The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Students

  • Why your gut knows what’s up before you do

    Why your gut knows what’s up before you do

    by Christina Mehr

    The best piece of advice my mom has ever given me is to trust my gut. Intuition is an amazing thing and as a highly sensitive individual, I have finally come to appreciate the signals my body tells me.

    Sometimes, we can’t explain why we get these strong instinctive hunches. The uneasiness in your tummy or the tightness of anxiety in your chest. Even when we don’t have all the information, our gut can lead us in the right direction. There’ve been a few situations where this has saved me.

    Recently two people very close to me, one being my cousin and the other my best friend, kept a secret from me. They had begun having romantic feelings for each other and instead of telling me, began sneaking around with their exciting new relationship.

    Over the course of the next six months, I began to notice a shift in dynamics. People on the outside of a relationship can usually tell something is happening before they even know it themselves. Before the advance in their relationship, I knew I was a priority in this trio, being the one who introduced the two in the first place.

    My friends around me would comment on their closeness, asking if I thought they were anything more than friends. I defended them to everyone who asked me what was going on, trusting that my cousin and best friend would be telling me the truth.

    My entire family and friend group noticed how they had become increasingly close, even to the point where she was coming over for Thanksgiving and Christmas, being included in family plans without me knowing about it. 

    When I started specifically asking my best friend about it, I was very quickly gaslit and manipulated into doubting the things I was noticing and the way I was feeling. They kept assuring me that nothing had been going on. 

    Things came to a head on New Year’s Eve, when I witnessed them sharing a kiss and began pushing me off to the side. Since I wasn’t getting the truth, I looked through my best friend’s phone and saw messages that confirmed my initial feelings. This reassured me that I was not delusional and that my feelings were justified. I was not just making things up.

    I now know to never second guess the way I’m feeling. When I get that pit in my stomach and my mind begins to run, I take a second to validate the way I’m feeling. I believe gut feelings are a result of our subconscious mind processing information and making quick judgments, protecting us from what we already may have suspicions of. 

  • It’s getting hard to be Jewish on campus

    It’s getting hard to be Jewish on campus

    by Zack Mink

    The biggest challenge with being Jewish on campus at Cal Poly Humboldt used to be the lack of community. There are small groups here and there but nothing that reminds me of home: a more reformed, modern take on Judaism. After the massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, being Jewish on campus has led to issues that I would not have expected from a school or peers that seemed to hold an immense amount of respect for minorities and Indigenous people. I still see these empathetic and humane values in some individuals, but from my experience it has become too easy for people to pick and choose who they respect, value, or who they are open to hearing from. This in turn has led to a new level of blatant antisemitism that I have not experienced before. 

    I want to make it clear that this piece is not about my opinions on the current geopolitical conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, because I couldn’t even begin to take on that responsibility. I’m here simply to share that antisemitism is alive and well at Cal Poly Humboldt, and that finding a middle ground, having empathy and seeking peace is productive rather than dismissing, accusing or blatantly hating someone for sharing their lived experiences.

    Something that I have made clear since Oct. 7 is that I don’t want people to die. I don’t want death, destruction, genocide, ethnic cleansing or anything else that brings harm to Palestinians in Gaza or the civilians in Israel. This may seem basic to just objectively have empathy for human life, yet that is something that I always feel is missing when people send me hateful anti-semitic DMs accusing me of white supremacy, or of being a genocidal colonist. What they don’t see, or perhaps turn a blind eye to, is me consistently looking to educate myself as an American Jew using resources by Jews, Palestinians, Israelis, historical experts and anyone else providing concrete facts (modern or historical), because one perspective isn’t enough.

    Just two days after Oct. 7, anti-semitic messages were written on the sukkah on campus. A sukkah is a traditional Jewish structure used to celebrate the holiday Sukkot. The one thing that was on campus representing Jews (with no connection to the state of Israel) was vandalized. This outward act of anti-semitism was simply the beginning for me. 

    Just days after, a close friend and business mentor of mine who prides themselves on their knowledge of Indigenous history as well as supporting minorities self-determination and equal rights began discussing Jewish history with me. Since I trusted her as someone who is extremely educated on these topics, I wanted to understand her perspective on the current conflict, however different it might be from mine. A conversation I assumed would lead to progress for both of us. After this conversation, I discovered that she had unfollowed me, unshared her location, and essentially cut me out of her life completely. When I asked why, or if she would have another meaningful conversation with me, she said no because of our fundamental disagreements—the fundamental disagreement being that Jews are from the land of modern day Israel. 

    With thousands of years of documentation, it is quite clear and flat out historically accurate that Jewish people come from the Kingdom of Judea (previously colonized by the British, Ottomans, Crusaders, Arabs, Romans, Greeks, etc.) Does this take away from Palestinians’ lived experiences today? Absolutely not. Does it justify the actions of the Israeli government? Absolutely not. Is denying this fact erasing Jewish history and their connection to the land? Absolutely. 

    While I sit here holding empathy for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, acknowledging their pain, struggles and lived experiences, I simultaneously speak about Jewish lived experiences and Jewish history. We can and need to strive for peace, acknowledge and appreciate each other’s connection to the land, value life and not invalidate others to validate ourselves. 

  • Signs of Passage: Nostalgia and New Beginnings

    Signs of Passage: Nostalgia and New Beginnings

    By Christina Mehr

    Signs of Passage: Nostalgia and New Beginnings debuted in the Reese Bullen Gallery at Cal Poly Humboldt on Nov 8. The exhibition runs through Dec. 9 [2023] in the Art Building. 

    The Reese Bullen Gallery is named in honor of a founding professor of the Art Department and has been an addition to Humboldt since 1970. The gallery usually contains the university’s permanent collection of art and sponsors exhibitions of works by professional artists related to many different areas of instruction. The Reese Bullen Gallery also presents an annual exhibition of student art in May, the Graduating Student Exhibition.

    The mission of the Reese Bullen Gallery is to offer free and publicly accessible exhibitions representing artists from all demographics. Extending beyond Humboldt, the Gallery seeks to strengthen partnerships with local communities as well as stimulate support and participation in the arts. 

    This new body of work presented by Dave Young Kim at the Reese Bullen Gallery uses latex paint on wood panels. 

    Dave Young Kim is a Los-Angeles based artist who visited Humboldt County with a newly created body of work for his solo exhibition at the Cal Poly Humboldt Reese Bullen Gallery. Kim is a fine artist, born and raised in Los Angeles. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis, and a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Mills College. 

    His current display of work engages with the quality of home and explores themes of nostalgia, war, conflict and displacement. Through his work, Kim explores the unifying search for belonging across disparate conditions. In 2020, he co-founded the Korean American Artist Collective (KAAC), which is a group of artists building a community around work rooted in the Korean-American experience. In 2021, he was a selected muralist for the Eureka Street Art Fest and in connection with the Eureka Chinatown Project to paint a mural named Fowl. 

    “My work plays with that idea of manufacturing nostalgia as integrated with my family history, memory, and identity,” Kim said. “My artistic approach is drawn from a sense of loss or longing, looking for a place to belong.”

    His online portfolio can be found at https://www.daveyoungkim.com. 

    Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery displays “Tintah: Amongst The Trails” 

    Robert Benson’s Redwood Sculptures and Watercolor Studies

    By Christina Mehr

    In collaboration with Cal Poly Humboldt, Robert Benson presents his work in “Tintah: Amongst The Trails” at the bottom floor of the Behavioral & Social Sciences Building.

    The art installations of Native art used the mediums of watercolor and wood pieces. Focusing on a new body of work, Tintah, Hupa language for amongst the trails, features newly carved salvaged old-growth redwood sculptures and watercolor studies. Robert Benson, is a leading figure among artists in the NorthWest California art world. He has worked as a teacher for more than 30 years at the College of the Redwoods, as well as being a curator of Native art.

    Tall sculptural wooden carvings adorn the exhibit and viewers must make their way through the art, almost like walking amongst the trails. Redwood slabs carved into beautiful sculptures lined the room. 

    His current paintings and sculptures are filled with imagery of trails, both of the literal kind and suggested. With Benson’s deep connections to the environment and land, those motifs clearly shine throughout his work. 

    “There is the trail into our family hunting camp that I traveled for more than 50 years, there are trails handed down through stories and mythologies, and there are the trails of imagination,” Benson says. “When we consider that at the most basic level, a trail is just something connecting two points, even the ladder and stairway forms that populate my work can be viewed as kinds of trails. To be amongst the trails is to find your rhythm, your place and to discover the interplay between that rhythm and the melody of the universe.” 

    This solo exhibition was installed by the Art + Film Department Museum & Gallery Practices class under the direction of Assistant Professor Berit Potter and Gallery Director Brittany Britton. This exhibition was partially funded by Instructionally Related Activity Fees. 

    Photo courtesy of Goudi’ni Native American Arts Gallery
  • Jasmin Corner; leave your situationship

    Jasmin Corner; leave your situationship

    By Jasmin Shirazian

    Hi Jasmin, 

    Can I be in love with someone I’m not dating? This situationship has got me fucked up.

