The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Students

  • Jewish Student Group is stronger than hate

    Jewish Student Group is stronger than hate

    by Valen Lambert and Dezmond Remington

    In the lonely strip of land that is the North Coast, Arcata is famed for being a haven for tolerance and relative diversity. Cal Poly Humboldt in particular is a shelter for people of all creeds and beliefs. However, it isn’t immune to hatred. 

    According to the University Police Department, an unidentified suspect vandalized the sukkah set up on the UC quad with an anti-semitic message at around 1:30 pm on Oct. 9. The sukkah, set up for eight days during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, symbolizes the Jewish people’s dependence on God. No update on the suspect has been reported.

    Student response was immediate. The rabbi for the Jewish Student Group, Chabad took the sukkah down immediately when they realized what had happened. Members of the club were disappointed. President Noach Guttman, who had attended a Jewish private school his whole life, said it was his first time experiencing anti-semitic hate speech ever. 

    “I’ve only found interested people,” Guttman said. “They [say things] like, ‘Hey man, I like your yarmulke.’ I’m like, sweet… I was just disappointed that this happened the day after the largest Jewish massacre since the Holocaust [referring to the Oct. 7 bombing of Israel by Hamas]. That’s what upsets me the most.”

    Despite the act of hatred, Guttman does not have plans to return the favor.

    “I hold no hate for this person whatsoever,” Guttman said. “I truly believe they’re just misinformed… the sukkah has no connection to the state of Israel. It’s a solely Jewish structure… if they understood the gravity of Hamas murdering [about] 1,400 people, I feel like they would have the respect to not say a message like this.”

    Guttman believes that the university has done a good job at supporting the Jewish Student Group through this time, with staff reaching out to Guttman and other Jewish students. Administrators worked with the rabbi to craft the email sent out on Oct. 10. 

    “In keeping with Cal Poly Humboldt’s commitment to maintaining the safety of our campus community, the University has a zero tolerance policy for acts of hate or discrimination against anyone, no matter who you are and where you come from,” said Associate Vice President of Student Success and Dean of Students, Mitch Mitchell. “The incident is an unfortunate reminder that world events often impact our students. We are fully committed to supporting them in any way we can and I want to encourage all students who may need additional support to use the resources that are available to them on campus.”

    Despite repeated efforts to contact other members of the group, no other members would respond to requests for comment. However, Guttman said all other members of the club he’s talked to feel similarly disappointed, but appreciative of the community’s support. 

    “I’ve always been very active about my Judaism,” Guttman said. “I’m very vocal about it. And this is definitely not going to stop. If anything, it’s going to make me louder. You know, I’m still always going to wear my yarmulke. We’re still going to hold our Jewish events. We’re hoping to do a candlelight vigil within the next week or so. This is not going to [distract] us at all. We’re strong people. If anything, I’m hoping it’ll make us stronger.”

  • The Journal Entries: how to not lose yourself in work

    by Kianna Znika

    “I really need to get my shit together. This is getting my shit together, though.” – my last journal entry

    Is a person just the things that they do? I really hope not, because lately I feel like being busy is my only personality trait. 

    I miss the things I never have time for anymore; the walks in the forest, the intentional journaling and spellwork time, the acoustic guitar I haven’t touched in weeks. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m in music classes and a local punk band, not even I would know that I’m a musician, or that I once wrote songs and created art that inspired me to come to Humboldt in the first place. 

    I miss feeling fun and interesting. I miss not being so stressed and overworked all the time. I miss having more free time to spend with friends. I constantly worry about how I’m perceived by them: do they only get to see me as this constantly-busy, burnt-out person now? Do they even like me anymore? I have to remind myself not to think about that last question too much – it’ll only make things worse.

    In moments like this, it’s usually good to look at the big picture. One day, all this hard work will be worth it. I’d like to argue that going to college is significantly harder than working in your desired career field, because at least at work you’re focused on one thing and there’s an opportunity to “clock out.” When going to school, you’re juggling multiple classes, extracurriculars and jobs. Doing everything you can in the hopes that you’ll one day land that dream job that opens up the next chapter of your life where you can plop down in a home of your own, let out a sigh of relief and say, “I made it.” You’ll have finally made it. Taking 8 classes a semester while working and managing extracurricular activities will have all been worth it. 

    Right? I really need that to be true. 

    I’m holding on to the aspirations and hope that a past version of myself had, the one who was filled with so much excitement and motivation. She planned out the last two years of our undergraduate career, saying you’re going to do this, this and that, and it’ll all be worth it.

    I want to say that I’m doing this all for her. It’s easy to say that when looking at the big picture, the eagle-eye view of my life. But right now, I’m living in the reality of those aspirations and I don’t feel like I’m that person anymore. Maybe losing myself to my work and studies is a necessary part of the process, but it makes me sad. Should losing yourself be a necessary part of anything?

    And who am I now? Am I just the things that I’m constantly busy with? I really hope not.

  • Women on two wheels

    Women on two wheels

    by Savana Robinson

    As far as I’m aware, there are only two women on motorcycles that regularly park on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus. I am one, and the other is Marilyn Koch, a jewelry and small metals instructor at Cal Poly Humboldt. She rides a 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 250 named Trixie and has been riding for 13 years. 

    I think it’s a shame that only two women on this campus ride, mopeds aside. We’re talking highway-legal bikes. A lifelong goal of mine is to inspire other women to ride and claim their freedom. Koch is also in favor of other women riding.

