04/01/2023
PRESS RELEASE: President’s Office to be converted to temporary student housing
President Jackson sacrifices suite
Cal Poly Humboldt President’s Office to be converted to temporary student housing
ARCATA, CA, April 1 - President Jackson announced today a bold plan to stand in solidarity with displaced returning students. This move addresses community backlash to a previous announcement of housing policies that prioritized resources for incoming freshmen.
The President’s office on the top floor of Siemens Hall, along with those of his immediate staff, will be converted to temporary housing for returning and transfer students arriving in Fall 2023. The conversion, while largely symbolic, will make available another 14 beds along with a private lounge (with attached sauna) to the limited housing inventory on campus. “It should,” according to President Jackson, “help relieve on the concerns of students and their families about the availability of quality affordable housing in the campus area.”
In response to unprecedented enrollment growth following the new polytechnic designation, the university has recently relegated returning students to the transient housing of local hotels such as the Comfort Inn, Super 8, and Motel 6. As the pressure of limited housing resources in the area has multiplied due to increasing student presence, the university has explored many options, including floating a potentially longer-distance housing facility in the nearby city of Eureka.
“I understand the pressures and sacrifices that our university’s growing pains have put on returning students,” said President Jackson. “So, I simply can’t in good conscience ask them to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself; it would be unethical.”
“In response to their reasonable concerns, today I’m announcing plans to relocate the President’s Office to the business center at the Comfort Inn, and to volunteer my current offices as temporary housing for the duration of this crisis.”
In addition,” he continued, I’m pledging to commute back and forth to the campus using the same excellent bus services that hotel residents will be using.”
Comfort Inn has offered assurance that the facility is prepared for the complex duties and needs of a modern university president. “The business center’s got decent internet, a pay per page copier, phones and even a fax machine, so he should be all set” according to hotel management.
President Jackson also updated the online posting for his weekly Pastries with the Prez event, noting that the complimentary continental breakfast options at the Comfort Inn are an excellent alternative to Chartwells catering services on campus. “I’ll be there 5 days a week, and my office will always be open to the hotel student population,” he said during today’s announcement.
He concluded, “At Humboldt, we have always learned by doing, there has never been a better time for students to become part of the Cal Poly Humboldt community as they work to achieve their dreams. Whether it’s living in a hotel, a barge, or my former office, we are committed to making those dreams happen in any way we can.”
About Cal Poly Humboldt
Cal Poly Humboldt is California’s third polytechnic and the first in Northern California, slowly rising to meet the needs of the 21st century student.
http://www.calpolyhumboldt.com