    How do I answer this without coming off like a complete bitch? Your situationship is not real. That’s not to say your feelings aren’t real, or that the love doesn’t exist – but a situationship is not a real thing. The creation of the label “situationship” has opened the doors for this generation to participate in an unwinnable battle: The IDGAF wars. I like you, so let’s find out which one of us can care the least to keep the other person interested without fully committing? 

    What is a situationship? To me, it’s one person caring more than the other. One person giving more than the other. One person receiving more than the other — you get it. A situationship will never fulfill you in the ways you’re looking for. Rather, this infatuation will leave you feeling more hollow. One person will always have more power than the other. 

    That’s not to say I don’t understand where you’re coming from; you caught feelings for the wrong person. It happens to the best of us. At the core of it, we are all just creatures looking for love, security, comfort, happiness; we want to feel desired and safe. There is no safety in a situationship. In fact, more often than not, they all have a three month shelf life. Seriously, name one situationship where things stayed good after that three month mark — if that existed, it would evolve into a relationship. 

    “We accept the love we think we deserve.”

    Everyone, their mother and their mother’s single best friend knows this phrase. It’s true though! We often don’t love ourselves enough to believe we deserve better, and so we stay in the situation(ships) we know because it’s the space we’ve decided to fill. You deserve to take up space with someone who will appreciate how you light up the room. 

    xoxo, 

    Jasmin

  • I don’t tell people I’m autistic. I’m trying to change that.

    By Griffin Mancuso

    When I was 14 going into my freshman year of high school, my mother enrolled me with a new therapist shortly before school started. My parents were concerned about the transition to high school and wanted me to have a support system. I also went to my hair stylist right before so that I’d look presentable for the first day of school.

    Just after getting my modernized Karen cut trimmed and getting in the car to go to my appointment, my mother turned to me and told me I was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at four years old. She didn’t want to confuse me when I was younger and didn’t want the therapist to tell me first.

    I was livid, but somehow relieved. I finally had a reason for the continual failure to connect with my peers as a child; I had an answer to the “why?” that had plagued me since I started my education. I had a reason, which meant I had a path forward.

    Besides telling the entire campus I am autistic before even getting into this article, it’s normally something I don’t bring up. I had witnessed how neurodivergent people were treated throughout my childhood, and my greatest fear was being associated with them. I didn’t want to be “special.” I hated being talked down to by adults and peers. I was infantilized and dismissed until I eventually figured out how to pass as neurotypical.

    When I tell people I’m autistic, I’m usually met with surprise. I’m ashamed to say that I feel a bit relieved when I’m told that I don’t seem autistic or that they never would have guessed I was. Internalized ableism is a hell of a beast. I want to embrace my autistic identity, but I also want to blend into neurotypical society. Letting myself unmask means less built-up stress and being able to get things done, but blending in means having friends and job opportunities.

    With the life experience I have now, I have found that there is a lack of education on ASD among the general public and the medical field. I have been assessed for ASD twice because a therapist I had a few years ago didn’t believe I was autistic. Since autism assessments are based on outdated research, I was genuinely afraid that the psychologist doing the test wouldn’t believe me either. I’ve been met with hospital staff declaring me neurotypical after two minutes of knowing me.

    An autism assessment is almost traumatic in and of itself. There is no established test for older children and adults. The current test is made for young children and involves playing with toys and reading picture books. Having to play pretend with Barbies at 17 years old to prove you’re autistic is a little humiliating. I stomached the preschool voice that all adults use with autistic people and whatever juvenile task I was given to prove that my experience was real.

    I don’t want my autism to be defined by suffering and shame. I try to make connections with other neurodivergent people and allow myself to use resources that will help me. Being a part of a community has helped me cope with the stress of blending into neurotypical society. I still put on the mask when I go about my day, but I now have times when I can unwind with people who understand my experience.

    Autism has become much more visible in mainstream media since I was younger. There are autistic social media influencers and shows with autistic characters. While we aren’t quite there yet as a society, I have seen monumental progress in the normalization of autistic people. We now see a wider diversity of experiences and, with new social media platforms, we can see those experiences in everyday life.

    Our society was not made with neurodivergent people in mind. Being neurodivergent can look different for every person, and who are we to decide who gets to have the label and who doesn’t? Neurotypical people haven’t taken me seriously even with a diagnosis. 

    One of the biggest contributors to internalized ableism is worrying about what the majority thinks; worrying that the autistic community won’t be taken seriously because of your individual experience. You don’t have to prove to anyone that you are autistic, nor do you have to tone yourself down to make everyone else comfortable. You are allowed to put a label on your experience so you don’t have to continue asking yourself, “Why?”

  • BeReal is making social media fun again

    BeReal is making social media fun again

    by Carlina Grillo

    I’ve always wanted to be one of those girls with zero online presence; carrying around a flip phone, spending their downtime reading classic literature in a field of flowers. If you’re one of those people, feel free to stop reading now. 

    I, like many young people today, am the victim of chronic social media usage and the (more than) occasional doom scroll. I’ve always had a hard time embracing my social media crutch, but especially since middle school. It started one day after I lost a year-long “snap streak.” I rage-quit off the app, and never looked back. After getting the ick from Snapchat, I couldn’t fully quit. Some may say it made me cling onto other platforms, like Instagram, even more. 

    Now at this point you might be thinking to yourself, “What do you mean Carlina? Why can’t you be both a nature girly and an Instagram baddie?” I can, but if I am reading classic literature in a flower field, you already know it’s going on my Instagram story. Maybe even on the main feed with a cute little caption like, “love this life <3.” 

    But then… am I actually reading my book or did I all of a sudden get distracted and start looking at memes -– dare I say, doom scrolling -– even though I’m supposed to be enjoying the outdoors? It’s a vicious cycle. 

    Now look, this opinion isn’t to rant about social media, and maybe I just have a toxic relationship with the internet, but I’ve become honest with myself and my daily social media intake. Although there’s a lot of bad, there’s so much good, too. From new career opportunities to media coverage on a whole new level, social media is undeniably an important resource in today’s society. 

    That being said, the essential role social media plays in everyone’s day-to-day life has made certain platforms evolve from a place where you can see what your cousin in Idaho is doing to a constant stream of media published by people you’ve never met. Depending on how many accounts you subscribe to, the posts you’d like to see, like your Aunt Susan’s new pumpkin pie recipe, might get drowned and lost forever to the mainstream. That’s where the headline comes in. 

    I feel very strongly about the new(ish) social media platform: BeReal. I suppose I should mention this is not sponsored, although I wish it was. 

    BeReal is an app where users get a notification at a random time everyday. The notification goes off at the same time for each user, and at a completely different time each day. When you get the notification, you’re prompted to take a selfie, then a photo with the back camera. This quick photo spree creates a completely unfiltered feed of/for your close friends. If you give the app permission, it will even document your general location and what you’re listening to, so your friends on the app can get the whole vibe. For me, this ranges from my bestie sitting on the toilet, to that cousin in Idaho grinding homework, or maybe even a colleague at a concert. 

    It’s a beautiful thing, seeing what everyone is doing at the same time. Don’t fret though, if you miss the notification, you can post a late BeReal. Everyone sees you posted late, and you’re limited to one photo instead of the newly added feature where if you post your first photo on time, you get to post two more. 

    One time, after I had missed the BeReal notification, I decided to take my late BeReal during my maid of honor speech at my sister’s wedding. It was an epic ice-breaker, a beautiful moment and a memory captured on camera from my POV that will be forever cherished.

    In summary, here’s a few of the reasons you should ditch your current favorite social media and make the switch to BeReal: 

    • The rush of getting a BeReal notification. The joy of exclaiming, “It’s time to BeReal!” and seeing everyone pull out their phones.
    • Seeing everyone’s unfiltered, and at times ugly, selfies. 
    • Limited posts, so you’re unable to doom scroll. 
    • If you need more of a social media fix, you can see what your friends-of- friends are up to.
    • Getting an inside look into what your friends actually do day to day.
    • Having a collection of daily selfies to look back on.
    • And as a journalist, no news! Just a lighthearted escape from the stress of reality, and the constant stream of media we are always consuming.
  • What you need to know about the 2024-2025 FAFSA Form

    What you need to know about the 2024-2025 FAFSA Form

    by Carlina Grillo

    One soft launch and a three month delay later, the revamped 2024-2025 FAFSA form has officially opened for submission. Dubbed the, “Better FAFSA, better future,” FAFSA.gov was made available 24 hours a day on January 8, after a tedious waiting period. 

    According to the FAFSA website, for most financial aid programs in California, the application is due no later than April 2, 2024. Along with an application submitted, the Cal Grant requires a school-certified GPA. 

    Historically, FAFSA has always launched on Oct. 1. This year, tensions were high as FAFSA waited until two weeks before the form was released to announce their availability date as Dec. 31. During this time, the website headlined with words like “soft launch” and “available periodically.” Community response to this change was overwhelmingly negative. 

    The comment section on the FAFSA Instagram @federalstudentaid is constantly streaming with complaints from customer service being unresponsive to the dashboard not refreshing. 

    “No one’s getting a Pell Grant if we can’t actually fill out and submit our FAFSA forms,” one commenter said . 

    “The new FAFSA form will also help 1.5 million more students receive the maximum Pell Grant amount,” according to the federal student aid instagram account. 