    “I’m so pro-women riders because I don’t understand why it’s such a male-dominated activity,” Koch said. “This is an activity that should be void of gender. Everyone should be on a bike.”

    Koch has always had an affinity for two-wheeled machines.

    “I’ve always thought motorcycles were just really badass,” Koch said.

    Prior to riding, her taste in men was the more rebellious type, especially those with motorcycles.

    “I realized instead of looking for a guy on a bike, why couldn’t I just be that badass person myself?” Koch said.

    Koch decided to take a motorcycle safety course and get her license.  California Highway Patrol and other riding schools offer the California motorcyclists safety program all over the state. Koch spoke well of the program because it not only provides everything needed to learn, including a motorcycle, but it also gives riders the knowledge and confidence they need to ride safely.

    “I highly encourage anyone that’s even interested in riding a motorcycle to take one of those courses,” Koch said.

    Koch spoke of how the course is a great option for women especially.

    “Generally, if you’re a guy, you maybe know somebody that has a bike or you’re a little bit more interconnected with the riding circle,” Koch said. “A lot of the female riders I’ve noticed are just so disengaged from that community.”

    Koch noted that the exception to this stereotype is women who find groups such as The Litas Humboldt, who are only one part of a worldwide collective of women riders. They allow women of any riding level to join. Being part of a riding group is a great way to learn and become more comfortable riding and having fellow women to ride with can boost confidence.

    I joined The Litas Humboldt in Dec. 2022, fulfilling my dream of several years. Part of the reason I came to Cal Poly Humboldt was because of The Litas. Being part of an all-ladies collective makes my heart soar; it’s like having a bunch of sisters to ride with. Erin Taylor, cofounder of The Litas Humboldt, once referred to that experience as ‘wind sisterhood’. There’s no other feeling like it.

    Sometimes, men come up to me on my bike and say that I’m a badass. It feels good to hear it, but I can’t help but wonder if they would say that to another man. Koch shared a similar sentiment.

    “When I get on my bike and I see people sort of staring at the bike… wondering who the owner is, and then realizing that the owner is a lady, they’re always somehow mystified as though it is even cooler that it’s a lady and not a guy,” Koch said. “It tickles me, but it also disappoints me. Why is it so astonishing for a lady to have a motorcycle?”

    My dream is to have a bunch of girls on motorcycles riding to school. It would be so cool to see other motorcycles with scrunchies and pink bandanas on their mirror stems in any of the many Cal Poly Humboldt motorbike parking areas. I could talk all day about yass-ifying Harleys and other makes, but I digress, we need more women on two wheels. 

    I would greatly encourage anyone that’s thinking about getting a motorcycle to take the motorcycle safety course, and for any woman that rides to join The Litas Humboldt at thelitas.co/humboldt and on their Facebook page.

  • The attendance trap: time to set grades free

    The attendance trap: time to set grades free

    by Jake Hyslop

    Over a month into the semester, most of you are probably familiar with your professors and their grading policies by this point. Some require you to show up to every class to get a decent grade, while there are others who simply don’t care if you show up to class (spoiler alert: these are the cool professors).

    I stand very firmly in the belief that attendance should not factor into a student’s grades. They should be graded on their performance instead. 

    Maybe this is crazy, but if I miss two or three classes, yet demonstrate knowledge of the course materials by performing well on exams/essays/projects/you-name-it, I shouldn’t be punished. That A grade should stay an A. 

    Too often a class I’ve had has spent a week or two teaching something I already know fairly well (especially those classes that teach a broad range of practical skills in a major), but I am forced to sit through lectures bored to tears. I often think about the tens of things I could be doing instead, which are more often than not, assignments for other classes I could be using this valuable time for. 

    Allow me to introduce the concept of life. Life has this crazy habit of happening. It happens to you, to me, even to the professors here. When a professor has a wedding they plan to attend, or are feeling a little sick, they call off class. 

    Tell me then, why when I missed a class due to a personal loss, I was emailed a “sorry for your loss,” followed by a Canvas notification of my attendance grade being lowered by 7%? When I’m paying for my college credits, what valid reason is there for attendance affecting my grade? Professors don’t get paid based on class attendance, so the only person negatively affected when a student misses class is the student. 

    Let’s dig into how the supposed function of classroom attendance is to motivate students. I’m willing to bet money that mandatory attendance doesn’t motivate any student to do better in class. It sure doesn’t motivate me to do better in class. 

    A student should want to attend class. If a student is paying to take a class, they should be engaged by and with the course material, and that interest will intrinsically motivate the student to keep attending and learning. Requiring the student’s presence, and actively lowering the grade if not graced with their presence will extrinsically motivate the student to attend class. It will not motivate the student to learn. 

    Extrinsic motivation, like keeping a seat warm to satisfy an arbitrary requirement, doesn’t hold a candle to the intrinsic motivation of actually being interested in what’s being taught. Otherwise, self-motivation is taken away from the student and butchered in the slaughterhouse of butts-in-seats and vacant stares. 

    According to a 2010 report by the American Educational Research Association, while attending class can assist in getting better grades, mandatory attendance has a very small impact on how the students perform. 

