during desperate needs.”

    Peggy Metzger, director of financial aid, works behind the scenes helping students. A small portion of lost and found money is put into a special scholarship. The money goes to students, but isn’t anything that students apply for.

    “It’s basically sort of a little wiggle fund for me,” Metzger said. “Every once in a while, like for instance, say the scholarship is $500, but the interest is only in $427, but I want to give the student 500. I’ll take a little over from the fund, and shove it over so that the student gets the whole amount.”

    Student Financial Services isn’t dismayed when they look at the lost and found money, because there’s not a substantial amount made from unclaimed lost and found money. It’s not like money gained from a Pell Grant.

    “The caveat to claiming a lost property is that you cannot be an employee,” Mendonca said.

    Mendonca always asks herself how this would look from a different perspective. How would it look if an employee dipped their hands in lost and found?

    “They might get upset,” Mendonca said, “because they’re not legally able to claim it. Then I can say, oh, you know all this money that is brought back goes back to the Short Term Student Loan Fund.”

    The money made from lost property no longer goes to the HSU Short Term Student Loan Fund. The change is a positive one, because it means more money is going to a separate fund to help students.

    “It goes back to the students,” Mendonca said. “It usually takes the winds out of people’s sails, and what can you say? It is an awesome place for it to go.”