    Finally, if you have a parent contributor who isn’t exactly tech-savvy, make sure to have them on speed dial for their inevitable questions. The form may have gotten simpler, but it’s not always fool-proof.  

    The Cal Poly Humboldt financial aid office was unavailable for comment at the time of this article.

  • Sipping superb cider at The Local Cider Bar; review

    by Christina Mehr and Andres Felix Romero

    Overall vibes

    The Local Cider Bar is a chill sit-down spot that would be perfect for a mellow first date vibe or an end to a great date. Imagine having a piece of pie and a cider to bond over, or end your night. 

    However, our only drawback is that food does close at 8 p.m. 

    The music was okay, more on the chill indie side.

    They do offer free water which is a bonus. 

    The Cider Bar did have clean selfie-worthy bathrooms.

    The Cider Bar was well-lit and had a relaxing atmosphere with soft indie music playing over the speakers. The environment there felt safe.

    Seating Options and Decor

    The large windows, giving patrons a view of the patio and street, gave the somewhat smaller interior a more spacious atmosphere. If you are someone who loves nautical themes, the big barrels used for seating and tables are a huge plus. The Cider Bar itself has a large wooden bar for patrons to sit alongside a host of tables. The interior design, with its mix of wood and industrial vibe, would allow the Cider Bar to fit into cities like Berkeley.

    The outdoor seating is also a great option for those who want some fresh air, rain or shine. Canopies with space heaters and strung-up light bulbs give your senses a warm and dry feel to the outdoor area of the Cider Bar. However, no smoking is allowed.

    Alcohol

    Flights for $15.

    Swipe right – was sweet and fruity with a hint of cherry .

    Black current – good, but a deeper wine flavor.

    Chile Guava – not spicy enough and a dry cider.

    Dragon Fruit – had a sweet aftertaste, like an adult Capri Sun.

    Blurberry – stronger aftertaste, dark, strong, packaged as wine and wasn’t cidery enough.

    Strawberry – sweet, juicy, good solid cider. Can’t go wrong with strawberries. 

    Mango daydream – not enough flavor, Le Croix lookalike. A hint of piss if you’re into golden showers.

    Gingergrass – very ginger acidic. If you’re a ginger lover then its right up your alley

    Food Review

    Had a wide selection of pies with vegetarian options included. 

    Sweet pies:

    Apple Crumble with Ice Cream – This was my favorite pie. The warm pie with the cold ice cream was an enjoyable temperature contrast.

    Black Bottom Coconut Pie – It was rich and thick, with chocolate mousse and whipped cream.

    Savory pies:

    Veggie Pie – Made my soul feel warmed, which was great considering the cold weather outside.

    Chicken Pot Pie – Crust was flaky, and the pie overall was moist and gooey in a delicious way. There was a very nice hint of sage present with the taste. The pie was warm, homey, yummy and definitely made with love.

    Overall Rating = 4.5/5  STARS

    4.5/5 apple pies.

  • Hitting people ethically; the Cal Poly Humboldt women’s rugby team

    Hitting people ethically; the Cal Poly Humboldt women’s rugby team

    by Savana Robinson

    It was the first minute of the rugby match between Cal Poly Humboldt and University of San Francisco (USF). USF kicked the ball, Humboldt made a play, forwards crashed and Courtney Campuzano got a breakaway. After she broke through the defense, she took off towards the try line. A player pulled her back by her shorts. As she leaned down to touch the ball down to score, another player fully tackled her on the back of her leg. There was a crack, and she tore her ACL. Campuzano made the point, but her season was lost.

    A senior studying social work at Cal Poly Humboldt, Courtney Campuzano is the president and co-captain of HP Rugby.

    Identifying as a lesbian, Campuzano said that rugby is a safe space for queer folks. 

    “I love how many queer people are in the sport,” Campuzano said. “It makes me feel so comfortable and safe.”

    Campuzano said that even though it’s a women’s team, there are non-binary people, too.

    “We’ve had questions about that with the team, naming it women’s rugby and just saying Cal Poly Humboldt Rugby, HP Rugby,” Campuzano said.

    HP Rugby is the club’s moniker, but what HP stands for is a well-kept team secret.

    “I’m not at liberty to say,” Campuzano said. “The teammates know.”

    Campuzano also said that rugby is a size-inclusive sport.

    “Rugby is a sport for everybody,” Campuzano said. “There’s people of all sizes playing. That’s one of my favorite things about it.”

    Her recent knee injury has robbed her of the rest of her season, but she continues to help the team. Campuzano described the moment her ACL tore as feeling like she had just been called into the principal’s office.

    “Your heart drops to your ass,” Campuzano said.

    Before her injury, Campuzano played the position of 10, or fly-half, this season, but said she’s happiest playing center. The fly-half is usually the first player to get the ball from the forwards after the scrum, which is what restarts play. Campuzano has been playing rugby for six years and started on a whim.

    “My roommate’s partner at the time came into the dorm one day and was like, ‘Can you come to practice with me? I don’t want to go by myself,’” Campuzano said. “I loved it.”

    Campuzano said that rugby has taught her how to better deal with issues in her everyday life.

    “[Rugby] taught me to go into things head-on,” Campuzano said. “Even things that aren’t physical.”

    Campuzano said that rugby attracts a certain type of person.

    “People who want to blow off steam and are comfortable hitting people ethically,” Campuzano said.

    There are a plethora of rugby terms, but Campuzano said their favorite is “hooker.” This term is a position where the player tries to hook the ball with their foot during the scrum.

    “People love that on shirts,” Campuzano said. “Like, ‘I can say I’m a hooker and my mom’s proud.’”

  • A goofy night with the Globetrotters; scenes from the game at Cal Poly Humboldt

    A goofy night with the Globetrotters; scenes from the game at Cal Poly Humboldt

    by Carlina Grillo

    Everyone’s seen it: alley-oops, slam-dunks. Nothing but net and jumpshots galore. For the people at the Lumberjack Arena last Wednesday night, basketball was flipped on its head, spun around on a single finger and reimagined by none other than the Harlem Globetrotters. Athletes, theater lovers and comedy fanatics came together as the Globetrotters faced off against their unrelenting rivals, the Washington Generals.

    Before the game, select kids and adults alike got the experience of attempting trickshots in front of hundreds of people. If you weren’t lucky enough to give the warmups with the Globetrotters a go, you might’ve had a run in with their mascot, Globie, who roamed the bleachers & isles getting the crowd hyped for the main act. Between the dances, selfies, community involvement and unironic athleticism, there wasn’t a single person left unimpressed by the Globetrotters performance, although it was more of a party. All this was before the beginning buzzer.

    photo by Alex Anderson

    Elena German, an English education major, had never been to a Globetrotters game. As a surprise Christmas gift, she got tickets to attend the event with her brother Ethan. Despite not being a sports fan and having minimal basketball expertise, there was plenty for her to enjoy.

    “I love a good show, I like to be excited,” German said. “I’m expecting a lot of energy from the crowd. It’s a lot of kids, which is exciting… Definitely the comedy and theatrics aspect of it, that is what was kind of appealing when I looked into it.”

    Unlike typical basketball games, the Globetrotters had their very own MC and DJ. The combination of music, quick commentary, goofy dances and trickshots made for a chaotic night. Audience members, such as Cal Poly Humboldt student Ethan German, couldn’t contain their excitement at the sold out performance.

    photo by Alex Anderson

    “It absolutely exceeded my expectations, wonderful show,” Ethan German said. “The tall player and the short player chasing each other. That was definitely something I did not exactly expect, but it was a great addition.”

    This basketball game was one-of-a-kind in more ways than one. The Globetrotters had the traditional trick shots, like having their back to the hoop and throwing the ball “grandma style,” but they also had a handful of unique yet iconic moments. Originators of the “four point line,” the Harlem Globetrotters took every opportunity to sink four-pointers. If the four pointer missed, there was another player ready to slam dunk a rebound.

    At one point during the game, the MC announced their special rule: game changers. At any point during the game, if the DJ played the special sound, the audience was prompted to shout, “CHANGE! THE! GAME!” In which case the Globetrotters would proceed to do something extremely goofy. The most normal of the game changers included doubling points, resulting in some epic eight pointers, and a dunk contest where the audience voted on the winner.

    More surprising game changers included having kids from the audience shoot free throws, bringing a football onto the court and roleplaying the NFL. After running the ball into the “end-zone,” the audience did the wave and the players did their touchdown dances. Naturally, a referee called a foul and needed to see a replay, so everyone did everything in reverse – including a slow-motion reverse wave across the gym.

    Globie, the Globetrotter’s mascot | photo by Alex Anderson
    A Globetrotter dunking | photo by Alex Anderson

    Other oddities included every parent simultaneously holding their baby in the air as the Lion King soundtrack played. One player stole an audience member’s shoe just to give it back Cinderella-style in center court and the same player pulled flags out of the referee’s pocket clown-style.

    Mikey Crispin, a Cal Poly Humboldt graduate and a lifelong Harlem Globetrotters fan, was blown away. After the show, he was one of many jumping out of his seat.

    “When I was a kid, the Globetrotters were all men,” Crispin said. “Now, there’s women in there, and that’s really amazing because they show a lot of girlpower and encouragement. I felt like that was really important… and that’s what we need to see.”