    For all of you professors out there balking at the idea, slow down and take a deep breath. I promise you that most of us would attend the majority of our classes, just like usual. After all, it’s our money on the line. If you think that nobody will attend your class without graded attendance, chances are your class sucks and you should step it up. Make us want to come to class. If I’m able to accomplish the majority of your coursework well without paying a lick of attention to your lectures, they’re probably not all that engaging. 

    Oh, and participation grading is fine. After all, the professor has to keep track of students contributing. In the case of discussion-based classes, maybe offer students who miss class a discussion board on Canvas to post things on. 
    Stopping mandatory attendance puts the power and capacity to learn into the hands of the student. It restores that joie-de-vivre that graded attendance robs us of and allows us to feel like students, eager to learn instead of prisoners chained to our degrees.

  • Straight people look gay

    Straight people look gay

    by Zack Mink

    Dating in Arcata can be rough. As a visibly queer person, I find that I attract all kinds of different people. The most frustrating breed is the queer-passing straight men.

    This is the man who is either being friendly or flirting – you’re always questioning if they’re into you or if you’re just being delusional.

    In the past, it has been super tricky because I wasn’t the only one convinced these queer-passing straight men were into me. What made it so difficult was my friends being able to corroborate my beliefs as audience members of my disastrous love life. For the two most impactful love interests of mine, my besties were right by my side, able to witness the main events, the flirting, the looks, the attention, etc. So after multiple experiences discovering one of my interests is actually straight, I have to ask myself… what made me think they weren’t? 

    Aside from a basic level of human connection, and the undeniably flirtatious energy I could feel whenever we would talk, my confusion about a guy’s sexuality ultimately would come down to two things: their emotional intelligence and their sense of style.

    Apparently the bar is on the floor when it comes to the emotional intelligence of a straight man (no offense to straight men), because when a guy is comfortable with himself, confident and generally aware of others and his surroundings, I’m absolutely convinced he is queer. There’s just a certain depth that I find straight men don’t have because of their privileges.

    When taking a step back, I also realize that I definitely don’t associate a good sense of style with straight men (no offense again). I did notice however that I was stereotyping clothes. When I saw something I believed was not traditionally masculine, it would lead me to make assumptions about people’s sexuality. As a breaker of many stereotypes myself, believing them is something I want to avoid. 

    With this goal in mind, I learned a few things about myself and this genre of man. The first thing I reminded myself of is that anyone can have a good sense of style because clothing is for everyone. I can’t gatekeep dangly earrings and head scarfs for the girls, gays and theys. The second thing was that by having a sense of style, trying new accessories and having fun with clothes, a man is fighting society’s standards of masculinity. This was my “A-ha” moment as Oprah would say, because as someone who partially identifies as a guy, I have never fit in with the standards of masculinity. I actually think that not fitting in and being treated differently encouraged me to not accept societes standards for myself. Yes, I’ll blame the conservative people from my childhood for me being queer. 

    So despite my struggles differentiating a straight guy with style from a queer person, and despite the time I’ve wasted on people who aren’t interested in me, I will show my appreciation for the authenticity of the ambiguous straight men.

  • Bottoms Review: A raucously punchy queer teen comedy

    Bottoms Review: A raucously punchy queer teen comedy

    by Jake Hyslop

    If I had a nickel for every new movie in 2023 that was an eccentric, campy satire about feminism and gender roles, mocking the blatantly evil patriarchy and boasting a giant choreographed fight scene, I would have two nickels – which, to quote Dr. Doofenshmirtz, isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. 

    Bottoms is the sophomore feature from writer-director Emma Seligman, reuniting with star (and writer) Rachel Sennott (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) from their previous collaboration, the stressful and hilarious Shiva Baby. Opposite Sennott is Ayo Edibiri, perhaps best known for her voicework in Big Mouth and her performance as Sydney in the hit Hulu show The Bear (watch it if you haven’t). 

    Sennott and Edibiri star as PJ and Josie respectively, two teens at the bottom of their high school’s social ladder. Not only are they losers and gay, but they attend a high school that literally worships its straight himbo star-athlete (there is a giant mural depicting him as the biblical Adam in the cafeteria). Even the principal calls them the “ugly, untalented gays” over the intercom. Through a series of plot contrivances, the two unpopular teens start an all-female fight club in order to have sex before they graduate. 

    If the above doesn’t alert you to the surrealness of the world of Bottoms, allow me to inform you that Jeff (the aforementioned himbo) and his teammates are depicted sitting in the cafeteria like Jesus and his apostles in Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It’s a comical sight to say the least. Oh, and murder is just shrugged off as a normal occurrence. 

    The teen sex comedy isn’t exactly a new genre, but to have a brief resurgence put a queer spin on the genre keeps it fresh and subversive. It brings the tone of movies like Wet Hot American Summer and Superbad to the Gen Z crowd, borrowing the campy tone of “But I’m a Cheerleader,” a queer cult classic in its own right (it even paid homage in a scene at a diner named “But I’m A Diner”). Bottoms is unapologetically and explicitly gay at nearly all times. We’ve come a long way from the woeful and tokenistic “gay best friend” trope in comedies.  

    I was particularly delighted at the film’s parallels and references to Fight Club, a film famous for its satirical portrayal of toxic masculinity. It’s unfortunate that many men read the film’s message completely wrong, idolizing the dangerous men at the center of the narrative. How refreshing that this movie completely upends and pokes fun at those notions. The football players here are utterly moronic, and actors Nicholas Galitzine and Miles Fowler channel their Ken-ergy into their diva performances. 

