The room was nearly empty. The turn out was expected to at least be in the teens. Six people sat there waiting for more people to show up. They didn’t, but the Graduation Pledge Alliance program meeting went on. “I hoped we would have had some club representatives here,” said Brea Sorrells.
HSU is a national leading example of a supportive, socially just, on-campus housing community. It made leaps and bounds above most of the universities in the nation, and became the high standard that other university housing staffs look to meet. Gender-neutral housing is not to be confused with coed living.
The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and everyone is making plans for the summer. But with every semester’s end comes an unfortunate, but inevitable period of panic, cramming and sleep deprivation. That’s right. It’s time for finals.
Humboldt’s oyster culture
Oysters: Either you love ‘em or you hate ‘em. There are those who “shuck and swallow” on a regular basis and those who won’t touch the creature. But regardless of their spot in your heart, oysters have a unique place in the community culture of Humboldt County.
Summer is almost here. While hundreds of students prepare to head home, some students decide to stay in Humboldt County for the summer months. During the months of May through July the weather is pretty fantastic. It is a drastic change from the heavy wind and rain.
At the age of four, Brad Hunkins, former HSU football player and Social Science senior, learned a valuable life lesson. Things aren’t always as they appear. During a camping adventure with his grandparents, Hunkins and his grandfather decided to go fishing.
It was the type of dance that YouTube videos are made of. Ivan Castillo was dancing around his apartment to the theme song from the TV show “Friends.” It was obvious by the way he was gyrating that he thought he was alone, or at least not being watched.
Lights flicker on the darkened stage. A man is chained to a tree in the middle of the woods. His mother is there, threatening to leave him helpless for the bears to find, for one reason and one reason only: breakfast is no longer his favorite meal. “This is fucked up,” says the young man, played by Mason Daryl Lev, a 24-year-old Theater major.
Terry Yard was in his fifties when he decided to go back to school for a degree in music. Deborah Clasquin, a piano instructor at HSU, told him it would be a piece of cake. She even helped Yard land a part-time accompanist job after he graduated. “She was always really encouraging,” Yard said.
It’s raining, and you’re running late for class. You don’t have an umbrella and you have to make the trek from 4-hour parking up to Founders Hall. Interrupting your professor’s lecture is not an option. Mid-route, you run over a lawn of grass when it happens - everything moves in slow motion as your feet disappear beneath you and your hands scramble to brace your fall.
Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? What is your favorite type of ice cream? How about grasshopper or Easter bunny surprise? If these flavors don’t sound familiar, then you haven’t checked out the latest ice cream parlor in town, the Arcata Scoop.
You are driving down by the Arcata Bottoms and you see an omnipresent glow on top of the hill. You wonder what that glow could be, and for a brief moment it reminds you of a scene from E.T. That glow is misdirected light from HSU’s Redwood Bowl.
It took three bullets to instantly change Travon Oliver’s life forever. “Live for today, because tomorrow is not promised,” Oliver said. The 20-year-old political science sophomore remembers that night vividly. In the madness that is the Depot at lunchtime, he calmly tells his story.
California Big Time breaks societal stereotypes
The deep, echoing resonance of a drum beat fills the air the moment you enter the kinesiology and athletics building. Your eyes are met with swirling colors and rhythms that appeal to an ancient part of yourself. You entered the Second Annual Humboldt State University California Big Time and Social Gathering.
Julie Sheppard always had one foot in the natural world. For most of her childhood, her family lived in a remote Boy Scout camp in the Santa Monica Mountains where her dad worked as a caretaker. At the age of 7, she and her mother got lost in the woods and walked into a cave full of half-eaten animal carcasses.
One HSU student produces 630 pounds of trash per year
Why the hell was there a giant pile of trash bags in the quad? Before you think that the campus suddenly forgot to take out the trash, or decided to pull an April Fool’s joke, think again. The HSU Campus Recycling Program (CRP) pulled out all the stops again this year, rejuvenating the “green” lifestyle for which Humboldt is known.
Plan-It Green Festival focuses on transportation
Smiles spread across faces as they watch the hydrogen and electric cars circle around the parking lot, displaying Humboldt County’s greenest automobiles. A band with trumpets blaring follow the line of cars. Jugglers pass neon bowling pins through the air.