    Chaotic, impressive and goofy are a few words used to describe the night, but none do it justice. Despite the lack of descriptors, everyone can agree it was an unforgettable night at the Lumberjack Arena.

  • Cal Poly Humboldt charges non-refundable $100 deposit to apply for on-campus dorms

    Cal Poly Humboldt charges non-refundable $100 deposit to apply for on-campus dorms

    by Christina Mehr and Jasmin Shirazian 

    If you were considering living on campus next year, submitting your housing application just got expensive. The university is now charging a $100 nonrefundable application fee to apply to live in student housing. While this application fee is nonrefundable, it does not ensure housing for students who apply.

    According to Cal Poly Humboldt housing, the $100 housing application fee is not an additional cost to students. It is treated as an initial deposit and is credited towards the housing and meal plan charges. 

    “We had to reinstate the application fee because we had too many students completing housing applications and holding spaces who weren’t serious about living on campus, preventing other students who did want to live on campus,” said Bria Kupras, a representative for Humboldt Housing & Residence Life. “Currently, the application fee is nonrefundable.”

    Once admitted into student housing, that $100 deposit will go to housing and meal plans. 

    For those students who are Pell Grant eligible, with verification from financial aid, they could receive a waiver. If a student is struggling to come up with the payment, another option would be the short-term loan program through Student Financial Services.

    Skylar Rawitch is a first-year psychology major living in the Cypress dorms.

    “The fee has definitely gotten me thinking about the worth of it,” Rawitch said. “I don’t think that it is fair, especially because the payment fee does not guarantee you housing. If it was optional to pay and guaranteed you housing… I may feel differently.” 

    “Submit your online application and pay the $100 nonrefundable application fee. The $100 will be applied to the housing and meal plan charges, unless the application is canceled where the application fee will be forfeited,” the university’s official housing website states.

    The application fee seems to be an incentive for applicants to only apply if they are seriously considering living on campus.

    “How is it in the best interest of a school that’s supposed to take care of their students and keep them safe to charge them even more when people already are struggling to afford it?” Rawitch said. “They aren’t getting the money back if they do not get housing, and for some people that $100 could be gas money, grocery money, etc., and they would be losing out on that because they were applying for something that [isn’t] guaranteed.”

    Emma Sundberg is a molecular and cellular biology major in their first year at Humboldt. They currently live in Campus Apartments. 

    “I think it’s awful having us pay more to apply when we already have to pay so much,” Sundberg said. “There is no need to spend money on an application.”

    Jess Carey, a biology major in their junior year, has also faced obstacles due to the fee. The application fee has deterred them from applying despite needing it due to housing insecurity over the summer. 

    “I understand that the whole point is to allow the school to get a more accurate idea of how many students to plan for,” Carey said. “But on the other hand, creating yet another barrier to accessible housing stretches the already weak trust of the students in our administration to meet our needs and encourage a livable, desirable college experience. My trust in the administration has been damaged even more from this situation.”

    Kimberly Alexsandra, a sophomore journalism major, has experienced the dorms of varying communities on campus. 

    “I could see why the application fee is necessary, due to the chaos created by the projected overflow of students that applied for housing last spring that didn’t end up attending, which left the school with a worse rep and vacant dorms,” Aleksandra said. “$100 right out of pocket is too much for me and I’m sure others could relate, and for it to be nonrefundable is crazy. As a student who’s lived on campus for two years in different locations, I really don’t think anything about on campus housing is realistically credible enough for a nonrefundable application fee to be needed just to apply.” 

  • How to host the perfect function; tips and tricks from an expert

    How to host the perfect function; tips and tricks from an expert

    by Zack Mink

    With the 2024 spring semester starting this week, friends coming back to town, parties, kickbacks, hangouts and get-togethers are going to be in full swing. As someone who has lived on campus and now is off-campus, I take it upon myself to be a host to my friends and build a safe place to reconnect. With this privilege, along with my passion for hospitality and my culinary expertise, I’m sharing four tips and tricks to be a good host even on a limited college budget.

    1. Prioritize yourself and your financial security. 
    • As I mentioned before, friends are coming back into town and our full class schedules loom over the horizon. This might seem like the best time to get together with your friends, splurge a little bit and maybe even ignore the numbers slowly lowering in your bank account. But, from my own experience, it is never worth sacrificing a week’s worth of groceries for a night out on the town. Setting boundaries and being open about financial status, if comfortable, is the first step to being a good host. 
    1. Communicate and accommodate 
    • Nothing is worse than going to your friend’s place and finding out that you can’t enjoy what someone has prepared or had planned. Whether it is a food restriction, physical accommodation, or even just a personal preference, checking in with your guests to see what they might like or can’t enjoy is important to make sure they are happy and well taken care of. 
    1. Be attentive
    • Being a host whether for a small get-together or a larger event requires you to stay on your toes and look out for your guests and their needs. Sometimes, you might be running around refilling people’s beverages, replenishing snacks or making sure everyone is included in the fun. This responsibility certainly requires you to pay constant attention to each and every one of your guests, but I believe that should be easy and come naturally if you’re around the people you care about.
    1. Your house, your rules
    • Setting house rules is a necessary boundary for not only your guests to have a good night, but for you, the host, to enjoy yourself before, during and after your get-together. For a big party, this might look like having a bedroom off-limits, capping the volume of music (so the party can keep going) or making clear what time the party will be over. For a small event, this might be something as simple as taking your shoes off inside or coasters being used on your favorite table. Some might see these boundaries as unnecessary or over the top, but they really just represent a certain level of consideration that guests should have when entering someone’s home. They also can make the cleaning-up process much easier for the host the next day. 

    So, next time you get together with your friends, or next time you go out to a party, keep these four tips in mind to ensure that you and your friends have a great time and a peaceful introduction to the new semester.

  • The Boy and the Heron review: magical on the screen and off

    The Boy and the Heron review: magical on the screen and off

    by Griffin Mancuso

    There is a whimsical quality to seeing a movie in the theater. 2023 was a year with many thought-provoking and conversation-starting films like “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Barbie.” I rarely go to theaters now, but as an enjoyer of Studio Ghibli films, I had to see “The Boy and the Heron” with the classic theater experience. There is no better place to get the classic theater experience than the Broadway Cinema in Eureka. 

    Like any chain theater, the neon sign on the front had not been replaced in a very long time, leaving only the Y glowing in the dusk. The lobby was filled with the sharp smell of popcorn and the carpets were dull and faded where people had walked. While lacking in staff and attendees, the theater still had its charm in the form of large star lights on the ceiling and orange neon accents around the snack table.

    I settled into my cushy chair just in time for the film to start. “The Boy and the Heron” was enough to bring famed Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki out of retirement, so I had high expectations.

    Before I continue, a minor spoiler alert for this movie.

    The movie begins with the piercing sound of air raid sirens against a gray backdrop of houses, placing us in World War II-era Japan. We meet our protagonist, a young boy named Mahito living in Tokyo, who loses his mother in a hospital fire on that night. Years later, Mahito’s father marries his late wife’s sister Natsuko and moves them to the countryside.

    While trying to adjust to his new life and the loss of his mother, Mahito encounters a strange talking heron who tells him his mother is alive and needs to be rescued from another world. The heron, a mischievous creature who we soon discover is not a heron at all, also traps Natsuko in this alternate world, forcing Mahito to track down the heron and travel to the other world.

    The film tackles themes of family, loss and escapism that mirror Miyazaki’s own experiences. Like many of his films, it is a coming-of-age story that requires the protagonist to embrace fantasy to grow, then let go of it in order to move forward. The parallel world Mahito travels to acts not as a purgatory, but rather as a gateway to many alternative universes. This world contains wild creatures ranging from giant man-eating parakeets to small white blobs called the warawara, which eventually ascend to the human world to be born as human babies. 

    Along his journey, he meets younger versions of the people in his life, including one of the old women living in the countryside house with him and his family. There are so many layers to the world of “The Boy and the Heron” that it feels like a mix of a child playing pretend and a ƒvivid dream.

    The magical wonder of the film didn’t stop at the screen. I’m not sure how it got into the theater, but a small sparrow briefly joined us. It fluttered around the ceiling, adding a bit of immersive surround sound, and the audience couldn’t help chuckling when it settled in front of the projector, leaving a giant bird-shaped silhouette on the screen. It didn’t linger long, but just enough to make me wonder about the irony of its appearance.

    No matter the quality of the story, a Studio Ghibli film never disappoints in the animation category. The characters, while simple in design, move fluidly against meticulously painted backgrounds. Studio Ghibli is famous for preserving the art of hand-drawn animation and drawing on physical media, which helps preserve the detail in the backgrounds. Any use of 3D animation only enhances the magical effects throughout the film, and it is impossible to tell where the hand-drawn animation starts and the 3D animation ends.

    The story itself is complex and the world doesn’t always make sense, but I think it’s meant to be that way. Like most other Ghibli films, the story moves at a leisurely pace and then rapidly picks up the pace in the final act. It is one of Miyazaki’s more esoteric films, which may not appeal to everyone. The meaning behind some of the recurring motifs like birds and fire are up to interpretation, which impacts what each viewer will take away from the film. 