    Despite a plot that can be convoluted and predictable at times, the cast and writing carry this movie to victory. Sennott and Edebiri’s palpable chemistry provides the groundwork for some truly impressive improv sequences, interwoven so well with the hilarious script that it’s hard to tell what is improv and what is written. Marshawn Lynch nearly steals the film as the divorced teacher who sponsors their club, misguided in his attempts to embrace feminism (fair weather allies are the worst). In fact, the entire ensemble here puts in the work, and I found my chest hurting from all the funny bits, as there’s hardly a minute that goes by without one. To address the Margot Robbie-sized elephant  in the room: yes, there are a lot of similarities to Barbie, the hit blockbuster of the year. I liked Barbie a lot, but my biggest issue was just how commercial it was, and how I wished every minute of its runtime was as campy as Barbieland; Bottoms scratched that itch for me. It’s acerbic and surreal the entire time, but it’s also surprisingly dark and bloody. Bottoms never compromises its weirdness for even a second to please anyone. It’s brash and unapologetic, and also the funniest movie I’ve seen all year.

  • Student spreads joy through public singing

    by Savana Robinson and Alina Ferguson

    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.

  • Associated Students cuts $500,000 out of student programs: resource centers struggle

    Associated Students cuts $500,000 out of student programs: resource centers struggle

    by Angel Barker

    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.”

  • Old soul, young at heart

    Old soul, young at heart

    by Dezmond Remington

    It’s midnight on a Saturday, and the rafters are clapping. Spines vibrate and teeth wiggle. Faces pose in macabre grimaces, writhing like they have a car battery clamped to their tongues. Above it all is the light, heavenly light, that dips and dodges and fills up the warehouse. It spells names, makes rainbows and does anything the god that controls it wants to do. The deity is named Nathan Ray King and this is his office.

    His office that night was an EDM show at Ramparts Skate Park. King has been doing laser work for gigs as diverse as raves in the forest to a dance at Eureka High School for about two years now. After winning four jackpots in a row playing keno at the Blue Lake Casino, he bought his first laser. Although the pay in Humboldt is often bad and the grind painful, he hasn’t looked back since. Seeing hundreds of people feeding off of the energy of his lasers and the music he plays makes it worth it. 

    Photos by Dezmond Remington. A performer dances amidst King’s kaleidoscope laser arrangements.

    “The amount of love you get for creating that vibe [is great],” King said. “The laser is so powerful. It has such an impact on what people are going to remember. It’s those memories that are some of my favorite type of things. It’s hard to explain the gratification you get from all those smiles from people who are mind blown.”

    King didn’t come by his profession out of the blue. In the early 2000s, he attended a festival in Phoenix and was inspired to start his career with lasers when he walked behind a stage and saw all the wiring. He and the group he was working with performed at shows in the area for about six years, using illegal equipment owned by someone else until they were shut down by the local laser commissioner. He spent most of the next 10 years working as a household appliance repairman before his roommates stole his tools. When he had his stroke of fate at the Blue Lake Casino, he decided it was time to invest in himself. 

    He bought one laser and messed around with it in his apartment for six months, eventually buying more lasers when he outgrew his setup. He reached out to promoters for a while to get some work and got a gig performing at the Jam in Arcata. He offered to do it for free just for the exposure, but the promoters liked it so much they ended up paying him. He’s been booked full almost every weekend since. 

    “I’ve been doing a lot of shows for next to nothing, just to get seated in the industry and get more experience,” King said. “It’s worked fairly well. I’m still struggling financially, but it’s coming along.”

    King is a staple at just about any event in Humboldt that a laser might make a little better. He has somewhat of a monopoly on laser shows here, being pretty much the only local to offer his services. His marketing techniques can be aggressive. Occasionally, he sets up lasers at Moonstone beach, projecting shapes on the cliff sides, as well as his Instagram handle. He has a bus with his name on it and rigged it so his lasers could attach. It’s the dream machine for King, a portable slice of his talents. It makes it much easier to travel south for the big festivals, where the real money can be made – a couple thousand for a weekend of work. 

    King would like to branch out into other areas he could use his lasers, such as large, billboard-style effects. One of the things that fascinates him about the lasers is simply how many things can be done with them; the ceiling for innovation is practically limitless. The program King uses to make his lasers function has hundreds of preset designs. Any image file can be projected. Dancers made out of nothing but pure light and shadow. The only boundary is what King can think of, as well as his budget.

    “The possibilities are limitless,” King said. “I can play with it for days and never do the same thing twice.”

    Despite what his club reputation may bring to mind, King is far from the glowstick and neon aesthetic of many festival goers. He’s 44, with salt and pepper stubble, clad in athleisure khakis and Adidas running shoes. However, one of the things he loves most about the events he works is that they don’t put him all that outside the norm. 

    “I see people way older than me,” King said. “I’ve always been an old soul but young at heart at the same time. I feel right at home…I feel like a kid again, almost. I’m just a free-spirited kind of kid. I like to have a good time.”

    The people in the crowd are what compensate for the oftentimes bad pay and wacky working hours. King said he often has trouble talking with people, but lasers are the great equalizer.

    “I don’t really care about the size of the event,” King said. “Just being able to connect with people [is why I do it]. Doing lasers allows me to speak with people without having to interact with people.”

