'Increasingly Repugnant' 

Editor:

As a student of Cal Poly Humboldt before and after its legal designation changed, I will no longer recommend the university to anyone I know.

There is a laundry list of reasons why. Its budget for rebranding alone is more than twice that for hiring new faculty and staff. Its absent president enacts foolhardy judgments left for others to rectify, from problematic Title IX comments to the displacement of returning students. Its decision to bankroll a redundant commencement in Southern California deters visitors from truly experiencing Humboldt's environment, its people and a different way of living. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

If undermining senior planning for autonomy and forcing students to live in motels wasn't enough to show its true colors, Cal Poly Humboldt's latest attempt to copyright a program they have yet to prepare is an explicit red flag ("Where there's Smoke," April 27). It's no surprise that the university's own instructors supported Feather River College in its effort to provide a curriculum that would benefit its locality – they actually believe that knowledge should be accessible and shared. Any attempt to prevent higher learning when offered, even by another school, highlights an insidious motive that does not have everyone's best interest in mind.

Time and time again, Cal Poly Humboldt has made it clear that it does not care about the local community and, apparently, not even neighboring ones. Despite its dedicated and beloved professors (who will no doubt be run ragged by short-staffing and an absurd enrollment quota), I cannot, in good conscience, endorse this campus for any incoming student, especially for graduates, since they will not receive tangible support from the administration. The quality, charm and residual accolades that the school achieved as Humboldt State University are not enough to compensate for its increasingly repugnant reputation as Cal Poly Humboldt.

Rose Nhem, Arcata