    “The Boy and the Heron” is an individualized experience that doesn’t fully reveal all its secrets. There are story elements that are never explained and blurs between dreams and reality. To fully enjoy the film, viewers will have to put that aside and inhabit the mind of a curious child.

    While not my favorite Ghibli film, I greatly enjoyed my experience watching it at Broadway. As I left, feeling dazed from the visual explosion at the end of the film, two staff members stood near the exit wondering how the bird got inside and where it flew off to. I like to think the bird wanted to appreciate Miyazaki’s work.

  • Students should support the CFA strike

    by Alexandra Berrocal

    First, they came for our housing.

    Then, they came for our alternative housing students.

    Now, they are coming for our professors.

    When is this going to end?

    At this time, it is easier than ever to develop an ‘us versus them’ mentality. However, we need to remember that students and professors are all in this together. When we stood up for the right to basic housing last year, professors stood with us. When students living in their vehicles were, for heaven’s sake, cruelly kicked out of the school parking lots, professors stood with us. Professors have always been our allies in a world that seems to be squeezing us tighter and tighter. 

    Let’s make this clear: the world is becoming a harsher and harsher place to live, and universities, unfortunately, are not exempt from this. Students can still struggle throughout their college experience for all kinds of reasons. Despite the university attempting to make it easy for students to access mental health resources and disability accommodations, accessing those services can still be hard for people. We need them now more than ever.

    I personally cannot justify the university only giving staff a month of parental leave. How can anyone justify leaving a new baby without their parent at daycare after only a month? Professors should have a semester of parental leave, at least. That should just be common sense, and I don’t understand how that isn’t the law of the land. I also cannot believe that some of the lecturers who are so willing to share their expertise with the students are not making liveable wages. This is unconscionable. I believe that college professors and lecturers deserve the greatest respect because they pass down important knowledge and educate the new generation. This respect should extend to transgender and non-binary staff. It is basic common sense that there should be access to gender-neutral bathrooms for faculty. Students these days claim to care about trans rights, yet fail to advocate for their leadership’s rights to these same facilities. Universities claim to be bastions of progressive ideals yet they pay lip service to trans students, while simultaneously neglecting their own faculty. Speaking of faculty, my former faculty advisor was swamped with work that was completely unrelated to teaching last semester and I know that he is not alone. My advisor has had to do more administrative work lately with less time to focus on her passion for teaching. From my point of view, that’s pretty crazy – and not in a good way.

    When we protested, our teachers stood with us. It’s time for us to stand with them.

  • The best discounts for Cal Poly Humboldt students in Arcata

    The best discounts for Cal Poly Humboldt students in Arcata

    by Zack Mink and Jasmin Shirazian

    Student ID required at all locations.

    Food:

    Wildberries: 10% off every Saturday

    Romans Kitchen: 15% off everyday

    Cafe Brio: 10% off everyday

    The Couxp: $1.50 off of your order

    Blondies: 10% off everyday 

    Gyro Shop: 15% off everyday

    Fiesta Grill Cantina and El Chipotle: 10% off everyday

    Coffee and tea: 

    Northtown Coffee: 10% off everyday

    Coffee break: $5 bagel and 12oz coffee everyday 

    Moonrise Herbs: 5% off bulk herbs and teas

    Home:

    Ace Hardware: 10% off your purchase (ranges per item)

    Bubbles: 25% off any personal clean bottle refill

    Fun:

    Pacific Paradise: 10% off every Sunday

    Heart of Humboldt: 10% off every Sunday

    The Fireplace: 10% every Saturday 

    Heart of the Emerald: 10% off everyday

    Livity: 10% off everyday 

    Herb & Market: 10% of every Sunday

    Humboldt Premium: 10% off everyday

    Body High Pole: 15% off any class with code CALPOLY

    Adventures Edge: 10% off everyday 

    Hatchet House: $3 off everyday

    Thrift: 

    The Hospice Shop: 10% off every Saturday

    Youth Ability: 15% off every weekday (Monday-Friday)

    Eco-groovy Deals Clearance Outlet: no tax on purchases for the rest of January

  • President Jackson’s absence concerns faculty, student leaders, and media

    President Jackson’s absence concerns faculty, student leaders, and media

    by Brad Butterfield

    Since President Jackson’s first three months in office, he has not interviewed with student or community media, he has never met with the California Faculty Association, he does not attend University Senate meetings and has been unable to retain a consistent cabinet during his tenure. CFA polling from May of this year shows dismal support for Jackson by faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt.

    This story all catalyzed in the first week of the fall semester with a curiosity on who President Jackson is as a leader, and an aim to land an interview with him to hear him in his own words. Anytime Jackson’s name is brought up on campus, it is usually followed up with a sentiment regarding his absence on campus, lack of leadership or unwillingness to meet with students, faculty and even administrators. However, it would seem strange that the CSU system would increase Jackson’s pay from $336,996 (+ $50,000 for housing) to $396,150 (+ $50,000 for housing) in 2023 if he wasn’t doing at least a few things really well. So, I began to request interviews with Jackson through the normal channel on campus, News and Information. 

    Weeks of that were unfruitful, so I began visiting his office weekly. Also, I began submitting public records requests with regularity and conducting interviews both on and off the record with anyone who had knowledge of Jackson in an attempt to gain an accurate understanding of Jackson without being able to meet the man myself. It seems obligatory to say that this article is not and has never been an attempt to misrepresent Jackson. In fact, until speaking with countless administrators, faculty and students about Jackson, I remained optimistic that he may be a fantastic, albeit private, leader. However, Jackson’s team and circle became increasingly difficult to deal with and often, outright rude. If Jackson is a great leader, why is he reluctant to boast his successes to the press? If he has nothing to hide, then why does Jackson play hide and seek every semester? 

    Jackson Leadership Style:

    In an article written by Meg Godlewski, published February 22, 2022 on flyingmag.com Jackson is quoted as saying, “‘Just as you must always keep flying the airplane, you must always keep leading in the business world.’ And that’s what education is, he says, a business charged with shaping the future.” Understanding this business prism through which Jackson views education makes understanding his strange leadership much easier. Rouhollah Aghasaleh, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Education and University Senate Executive Member points out that Jackson’s business centered view of education is in line with the larger CSU system.

    “My understanding is that the role of a president is more the external affairs of the campus and the provost mostly attends the internal issues,” Aghasaleh said. “The way CSU defines the role of president, to my understanding, is more of a CEO.”

    In some ways, Jackson is a CEO. He is leading an institution through a period of (hopeful) growth and has nearly half a billion dollars to put towards creating a world class polytechnic university. In other ways, Jackson’s style of leadership more closely resembles that of an authoritarian, according to Tony Silvaggio, speaking as CFA vice president.

    “We don’t have shared governance,” Silvaggio said. “We have governance from an authoritarian ruler, basically. He doesn’t keep us informed. He’s failed to keep us informed about very important faculty issues, because he doesn’t meet with the faculty. I think he’s failed to build relationships, positive, meaningful relationships with the community of Arcata specifically. He’s failed miserably. He’s created enemies, nobody wants to deal with this guy. He won’t even respond to city councilors requests for just consultation. It feels like again the divine right of kings, where he’s just going to do what he wants, and he’s not going to ask anybody for permission. He’s really failed at creating sustainable, positive relationships with community partners.”

    As Silvaggio points out, Jackson’s unwillingness to speak with anyone about anything is becoming a prominent component of his legacy here on campus. It appears that Jackson has attempted to create a team around himself, for which students, faculty and community members are allowed to talk to. Then the message will be relayed to our President. 

     One of my first interview requests with President Jackson, garnered this response from Marketing and Communications. 

    “At this time, the President’s Office prefers to focus on the regular meetings that the Lumberjack has scheduled with campus leaders, including the Chief of Staff and a member of the News & Information team. We’re hopeful that this will be an effective way of building trusting relationships, sharing information, and discussing potential topics for coverage.”

    This barrier of communication has created frustration within the campus community. 

    “It’s not effective at all. It isn’t because you know what? Again, it’s like telephone, right? The game of telephone,” Silvaggio said. “But you don’t get the urgency of the issue if you’re getting it second hand, or third hand, right. I mean, you need to hear what’s going on once a year for crying out loud.”

    Even if Jackson’s game of telephone worked perfectly, it’d still be less than ideal. Unfortunately, much of the time, the call gets dropped completely.

    Worth mentioning is the high turnover rate of the President’s Cabinet.

    Jenn Capps, Provost & Vice President, Academic Affairs (hired Aug. 1, 2020)

    Mark Johnson, Chief of Staff (hired Aug. 21, 2023)

    Frank Whitlatch, Vice President, University Advancement (hired — to the President’s cabinet — May, 2019) 

    Carla Ho’a, Interim Vice President, Administration & Finance and CFO (hired Oct., 2023)

    Chrissy Holliday, Vice President, Enrollment Management & Student Success (hired Jan. 1, 2023)

    Adrienne Colegrove-Raymond, Special Assistant to the President for Tribal & Community Engagement (hired — to the president’s cabinet — Spring 2022)

    Nick Pettit, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports (hired June 8, 2023)

    A continual revolving cast of characters makes playing telephone with the president much more difficult, and also speaks to his inability to form a cohesive, committed team of leaders.

