Sparked by a controversial decision made by the Cal Poly Board, students who currently reside on campus and those who support them held a protest to fight back against this controversial decision, of which the student body was only recently informed. Cal Poly Humboldt has partnered with three motels in the Giuntoli area, where they plan to relocate students in a yet-to-be-defined selection process.
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Each motel provides about 100 beds in various conditions, located dab smack in an area of Humboldt County known for its high crime rate and relative danger. The students are indeed being moved to an area responsible for making Humboldt County one of the most dangerous places to live in California.
Cal Poly, with its incredible architecture and sprawling campus of exquisitely landscaped and modernly developed areas, you’d think they’d treat its Alumni in a way that matches its apparent self-image. You’d think they’d seek to offer their students the best hotels Humboldt County offers.
Unfortunately, Cal Poly seems to think their students will be more at home in the Giuntoli area, they just need to strap up and improve their situational awareness. Maybe Cal Poly Admin sees this as an opportunity for personal growth for its students to toughen them up and prepare them for the unfiltered Humboldt County and the world at large that awaits them outside the pearly halls of the CPH campus.
With around 2,000 or more students expected to return, many students who call the campus home are livid.
Cal Poly Students held a protest to fight back against the board’s decision and its implications when considering the ongoing housing crisis in Arcata. Over 500 students assembled on the campus quad to protest, many holding signs lamenting their frustration with the current situation, most seeing no real solution but to fight like hell.
The sun was beaming down on the Cal Poly quad where the student protest was decided the night before in an ad-hoc meeting thrown together by concerned students poised to fight back against this recent decision by Cal Poly.
The populist sentiment was at a fever pitch, with many speakers exclaiming their disgust at this top-down decision making which lacked the transparency this student body demands, as well as a reasonable upfront notification. Indeed, these students are being treated like patrons who’ve overstayed their welcome at a table that a struggling restaurant needs to turn. One can only wonder what kind of pressures are working behind the scenes at this Cal Poly for them to make such a decision and think it would shake out in any other way.
Lost Coast Populist Publisher, Donnie Creekmore, was on site capturing the footage for this article. As well he snagged an onsite, live interview with a student who is directly affected by this decision: Jackson lives on campus and is a freshman this year who will need to figure out where to live in the future. Even though Jackson had a longer time to react compared to his colleagues, he was passionate when exclaiming that, in his view, the situation is unfair and the wrong approach.
This is a transcript from the video interview at the top of this post!
Alright, I’m here with Jackson at Cal Poly at the protest. You know, it sounds to me like they’re making some policy decisions that might affect where you live. Tell me a little bit about why you’re here and why you’re passionate about this?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly
I am a freshman here. I just started off, and it’s been pretty great. I mean, the first, like they gave us a lot of new things, a lot of new just opportunities for us. We just found out recently that all the housing next year, for all levels, is going to be given to freshmen. So our only option is to move off campus. The only options we’ve been given are just like some lower hotels, you know, motel 6, Super 8, and theres the comfort in.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
I mean, they did some reviews on those, but it’s like, it almost seems automated the reviews they got, because those are not the stories that, like, matched up to the kids that are there now. And so it’s just a big impact on us ’cause, like, where are we gonna live? housing here is pretty hard. I mean, this is an old tower. Nothing’s new, right?
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
Are you concerned about your safety, being that these hotels are literally located in the highest crime areas of Humboldt County?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly
Yeah, I mean, I’d be a little concerned if anything; it’s always, no matter where you are. But, I mean, just being out there in those areas, I mean, it’s bound to happen. I mean, they’re known those motel 6’s, like, we’ve gotten reviews just read by parents that have stayed there, and they’ll tell you, it’s like, literally one step down from the one step up from Skid Row. I mean, they see the worst there while they’re there. That’s not a place we want to live at.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
Were you born and raised in Humboldt County? Or did you transfer here for college?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly
I’m a freshman. I came from Southern California, from Indio, CA.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
He says he came here to study Forestry.
All right. So, Jackson, is there a reason past, you know, coming to the protest? Are you organizing? Are you doing anything additional? Or are you kind of just here to support?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly
I’m just here to support. I mean, there’s been a lot of people that have organized. They’ve kind of taken that roll up their obviously of talking, and speaking, things like that. So, I mean, we’re all – everybody is here to support, right? It’s our future. It’s their future. It affects everybody that’s here or not here, even those living off campus.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
So I’m, I’m Donnie Creekmore, I’m from Lost Coast Populist. We take a populist perspective on everything. How do you feel about these decisions basically being decided from the top-down like this?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly
I mean, especially with this one, it’s just hard because it’s such a short notice that we got it. Like our housing registration, I think, just opened up the other day, and we kind of found out just a week before then, about really what we were expecting. I mean, when you’re going to a college, you kind of expect everybody’s able to live on campus.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
Yes, it is tough here, but it should not be all freshmen get the new housing. Even as a freshman, I think that’s, it’s baloney, you know, like, that’s not fair.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
That’s huge. A lot of people don’t have a lot of people would be like, hey, you know, business is business. You know, sorry about the other people. So that’s good on you.
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly Student Protest
You can’t just have, like, it’s just unfair. I know here, especially at this school, there’s a lot of grad students, just people, people take longer at this school with all. It’s a lot of stem students, you know, it takes longer. People need to be on campus longer.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
Do you think that there’s a connection between this current. And, you know, the pressure to build housing in Arcadia, the pressure to buildure housing in Eureka. Does it seem like it’s kind of a coordinated thing where the one kind of predicates the other? Like, Oh, all of a sudden we’ve got these students that need a place to live. We should probably build them low income housing and get them out of these cheap hotels located in dangerous areas. Do you see the?
Donnie Creekmore, Lost Coast Populist Live Reporter @ Cal Poly Student Protest
I could see that resembling it. I mean, I’m not too sure about that either. I’m not, I haven’t looked into that at all anyways. But that could be a driving reason, right? I mean, this area is old, nothing, nothing hear is new. Yeah, like, you will never find a newly built house in Arcata or Eureka; it is insane to come by.
Jackson – Cal Poly Student
Just look at all of these stories!
Was nice seeing the students stand up for themselves in a Populist manner