    One of the finest moments of his career was at the Stilldream Festival in eastern California. A technician took King’s chair, which he was mad about until he learned it was for a DJ by the name of Dreamweaver. He had been in a car wreck several years prior and needed it a lot more than Nathan did. 

    “He was just crushing it,” King said. “Everything was going great… I got this epiphany in my head like halfway through his set, ‘You know what? I’m standing for this man right now!’ We’re on opposite sides of the crowd, kind of having our dance amongst ourselves. ‘I’m his legs right now!’”

    However, King said that after the highs of working the crowd can often come the lows. However, the solution there is often also people. 

    “You get probably a ‘Musician’s Gloom’ where, when you’re performing, you get this rush of endorphins — and, of course, the extracurricular activities that get you there — and then when it’s over, it goes [airplane crashing noise],” King said. “So the next night, it’s quiet, you’re by yourself, you get this super low… I like to just talk to friends… have a chill one-on-one.”

    King has met hundreds of different people during his years as a laser performer, one of them being HSU alumni Joseph Ostini. Ostini is the founder of artist’s collective Arcane Artists, started two years ago to give local performers an outlet during the pandemic. Ostini met King at a show at the Jam about a year ago, and was impressed by the laser effects, something he said had never been seen before in Arcata. Ostini likes the lasers as a way to enhance the experience of attending a music show.

    “[King’s] artwork does a good job of translating music to visual space,” Ostini said. “…His growth has been apparent to me as a promoter.”

    King’s connections are what he hopes will allow him to finally become a successful, happy performer.

    “Lasers are fucking cool,” King said. “That’s all I want to do — be sustainable and comfortable and just be able to shine my lasers for people.”

  • College night: flop or bop?

    College night: flop or bop?

    by Jillian Wells

    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. 

  • Cal Poly Humboldt alumni destroy women’s rugby team

    Cal Poly Humboldt alumni destroy women’s rugby team

    by Savana Robinson

    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.”

  • Music meets anime at Thundercat show

    Music meets anime at Thundercat show

    by Carlina Grillo

    On a typical cold and rainy night in Arcata, students gathered into the John Van Duzer Theatre where Grammy award-winning bassist, Stephen Lee Bruner, known as Thundercat, brought the heat to campus. With a mix of funk, jazz, R&B and psychedelic bass noodling – eccentric doesn’t begin to describe the night. 

    Tickets for the show sold out within two hours of going on sale to the public, and to people’s surprise, last minute tickets were sold the evening of the performance. For Thundercat’s third time back to the Van Duzer, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Center Arts expected a full house with a seated capacity of 862.

    Eager for the show, the crowd began gathering in the lobby half an hour before the doors opened at 8:30 p.m. Upon entry, people were greeted by a vivid blue light and fog in the air. Behind the haze stood a giant blown up medieval style tower with a cat head. Known as “Cats Lair,” this stage set up was a reference to the 1985 anime, “ThunderCats.”

    The concert was promoted as a seated show, but as soon as the band took the stage, some people stood in front of their seats while others raced to the front. Most people on the balcony remained seated until the very end of the night when the entire house gave Thundercat a standing ovation. The energy was high, but not enough to solicit a mosh pit. Folks mostly swayed throughout the night.

    Thundercat took the stage around 9 p.m. with his iconic six string Ibanez bass guitar, and was backed up by Dennis Hamm on the keys, with Justin Brown on drums. Between songs, Thundercat entertained the crowd with relatable banter and even attempted to kickflip a Tech Deck from the crowd. While he talked to the crowd, fans could be heard meowing around the room.

    Photo by Carlina Grillo. Thundercat playing in front of the “Cats Lair”, a giant blowup tower referencing the 1985 anime “ThunderCats”.

    It was quickly made apparent that anime has a grip on Thundercat and has influenced many aspects of his life. During the first half of the show, he asked the audience how they felt about anime. As the question was followed by loud cheers, he decided to play the song “Tokyo.”

    “I’m gonna slow this one down too,” said Thundercat. “I’m gonna sing this one real slow, so you can understand what it was to be me at 18 years old in Japan.”

    The song described Thundercat’s time in Tokyo with an ode to his lifelong love for anime.

    “I went to the dentist and he gave me a toy / it was Dragon Ball-Z, a wrist-slap bracelet / Goku fucking ruined me,” sang Thundercat. 

    Afterwards, he followed it with his song “Dragonball Durag.” He mentioned that it was his first time playing those songs back to back, and even exclaimed to Hamm, “Write that down!”

    “You don’t have to like my video games or my comic books / But baby girl, how do I look in my durag?” sang Thundercat.

    During the second half of the performance, Thundercat took a moment to honor musicians he’s proud to have worked with who have passed away. He specifically mentioned rapper Mac Miller, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and concert promoter Meghan Stabile.

    “To know Meghan was to love her,” Thundercat said.

    Whether an anime lover or not, concert-goers left the Van Duzer feeling electric. Tobin Thornton, a freshman studying chemistry at Cal Poly Humboldt, had never been to the Van Duzer before and had zero expectations for the night. 

    “I don’t really know what I was expecting, but I had a very good time. I do feel like I got put in a microwave, but in a good way,” Thornton said before rating the show a solid nine out of ten. 

    Sam Schulman, a music lover and community member, expressed his gratitude for Thundercat coming to Arcata to share his music.