    “They got to stick around for at least a couple, three years for crying out loud right?” Silvaggio said. “This is unprecedented. And that indicates lack of leadership and a lack of vision if you can’t bring in people here that want to stay here and make this place great.” 

    Both students and faculty alike are tired of Jackson’s complete absence from the campus community.

    “I believe that Jackson has refused to make himself a part of the campus community, and that he sits up in his ivory tower and does not know the situation of the people,” Ethan LeVering said, Associated Students appointee to the University Senate.

    Shockingly, many faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt have never even met Jackson.

    “It’s like, ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Right? I mean, where’s this guy? No one knows. He’s never even introduced himself to any of us in my department that I know of. He refuses to meet with us when our leadership has attempted to talk to him about labor issues,” Silvaggio said.

    Exemplifying his lack of campus engagement, Jackson does not attend the University’s senate meetings.

    “During my term as a Senator, he’s never showed up to the Senate meetings. There has been times that we invited him to come and chat with us about a few issues, he’s never accepted. He’s officially on the roster for the Senate, but he always sends a proxy,” said Aghasaleh.

    Most importantly, Jackson’s absence does not just create frustration in the campus community, it has adverse effects on his ability to effectively steer the multi-million dollar ship that he is captain of.

    “As a result of his authoritarian style, what we see is he’s making mistake after mistake, after mistake because he does not consult with the people that make this place run,” said Silvaggio before adding, “We’ve dedicated decades of our life to this institution and this guy barks orders from his ivory tower.”

    What does Jackson do? What is his vision? How has he succeeded?

    In an April 4, 2022 article written by Jackson for Higher Ed Dive, Jackson wrote, “The re-energization of our campus allows us to demonstrate how public higher education, with public support, can quickly scale to meet what the state government has asked of us and needs. At Cal Poly Humboldt, the return on the investment will impact generations to come.” 

    As Jackson played a large part in Humboldt State becoming Cal Poly Humboldt it is understandable why he feels the pressure to deliver. Without speaking to Jackson, it’s impossible to pin down a reliable ethos which he abides and leads by. However, it seems clear that Jackson’s overall goals as president lie in growth. By that metric, one may say that Jackson has already succeeded.

    The state investment brought on by the polytechnic transition is $433 million in one-time funds with $25 million in ongoing funds to support Humboldts transition to become California’s third polytechnic university.

    Additionally, during Jackson’s tenure, the university achieved a balanced budget for the first time in over a decade and doubled gift commitments from donors. Also during Jackon’s tenure, two campus stores opened in downtown Arcata and Eureka. These big money moves deserve credit, but don’t constitute success in and of themselves. 

    “Certainly, he could bring money in credit. He could find some money from some company, right? That’s the neoliberal model. But it’s not about money. Right? It’s about relationship building. And you can’t just throw a bookstore on the corner, and all of a sudden a relationship emerges,” Silvaggio said. “He doesn’t respectfully engage with faculty, staff and students.” 

    Further, it bears mentioning that just because it happened during Jackson’s tenure, doesn’t mean it is his success to take sole ownership of.

    “I think the campus achievements are ours collectively. I don’t know if we can attribute any success to one individual,” Aghasaleh said. 

    In an effort to understand where Jackson spends his time on campus, I submitted a public records request for his daily schedule from the period August 17 to September 7. The request was denied by public records assistant, Joy Finney who wrote in an email, “As an exempt employee, President Jackson’s daily work schedule on behalf of the University is not specifically defined. His duties as President require his work and attention on days, nights, and weekends.” 

    In a semester marred by budget cuts, tuition increases, and faculty pay stagnation, Jackson’s salary of $396,150 and $50,000 for housing has become increasingly concerning.

    “I don’t think anybody making over $300,000 needs to get a housing stipend,” said Marisol Ruiz, CFA Humboldt Chapter President. “They’re [CSU] all about the market rate. This market is a public university and public universities should be cared for as a public good, not as a corporate good.” said Ruiz.

    Former CFA Humboldt Chapter President and current Faculty Rights Chair Loren Cannon echoed a similar sentiment.

    “All the presidents of the 23 [CSU] campuses make similar wages, and also have a housing and a car allowance, usually that I and they’re all making about the same as President Biden. just seems to me like a mal distribution of state resources.”

    President Jackson’s failures:

    CFA Polling from May of this year shows that 72.5% of responding CFA members disagree that “President Jackson keeps me well informed about important faculty issues.” Only 12.5% are satisfied with the leadership of the President. Only 18.9% have confidence that Jackson builds sustainably positive relationships with community partners. 15% agree that Jackson suitably and respectfully engages in the life of the University.

    Jackson still has yet to meet with the CFA in any capacity.

    “Every prior President has met with us. Prior presidents have come into our department to just introduce themselves,” said Silvaggio. “He’s continually failed in his role as a leader. Time and time again. Again, what kind of leader refuses to meet with his employees and his students?”

    Jackson’s unwillingness to meet with the CFA is representative of his complete absence of dialogue across the board. One of Jackson’s most important and sensitive considerations through the Polytechnic growth is the effect growth will have on the tight knit community of Arcata. Though, here again, apparently Jackson has decided to bury his head in the sand cut off communications.

    “He said to me that he has basically given up on working with the actual community of Arcata. There’s really no relationship between Cal Poly Humboldt and the town of Arcata,” said Sam Parker, Associated Students President. “The focus is more on other places like Eureka and stuff because he said that Arcata tends to have kind of that, ‘not in my backyard attitude,’ to the development. So he’s kind of given up on trying to form ties with them,” Parker said. “That’s somewhat of a recurring theme. Just kind of giving up on communication.

    Jackson’s unwillingness to speak extends to the media as well, and not just The Lumberjack – though this semester we have submitted more interview requests than any other local publication. The current tally of interview requests from The Lumberjack stands at 27. Jackson never responded in any capacity to my interview requests. The North Coast Journal has not interviewed Jackson since his very first days on the job. The same is true for the Lost Coast Outpost. The Times Standard provides Jackson a column every other week, but similarly does not have a reliable avenue for access to Jackson, according to Times Standard Managing Editor, Ruth Schneider.

    Among Jackson’s most glaring failures as a leader is the palpable fear that the campus community has in speaking out against him, in any capacity. In writing this story, many folks who I interviewed spoke of a fear of being reprimanded for voicing their concerns. 

    “Rather than think creatively, like a 21st century leader, he just decides to stick his head in the sand like authoritarian rulers do and just, you know, externalize the problems to the larger community. It’s frankly embarrassing,” said Silvaggio.

  • Be open and honest for better dating

    by Kianna Znika

    We live in a time where most of us are liberated and independent enough to know that dating isn’t a necessity; we’ve done the work to be okay on our own. We pour love into ourselves, additionally surrounding ourselves with the healing, platonic love from our friends and family. 

    When I first started celebrating my independence as a single person, I had a couple of realizations. First was that I genuinely loved who I was and the life I was creating for myself. I couldn’t believe there was ever a time when I’d justify unsatisfying connections, convincing myself that kindness should compensate for a lack of genuine interest. I’d cling to situations that left me miserable, telling myself excuses like, “Well, they’re kind of nice to me, so it’s okay,” or “Maybe I’m just being shallow.”

    I was chipping away at my self-worth and esteem by invalidating my true wants and needs, accepting less than satisfactory situations when I knew, deep down, that my heart wanted more.

    Being brutally honest with oneself is a mantra I now live by. It’s the compass that guided me to the other realization — I am, at my core, a romantic soul yearning for genuine connection and love.

    Now, I’m not saying that this is something I need in my life; rather, it was a beautiful change in mindset towards dating. I will flow through my life and open my heart to love, but I will only involve myself in connections that match my own wants and needs.

    “I don’t need to be with someone. So if I am going to be with someone, it’ll be because it’s my dream scenario,” is what I told myself.

    And, although this isn’t the one-step cure to dating – I definitely still found myself in dissatisfying situations along the way – I am so grateful that I stayed true to what I wanted because I can now confidently say that I found that dream scenario. I am happily in a relationship with someone who aligns with my aspirations and supports my joy and independence.

    Now, imagine if I hadn’t been honest along the way?

    While I’m proud of the normalization of polyamory, I’ve witnessed some people force themselves into it when all they really want, deep down, is to focus on one romantic partner. Let’s keep celebrating all personal loving and dating styles, embracing the beauty of individual preferences. If you want monogamy, own it. It’s okay. Be honest and you’ll attract someone who wants to be monogamous with you, too.

    I hear people say they’re not looking for something serious, while continuously doing and saying things that prove to me that what they really want is a relationship. I believe they do this in order to “be chill” and protect themselves. It seems like everyone in the dating scene right now isn’t looking for anything serious. But, what if some people are only saying that because everyone else is?

    I’m grateful that I was honest with myself about the type of dating experience I wanted. I was unapologetically upfront about wanting a genuine relationship, even on the first date. Crazy? No, just emotionally available and confident.

    So, don’t settle. If you want a certain type of dating experience, odds are someone else out there wants the same thing. They exist, just like you do. Remember: dating isn’t a necessity, so might as well make it exactly what you want and deserve. Your dream scenario is not only possible; it’s worth it. 