Local gardeners take to planting their own vegetables
You’ve tried to grow your own tomatoes at your home in Eureka, Arcata, or Mckinleyville. You’ve learned they do not grow well by the Humboldt coast: tomatoes need warmer temperatures. But did you know the small yellow Sun Gold tomato (Lycopersion esculentum) does great on the coast? This is just one tip that gardener Marcia Louise has to offer.
Thick avocado trees cast shade on the ground during the hot summer. The air is warm and sweet along the farm rows. For HSU student William Spencer Steed, known to friends as “Spencer,” this is home. When he was 17 Steed’s family purchased their first farm.
It’s noon, and after spending $10 Abby Arndt and her friend Jackie Robinson, both HSU freshmen, still haven’t gotten a stuffed animal out of the claw machine at Toni’s Pizza Place. This is just one of the many times when Arndt is up for anything.
He looks like an average student, but Zachary Beshore is a leader on campus and in the community. Gentle natured and personable, Beshore created a niche for himself in just his second semester at HSU. Known for his work as a Residence Hall Association representative and at the Information Technology Services help desk, helping students face to face.
David Green lets his throbbing shoulder out of the sling, the pain visible on his face as a light, misting rain settles onto bare skin. He sets the single buck saw in the wood and when the judge calls, “Timers ready. Contestants ready. Go,” he saws through the pain of a dislocated shoulder to first place in the STIHL Timbersports Western Collegiate Challenge.
HSU alumna Lydia Hicks’ heart beats for two things: social justice and photography. She uses both in her art. Since childhood, Hicks has been concerned with causes outside herself. At five she got stomachaches from worrying. She was anxious about the rainforest burning down, and about children starving.
Jose Gonzalez, a third-year student at HSU, does not remember much from his 21st birthday. He does recall drinking heavily, but he needed his friends to fill him in on the details. After substantial alcohol consumption, Gonzalez blacked out. “I’m still trying to figure out what I did that night,” he said.
Keeping your pocket books heavy
Spring break—the pinnacle of second semester is suddenly upon us. But one thing stands between you and those white sandy beaches: money. Although the weight of the economic crisis is heavy on our pocketbooks, all it takes is a little creativity and some good friends to have a great spring break.
A single power chord thunders through the Quad as the sun bursts through the clouds. The Quad begins to fill as people gather to see the cause of the sudden commotion. The sunshine beats down on the audience as the five-man band, known only as “Part of This Balanced Breakfast,” begins to play.
“Watchmen” hits the silver screen after 21 years.
Over the summer, some of you witnessed an entire theater recoil in horror when Heath Ledger shoved a pencil through a man’s eye socket in “The Dark Knight.” Well, prepare to see another flinching, cringing and throw your hands over your eyes movie when you step into a darkened theater to see “Watchmen,” the movie adaptation of the late 1980s graphic novel by Alan Moore.
In the midst of natural disasters, there stand a select few that protect us from harm. HSU Professor Lori Dengler is one of those few. Dengler, a faculty member in the geology department for 29 years, received the 2009 Alfred E. Alquist Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Earthquake Safety.
You just got out of a long test and your brain hurts. You wish you could fly to a tropical paradise, but it is not feasible. If only there were just one place to escape to, so for a brief moment you could feel like you landed in that tropical paradise you were dreaming about.
In a small town like Arcata, things can feel repetitive. Luckily, Discovery Walks in Eureka offers the chance to break away from your day-to-day routine. Started in 2004 by Ruth Moon, the walks are designed to get people out of their cars and see the town.
For some, noisemakers and decorative masks surface when the winter months expire. It is not, however, for the popular Mardi-Gras holiday, but for the Jewish celebration of Purim. The Havurah Shir Hadash Temple in Sunny Brae encourages all to attend its religious carnival Friday, March 6.
The International Cultural Festival offers HSU students a taste of 18 different countries and cultures. The free event will take palce this Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Karshner Lounge. The festival is an opportunity for people, who come from all different parts of the world to come together and share their culture.