    “I was mind blown by his artistry and how good he is at playing the bass. It was so cool,” Schulman said. “I didn’t really know what to expect going into it and I know he has regular-amount-of-time songs, but he was extending a lot of them and jamming a lot. Which was really cool to see.”

    Lexi Takaki, a graduate student in the social work program, described her night as awesome, and felt very lucky to get one of the last minute tickets. 

    “Thundercat is a world renowned musician that is like none other, so it was kind of surreal to see him on stage,” Takaki said. “I feel like at a lot of shows at the Van Duzer, it can be really mellow or people are kind of awkward, and I feel like tonight everyone was really feeling it.”

  • Data science makes its debut as one of Cal Poly Humboldt’s new science majors

    Data science makes its debut as one of Cal Poly Humboldt’s new science majors

    by Emma Wilson and Griffin Mancuso

    Data science debuted as one of the eight new science majors that Cal Poly Humboldt is offering this semester.

    Data science is the blend of math, statistics and coding where data scientists examine which questions need to be answered and where to find the related data. Data science is a major with many career opportunities in a variety of fields including mathematics, computer science, coding and research. This major is ideal for students who want to apply their talents in different areas and want to have a practical use for their math skills.

    Currently, one data science class is being offered this semester: Data 111, Intro to Programming and Computational Thinking for DS. In the spring, Data 271, Data Wrangling and Visualization, will be available.

    Kamila Larripa is an associate professor and is currently leading the new data science major. Larripa has been working at Cal Poly Humboldt since 2008 and is currently doing a research project with her students on a type of immune cell in the brain called microglia. She is interested in looking at cells; how they integrate and make decisions in the human body. 

    Larripa previously did some training and started offering her students workshops in data science in 2017, like machine learning and methods or how to clean a data set. 

    “People were really interested, and I just feel like there was kind of this need that students were wanting this,” Larripa said. “And then over time, with a bunch of other people on campus and then the transition to polytech, now we have this new major in the math department.”

    Photo by Griffin Mancuso. Bethany Johnson, an associate professor, describes the first project students are working on in Data 111.

    Bethany Johnson, an associate professor, is teaching the first available data science class this semester. Students taking her class learn the definition of data science, its fundamentals and the skills needed to succeed in their industry of choice.

    “We spent the first part of the class basically learning how to program in Python, so this is kind of like basic programming stuff including how to write a for loop, how to do conditional statements, if-else statements and how to simulate some things,” Johnson said. “And then we start moving into statistics, where we’re trying to figure out, like, how can we use data to make a conclusion about the population. And then toward the end of the class, we’re going to get into a little bit of prediction.”

    Johnson also emphasized data science as a broad spectrum of skills that anyone can benefit from.

    “I think that it’s important for people to view data science as, as not like a strict scientific discipline. You don’t have to be a computer whiz or something like that,” Johnson said. “I think that sometimes when people hear data science, they maybe don’t even know exactly what it entails… I would think about it as just like, sort of a discipline to help you solve problems and make decisions, work with the data and the information that’s out there.”

    Elio Piccagli is pursuing a major in computer science and data science along with two minors in biology and art. Currently, Piccagli is in the Data 111 class doing a project on the world population’s relationship to poverty levels. He explained the commonalities and differences between computer science and data science. 

    “Computer science deals with like a lot of, ‘how do we code this,’” Piccagli said. “And data science is like, ‘we have this data, how do we make a table visualizing that data?’ So it’s just like the application of computer science.”

    Emad Syed is a junior majoring in data science who pursued the major out of an interest in manipulating data rather than creating it. He also emphasized the flexibility of possible career paths students can pursue with a data science major.

    “I’m looking for something that can be applied in all, in all parts of life,” Syed said, “Be it forestry, economics, statistics, computers, anywhere where the skill set can be used. I don’t want to necessarily choose a specialized field.”

    Larripa has hope for the future of the data science program at Cal Poly Humboldt

    “So the overall theme of our program is really data for good. Like how can we, you know, capture, analyze data and make decisions so that we’re making the world a better place?” Larripa said. “And I mean, I think that really is in line with the Cal Poly vision. And we’re really excited about that.”

  • One pole, seven strippers

    One pole, seven strippers

    by Zack Mink

    “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.

  • Breaking the stigma

    by Savana Robinson

    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.

  • The fantastical world of D&D

    The fantastical world of D&D

    by Alina Ferguson

    Roll the dice. Feel the pressure. You are rolling to see if you will make it out alive, or to sneak away from danger. 

    Cal Poly Humboldt has many things to offer. One thing that people may not be aware of is the very active Dungeons and Dragons scene. 

    Dungeons and Dragons, also known as D&D, is a tabletop fantasy role playing game that often takes place over a series of campaigns. You become a part of a story, creating a character and playing through scenarios that the Dungeon Master, or ‘DM’, envisions. 

    It is common in the D&D world to refer to the DM as a sort of God, who creates the imaginary world that the campaign takes place in. It does not always have to be Earth. It can be anywhere and anytime. 

    The community is very friendly and always welcoming of new players. Cal Poly Humboldt student William Bellairs is a geospatial and technology major who has been playing D&D on and off since high school. He enjoys the communal and imaginative experience of the game.

    Photo by Alina Ferguson. The Solar Nuawlen campaign enjoying a game night.

    “I really love the collaborative storytelling aspect, how you can get a group of people all invested in something that each person is in part responsible for,” said Bellairs. “I haven’t played with anyone on campus, but I have some friends who do or who are looking to.” 