  • University housing contract goes to Sundt

    by Andrés Felix Romero

    As reported in the Sept. issue of The Lumberjack, Clayco was in the running for the Health, Dining, and Housing project alongside other construction companies Swinerton and Webcor. These companies ultimately lost out to Sundt Construction, for the contract. In late October, the facilities department released the winners of the construction contracts for upcoming campus projects and repairs. Sundt also won the contract for the Craftsman Mall Student Housing project.

    Clayco was the subject of a protest campaign by the Local Carpenter’s Union 751 at the beginning of the semester. For weeks, Local 751 set up signs and built a wooden speaking judge sculpture around campus while handing and posting flyers condemning Clayco. Local 751 representative Ruhama Tereda also spoke at the public forum section at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting to speak against Clayco. Although the campaign wasn’t as intense, Local 751 also wrote letters and spoke at public forums to the CSU Chancellor and Board of Trustees condemning Sundt, citing a history of malpractice by the construction company.

  • Self-diagnosed autism is a trend

    by Kae Dennert

    I would like to preface this with the words: I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WITH DIAGNOSES; I believe autism is incredibly real, and a struggle a lot of people deal with, but I also believe that with the internet these days, it has become trendy to have the newest popular mental illness. 

    I have been diagnosed with many things in the past few years, so I am aware how tricky getting a diagnosis is, so I’m not going to shut down self diagnosis as a whole, as it isn’t that black and white. Walking down memory lane, back in 2016 it was incredibly “quirky” to post about how depressed you are, and it became something where everyone tried to outstage each other, which also brought along people who felt they felt similarly to the creators posting about it, which led to people self-diagnosing. 

    This again happened in 2019-2020, where it suddenly became a trend to have anxiety, and that was once again followed in 2021 where it was a trend to have ADHD. Now where am I headed with this? Earlier this year there was an uptick in trending conversations on what symptoms could mean you are possibly secretly autistic. This led to many “oh my god maybe I’m autistic I keep seeing these videos” comments. 

    Now, there are certainly people who saw these videos, felt like they saw themselves, and decided to take steps to use tools to help them, or help them get diagnosed, and I think that it’s amazing that awareness online can help people, but I also think it has become hard to decipher who is pretending for attention, and who actually needs the help. It has been trendy to make videos about what symptoms are “autistic” (which also overlap heavily with other disorders, like ADHD, anxiety, depression, OCD, etc.) with no further context of what could be going on besides autism.

    These narrowings into one answer don’t take into account each person’s individuality and their struggles and what that can mean for them. Because diagnoses overlap, the trending diagnosis is the one that is going to stick. This can shut people down and discourage them from finding more answers that could have helped them more in the long run.

    It locks people in a corner, and they can believe there is no other option for them besides aligning with that determination. Because of this many people don’t search for answers that could lead them to help, because other illnesses become stigmatized while being “neurotypical” gets you scrutinized for not understanding the viewpoint of neurodivergence. I think that everyone should be able to be themselves without having to shape themselves into different people for others, but doesn’t everyone want that? 

    At the end of the day, a new trend will inevitably pop up, and people will swear up and down in their life that they “never had autism” and instead have the new hip trending illness.

  • Flush that fecal matter

    Flush that fecal matter

    by Jillian Wells

    Well folks, buckle up because we’re diving deep into the uncharted territory of unflushed mysteries on campus. I never thought my college experience would involve investigative journalism in the bathroom, but here we are. 

    Picture this: you just got out of class, you’ve been a hydrated queen all day and drank all 21 ounces of water from your HydroFlask, now your bladder is about to implode on itself, so you rush to the bathroom expecting a nice, clean, flushed environment. When all of a sudden, you peer into the stall and see a huge, nasty piece of feces. Every other stall is currently occupied, panic is starting to set in because you’re running out of time, sweat trickles down your forehead from the pain in your bladder and realization about what you’re about to go through, with no other choice, you brave the stall with nothing but a pile of shit. It’s a shitty situation, no pun intended.  

    Now that we understand each other and the situation a bit more, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of unflushed shit in public restrooms on campus. I truly don’t understand the reasoning behind the decision to not flush your fecal matter, and genuinely have so many questions. 

     What do you hope to gain? Do you enjoy it when other people see your poop? Is it some form of protest? Is there an underground society of non-flushers plotting world domination one unflushed toilet at a time? Are you at all concerned about the poor souls who have to see your waste? I really am curious about the why of it all, if you’re someone who doesn’t flush your poop in public restrooms, let me know.

    I can’t speak to this being an issue in men’s bathrooms, because as a female with she/her pronouns, I tend to avoid mens bathrooms like the plague. But, I hope for those of you out there who use men’s bathrooms, that the situation isn’t as shitty as it has been in the womens and gender neutral bathrooms. 

    I’ve probably seen the unwelcomed sight of unflushed fecal matter in just about every major public restroom on campus, the main offenders include Gist Hall, the Library and Founders Hall. This problem has gotten out of hand. 

    Not to shame those of you who don’t flush your poop, but it’s 2023 and we have more important issues to deal with than looking at your unflushed creations. I think I speak for everyone when I say, flush your poo, no one wants to see it! It’s not like we have to pay the water bill, that’s the school’s job (or whoever pays it), so flush that fecal matter!

  • Cal Poly Humboldt embraces ChatGPT

    by Carlina Grillo

    In recent years, ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models have become mainstream, with many people having begun to wonder if this is something to fear, or something to embrace. Students and faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt have been testing the waters and, despite mixed reviews, it is apparent ChatGPT is here to stay. 

    “I do think that there is a role for ChatGPT and gen AI models in the classroom. However, I think my recommendation for its use varies according to the level of the student,” said associate professor of computer science and software engineering program lead, Dr. Sherrene Bogle. “As higher educators, we have a responsibility to teach our students how to use the technology effectively.”

    “ChatGPT is a tool applied in academia for diverse research like linguistics, psychology and computer science. It aids in hypothesis generation, language analysis and ethical exploration. Used in education and interdisciplinary studies, it’s showcased in conferences, with further advancements documented in recent academic publications,” according to ChatGPT itself.

    Bogle first heard about ChatGPT last year and, although reserved at first, has since embraced it. Cal Poly Humboldt students studying computer science were offered an elective course this semester that focuses on AI, CS 480, taught by Bogle. One exercise she instructed in the lab was to use a selection of AI technology such as ChatGPT, Bard or Claude and find examples of where the programs hallucinate. 

     Noah Zerbe, a professor in the department of politics, defined what the term ‘hallucinate’ means for generative AI programs.

     “Sometimes [generative AI] will just make things up for you,” said Zerbe. “Often, one of the problems a lot of people have noted is that it makes up citations. So, it’ll say that a quote comes from this source, or something like that, and that source may not even exist. Or, it can go down a rabbit hole of factually incorrect information.” 

    One mainstream example of ChatGPT ‘hallucinating’ is apparent in an incident where Colorado lawyer, Zachariah Crabill, was fired from Baker Law Group for using ChatGPT, and got caught when the program created fake scenarios in legal documents.

    Another example of a generative AI model ‘hallucinating’ took place in the Cal Poly Humboldt AI class. According to Bogle, two students were able to convince an AI chatbot that they had lunch with Michael Jackson and Tupac. 

    “They just said a few things, changed the prompt, and the technology apologized for saying that these people were dead and wanted to hear more about their conversation and was basically adding that to its database,” said Bogle.

    As an advocate for programs like ChatGPT in academia, Zerbe encourages students to explore the program, but introduces generative AI models into the classroom with a warning.

    “My approach to it is really centered on teaching students how to use it effectively,” said Zerbe. “It’s providing you feedback on your paper, trust it as much as you would trust feedback that you got from a friend down the hallway.”

    Professors aren’t the only ones exploring this new territory with caution. Maddie Haus, a junior at Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in environmental studies, was suspicious at first. 

    “I was stoked because it helped me so much, but I also found it scary because it seemed too good to be true,” said Haus. “I think it can be useful for achieving academic success. I do think there’s a thin line between doing the work yourself and just having ChatGPT do the work for you. Overall though, I think it’s a useful tool.”

    Mikey Crispin, a Cal Poly Humboldt graduate who now works for the PBLC and the university as a scheduling and support analyst, has used ChatGPT on and off. 

    “I didn’t really use AI for school because it didn’t explode until last November,” Crispin said. “By that time I was only taking the upper level computer science classes and could get all the info from professors.”

    Now that he’s graduated, Crispin uses ChatGPT mainly for troubleshooting while writing software. 

    “GPT doesn’t always know what you’re trying to do, but from a basic coding perspective, if you’re giving it info just to cover some gaps you might have, then it is a great assistant that can help you gain a better understanding of how something might work,” Crispin said. “I have no experience asking GPT for help for anything outside of a technological viewpoint. It did write a really good email for me once in the style of a Cat in the Hat book, so that was cool.”

    All in all, ChatGPT, along with other generative AI programs, seem to be the future of education, but using AI as a crutch is inevitably harmful. 

     Bogle illustrates her perspective towards generative AI.

     “If you think about it, we don’t want our elementary school students and kindergarten students to be using a calculator, because we want them to learn to count, to carry their hundreds, tens, and ones, etc., to be able to do long division,” Bogle said. “But, after they have mastered being able to do their basic arithmetic with pencil and paper, we’re comfortable with them using the calculator. So, it’s similar with gen AI, which is why I said I think students need to master honing the particular skill first, before they become reliant on gen AI. That way, I think we have the best of both worlds.”

  • Brand new birding club spreads its wings

    Brand new birding club spreads its wings

    by Griffin Mancuso

    An unusual new guest was spotted on the northern end of Brackish Pond in the Arcata Bird Sanctuary last Friday. Brandishing purple, blue, and green feathers with chicken-like feet, an adult purple gallinule had somehow made its way to the marsh from its native territory in the southeast U.S. There had been no prior documented sightings in northern California, so birders flocked from all different counties to catch a glimpse. Among those birders was Cal Poly Humboldt’s brand-new birding club.

    Photo courtesy of Cedrik von Briel. An adult purple gallinule walking among the reeds at Brackish Pond.

    Cedrik von Briel, the president of the birding club, arrived at Brackish Pond around 7:30 a.m. last Sunday, in the hopes of spotting the purple gallinule. Describing the bird as a standard chicken on LSD, this was an opportunity he couldn’t miss. Much to his luck, he was the first person to spot it.

    “The first thing I spotted was that you know, you see a bunch of reeds, a bunch of green,” von Briel said. “And then, a glint of purple and blue and green — it just all hits you at once. And then you’re like, ‘Yep, that’s the bird.’”

    Von Briel recalled the audible gasps from the crowd of around 20 to 30 people as the purple gallinule came into view. The bird emerged from the reeds into an open clearing, then went up into the nearby willows to feed. It was a spectacle in more ways than one.

    “It was up in the reeds, the willows, and the leaves, and it just fell at one point,” von Briel said. “You could hear the giggles and the audible gasps as people looked on, horrified. It’s a funny bird. It’s a stupid, stupid, funny bird.”

    Photo by Griffin Mancuso. Birding Club President Cedrik von Briel watching for birds near Brackish Pond with John Marchwick.

    The Origin Story

    The birding club, not even two months old, was started out of a pre-established passion for birding. Birders use a variety of tools to spot and document birds, including binoculars, telescopes, cameras, and the naked eye. They also learn to identify and track birds by their calls. Birding is both a hobby and a form of citizen science.

    The treasurer of the birding club, Kellen Apuna started his birding journey at a McDonald’s.

    “There was a stream that ran kind of adjacent to the parking lot, and I was looking in and I recognized a bird in there. I was like, ‘Hey, that’s one of the birds from the class.’” Apuna said. “I guess from there, it was just a matter of getting a field guide and kind of going through that, and learning what was in the area and then it just snowballed from there.”

    Vice President Sasha Cahill’s birding journey started with a western tanager at the Vista Vinita Park in Orange County. He went to his father’s birding book for answers, and his father helped him identify the bird. After that, he couldn’t help noticing the variety of bird species during his trips to the park.

    “My dad tried to look up the rare bird hotline, which was a thing in the 90s, but by this point, it had shifted to eBird,” Cahill said. “And using eBird, you can see rare sightings from your area and any area you want. So then we were able to chase rare birds and you know, just spirals from there. You notice things, you see interesting things, and it’s continued to this day for sure.”

    All three of the club’s officers were aware of each other through eBird in their freshman year. The popular birding app allows birders to upload their photographs to document sightings, creating a public database for researchers and fellow birders. Von Briel initially messaged Apuna through Facebook and invited him to go look for Allen’s hummingbirds in the bottlebrush plants near Founders Hall. They start pursuing a western flycatcher and try to coax the bird out with pishing.

    “Pishing is like a sound you make to imitate an angry call from a bird,” von Briel said. “It kinda locks birds in because they’re attracted to that stuff. And then, down the steps comes Sasha with his friends. He’s like, ‘Did I just hear pishing?’”

    Apuna recalled the moment when the two birders recognized each other.

    “[Cahill said] ‘Are you Cedrik?’… and Cedrick went, ‘No way, I just pished out a birder,’” Apuna said.

    Birding Tools

    Along with pishing, there are various tools a birder can use to lure birds into the open. Some birders use playback, where they play a recording of a bird’s call from a speaker to entice the specific bird they’re seeking. However, it is considered unethical to use playback for vagrant birds, birds in their breeding season, or both. Some birders resort to flushing to get a good view, where they make just enough noise (usually by clapping) to drive a bird out of the brush or reeds.

    Photo by Griffin Mancuso. A marsh wren resting in the trees near Brackish Pond.

    “We’ve definitely had our ethical discussions [for flushing],” Apuna said. “Is it worth it for us to basically disturb the bird into showing itself? And I don’t really think we’ve ever reached a solid resolution.”

    “It’s true that a bird doesn’t have an iron trap memory,” Cahill said. “It’s going to hear a slight disturbance, and then it’s going to go back to its busy-birding, but there’s a line you don’t wanna cross.”

    The club officers hope to discuss the ethics of birding along with other topics at future club meetings.

    “We want to host occasional meetings. We have people present on photography, ethical birding, trying to go out and find stuff, birding by ear — guest speakers or something like that,” von Briel said. “We can definitely make it what our eventual members want it to be, and that’s the beauty of it. We’re just starting; we have a future ahead.”

    Birding Trips

    The birding club goes looking for new birds almost every weekend. They spend most of their outings at the Arcata marsh or on campus, but they have also traveled to the lagoons, Ferndale, and the Jetty to complete their lists. They have also been lucky enough to go on several pelagic birding trips, where birders get on a boat and travel out to the open sea in search of that needle in a haystack.

    “This is the first year in — I think — about 20 years that Humboldt has had regularly scheduled pelagic trips for birding,” Cahill said. “Thanks to Rob Fowler, our local birding legend, and a boat that another fellow birder was able to find, he’s chartered many trips off of there this fall.”

    Cahill and Apuna witnessed the fifth documented sighting of Cory’s shearwater in the Pacific region on one of these trips. 

    “Lots of screaming, lots of freaking out because it was this huge,” Apuna said.

    Cahill showed a world map of all documented sightings of Cory’s shearwater on eBird, where almost all sightings were in the Atlantic Ocean, so a sighting in the Pacific was a notable event.

    “A lot of people who are usually soft-spoken were losing their minds,” Cahill said.

    The officers emphasized the accessibility of birding to beginners. Even if an aspiring birder doesn’t have access to a diverse population of birds in their area or a professional long lens, all they need to start is curiosity and a good eye. Patience and motivation are rewarded in birding.

    “It’s like what Ratatouille always said, ‘Anyone can bird,’” von Briel said. “You just gotta get out there and put your own spin on it and see some birds.”

  • Thanksgiving leftovers? No thanks!

    Thanksgiving leftovers? No thanks!

    by Zack Mink

    Thanksgiving, although controversial, is still widely celebrated in the United States. According to statista.com, 83% of Americans were projected to be celebrating the holiday in 2021 and almost 90 million tons of food waste was generated (ReFED.org). No, you don’t need to eat dry turkey for weeks after or scrape the stuffing off of a tray to limit your waste. Instead, you can repurpose your food scraps to create new and certainly improved meals that you will look forward to.

    “The Moist-Maker”

    The most famous Thanksgiving leftover that is widely recognized is “The Moist-Maker” from Friends. This is a sandwich filled with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and other Thanksgiving classics. To make it moist, a gravy soaked piece of bread is layered in the middle of the sandwich. This method of simply putting leftovers between two pieces of bread or wrapping them up in a large tortilla might be delicious but can also get quite boring after eating the same things for days in a row. 

    Turkey Pot Pie

    Rather than making a Thanksgiving sandwich or what is essentially a Thanksgiving crunch wrap supreme, experiment with your cooking skills and make something like a turkey pot pie. With this, all you need to do is combine some of your turkey leftovers, whatever vegetables you have, mix in your gravy and some extra stock of any kind. Finally, top it with some buttery puff pastry because puff pastry really does make everything taste better and bake it at whatever temperature seems appropriate. With only a couple minutes of preparation and 30-45 minutes in the oven, you now have a not so Thanksgiving pot pie.

    Turkey Stock

    Aside from excessive amounts of leftovers adding to the tons of food waste, scraps from food prep also have a huge impact on the waste produced each year. Rather than filling up garbage bags with vegetable scraps or a giant turkey carcass, save all of these nutrient full foods to create a homemade turkey stock. This is a classic one pot recipe where you put all of your scraps into one pot, top it off with water, and let it simmer for hours. This process extracts the flavor from the vegetables and the collagen from the turkey bones creating a lucious and flavorful stock. With stock, you have endless options of meals to choose from. You can add this stock to your turkey pot pie or even make something like a turkey pho with some aromatics like lemongrass, ginger, and pho seasoning packets. 

    Utilizing food scraps not only pushes you to experiment and try new foods, but also contributes to minimizing food waste on a day that produces excessive amounts of it. If you are lazy and want to enjoy a classic Thanksgiving sandwich, go ahead! If you want to be a little extra, take the time to make a turkey stock using the entire turkey carcass and save that stock for future recipes. No need to toss out your leftovers, stretch your culinary limits and practice food sustainability even on Thanksgiving.