    Another facet that brings people together for D&D is the character art. Artists bring their characters to life and even do commissions to illustrate other player’s characters.

    Chris Talso, a student at Cal Poly Humboldt, runs a campaign called “Solar Nuawlen” with players studying at both Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods. Nuawlen is the name of the planet that the campaign takes place on; a post-apocalyptic earth. 

    “Basically, Earth right now went through some type of apocalypse,” described Talso. “It sent Earth to dinosaur times and it had to evolve back. Then quite a few million years later, instead of having a focus on science, the new races and humanoid people of the planet now are focusing on magic. There’s quite a few people on this planet. They have brought a whole new life to the world. All the continents of the world have Pangaea-d again.”

    Throughout D&D campaigns, there are multiple different side quests that the party goes on. Solar Nuawlen was on a random little side mission to bring back the perfect Griffowl to the home dimension. A Griffowl is an owl and cat mixed together. 

    Judah Benson, an environmental science management and restoration major has played D&D on and off for over five years, and currently plays at school. Her current character has different moods that are based on the seasons. She plays a male character, because she can.  

    “It’s like video games but less expensive and less rules,” said Benson. “A good game if you’ve got a lot of creative friends!”

  • Pets keep students healthy and happy

    Pets keep students healthy and happy

    by Savana Robinson

    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.

  • From DMs to DII National Championship: Isabel Perez-Zoghbi

    From DMs to DII National Championship: Isabel Perez-Zoghbi

    by Vanessa Saltos

    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.

  • Low effort and loving it

    by Zack Mink

    Being in your I-don’t-give-a-f*ck (IDAGF) era means that you do what you need to do for yourself. For me currently, this means I’m showing up to class in the same outfits every week, or pressing snooze on my alarm and committing to wearing pajamas all day. It’s giving low effort although I’m still on top of school and work because, “that’s what really matters,” as my Grandma would say. 

    I love clothes, thrifting, design, etc., but who am I trying to impress when I’m running to The Depot during a ten minute break? I’m tired of dressing up for the one cute guy in my class who doesn’t even know my name (yet). I’m done wasting a good outfit on a day when I’m sitting in one classroom for multiple classes back to back. Being as thoughtless as I am when it comes to my daily appearance takes a lot of work though. It takes a sense of style, confidence, and a certain je-ne-sais-quoi you would only know from hitting rock-bottom, possibly even multiple times. 

    When I say hitting rock-bottom, I mean a struggle you have had in life that you learned from. Something that taught you a life lesson, brought a growth opportunity. No judgment to the people who have never been to therapy, but working to improve yourself is super important. It’s a time when you focus on loving yourself, owning your flaws, and working to improve yourself however that looks for you. It’s also hot, so if you have never been to therapy I highly recommend taking advantage of the free resources campus provides. Focusing on your personal growth brings you a third-of-the-way to thriving in your IDGAF era; the second part is being confident. Luckily… you’ve had some time now to work on yourself, learned a life lesson or two, gained some emotional maturity, and are feeling happy with how far you’ve come. 

    The turning point for me was my junior year of high school. It was the third high school I went to, so during the first week I took advantage of the fact that I was the new kid. Being my bold self, I ran for treasurer with no one even knowing my name. I didn’t win, but it was still fun to just not take it too seriously, break down my walls and be confident in who I was. Some may say that was actually the beginning of my IDGAF era.

    The missing piece to being successful in your IDGAF era is having a sense of style. Like I said, I’m an outfit repeater and wear the same exact things every week. Not to brag, but I do consistently get compliments on my eight dollar sweatshirt and the t-shirt I thrifted that has a huge hole in the armpit. Maybe it’s the low standards of Arcata, or maybe I’m just delusional, but all you need is some style to pull off being low effort and presentable.

    Once you’ve reached this point, you can truly enjoy the world around you. You have prioritized yourself, grown emotionally, and gained confidence allowing you to be successful in the other aspects of your life. You also look cute and are the mysterious person someone thinks about after seeing you walk to class. So be free my little birds, get help – because if you’ve read this far you need it, and I wish you a pleasant journey finding your successful low effort lifestyle.
    If you are in need of emotional and mental health support, please reach out to Counseling & Psychological Services at humboldtcaps@humboldt.edu or call 707.826.3146 to sign up for free mental health/counseling services through TimelyCare.

  • Cal Poly Humboldt spending $1.34 million on hotel lease while having 331 vacant beds on campus

    Cal Poly Humboldt spending $1.34 million on hotel lease while having 331 vacant beds on campus

    by Brad Butterfield

    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.”

  • Cal Poly Humboldt students ride the waves

    Cal Poly Humboldt students ride the waves

    by Savana Robinson

    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 struggle to navigate COVID-19 safety post-pandemic

    Students struggle to navigate COVID-19 safety post-pandemic

    by Zachary Mink and Griffin Mancuso

    While COVID-19 regulations have become more lenient at Cal Poly Humboldt, many students are still contracting COVID-19 and are unsure of where to find resources.

    EG.5 (Eris) is one of the newer variants of COVID-19 in the United States, known for being highly contagious. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that Eris made up about 24.5% of COVID cases in the U.S. over the last two weeks. The second most common variant, FL.1.5.1, made up about 13.7% of cases. 

    Currently, the data on the number of student COVID-19 cases and which variant students are contracting most often is unavailable.

    Dobby Morse, a graduate student in English who lives on campus, contracted COVID-19 in mid-August. They initially tested negative and assumed they weren’t contagious despite their symptoms.

    “After like the third or fourth day, there was this burning lump in my throat and I couldn’t speak,” Morse said. “So, I went to the health center to try and get help and they tested me there. They said I had [COVID-19] and I had to go into lockdown.”

    Because they were living with a roommate, Morse stayed in a quarantine room in the Cypress dorms for six days with one bedroom, a bathroom, and a mini kitchen with a broken stove. They tested again five days after their visit to the health center and had a positive result.

    “I tried to extend my room for a couple more days, but the housing person said that I wouldn’t be contagious after 10 days,” Morse said. “But there’s internet health websites that say you can be contagious for up to 20 days.”

    According to the CDC, those with moderate or severe COVID-19 should isolate for at least ten days, but those with a severe case of COVID-19 may still be contagious and need to isolate for up to 20 days.

    Many students believe that precautions still need to be taken in regard to COVID-19.

    “I don’t think people are as aware of it or as concerned about it as they should be,” Morse said. “Because I did have one person be like, ‘Oh, you have COVID[-19]? But I’m not scared of COVID[-19],’ and kind of got in my face.”

    Emma Kral, a senior at Cal Poly Humboldt, contracted COVID-19 a week after moving into the dorms. COVID-19 left her unable to prepare for her classes, disrupting the beginning of her semester and leaving her feeling tired and unsettled. She was able to get a rapid COVID-19 test from one of the health vending machines on campus, and wants to see students and faculty taking more precautions.

    “I think masking should be a lot more common on campus,” Kral said. They also thought more ventilation in classrooms would be helpful.

    Many students aren’t aware of the vending machines on campus that carry COVID-19 rapid tests or the resources available in the Health Center. Some students said that they want to see more free masks available around campus. Most frequently, students requested that the school take an active role in addressing the rising number of COVID-19 cases among students and listen to student feedback.

    Photo by Griffin Mancuso. The Student Health Center on campus.

    According to the Cal Poly Humboldt website, students who are symptomatic can make an appointment at the Student Health Center to see a medical provider. If you are unable to get to the Student Health Center, 2-packs of rapid COVID-19 tests are available in health vending machines for $20 each.

    Free 2-packs of rapid COVID-19 tests are currently available to all students at the Student Health Center, but students can only get one pack of tests at a time.

    The Student Health Center currently does not provide COVID-19 boosters, but students can sign up for an appointment or find walk-in clinics near them on myturn.ca.gov. Locations in Arcata and Eureka that have the updated COVID-19 vaccine are Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy and Rite Aid. Safeway locations currently have a limited supply of the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

    The Lumberjack reporters made multiple attempts to contact Jennifer Saford the Executive Director of Student Health & Wellbeing Services, Mira Friedman the Lead for Health Education and Medical Clinic Support Services, Aileen Yoo the Director of News & Information, and Grant Scott-Goforth the Communications Specialist, through email and in-person, but all were unwilling to provide a comment on COVID-19 tests and resources at this time.

    Covid Vending Machine Locations:

    Nelson Hall East (across from Goodwin form)

    Gutswurrak Student Activities Center (1st floor by the Depot)

    Jolly Giant Commons (3rd floor next to housing cashier)

    College Creek Mail Room Lobby

    Creekview Dorm Lounge (must be a Creekview resident to access)

  • Step into the Humboldt party scene: a review

    by Christina Mehr

    Some say there’s no party scene here in Humboldt to have an opinion on, but they’re the people who have no friends and aren’t getting invited to things in the first place. Stay mad. For a campus that claims to be a dry campus, it is certainly most not. Just take a look outside and you’ll smell the scent of earthy weed being consumed by students. Up here, it’s pretty much part of the culture to be involved in the stoner community. Aside from the magnificent coastal redwoods, people know Humboldt as a place that grows good weed.

    Photo by Christina Mehr

    Assuming you’re into the party scene here at Humboldt, then you’re aware of the infamous Nicki House. You can see this party venue from the JGC parking lot, adorned with a flag of Nicki Minaj saluting an American flag. Most “venues” are just an inside space where party-goers can hang out, listening to shitty music and conversing with the same three people you came with, but the Nicki house however has something special. The house is run by all women who are reclaiming the frat party vibe. 

    If dressed in the theme, guys’ entry to these parties are five dollars and girls get in for free. If you’re one to participate in hookup culture, then you’re screwed with that ratio unless you play for both teams. Themes have ranged from Y2K to blackout, to a comfy pajama party. The themed parties bring a sense of playfulness into regular gatherings. The way the community connects is through drugs, alcohol, music and trying to leave the crowded house.

    The cons, there’s only one way in and out of the house which poses a threat of danger in case of emergency. The house itself is quite crowded with the line to get in out the door, but if you’re into the sweaty bump and grind you’ll fit in just fine. If you can’t make it into the main house, or are too cheap to, there’s plenty of overflow out front where the beer pong table sits. Party places are like fads, they come and go, just like the entire freshman class pulling up to the same party. 

    If you know how to have a good time, then you’re part of the population who is living it up in college. The best way to make the most out of your weekend? Pregame with your closest friends, have a few drinks, smoke a joint and find a party. That is until the party gets shut down 45 minutes after starting and the cops start playing beer pong.