Protesters are currently gathered at Cal Poly Humboldt to object to the administration’s decision to evict a small number of students who have been living in their vehicles at a campus parking lot.

The demonstration started in the campus’s main parking lot on Harpst Street, where about 100 gathered in the rain to make signs. From there, protesters marched up to the quad for a series of speeches.

The administration announced its decision to evict the students last Wednesday, and it sparked a week of quick organizing later documented by the Lumberjack. A student’s club was formed, several faculty announced their opposition to the evictions, and meetings between the affected students and administrators were arranged.

In its email, the administration said that it had received complaints from members of the campus community about the “increasing” number of live-in vehicles stationed in campus parking lots, and said that the resulting “unsanitary and unsafe” conditions required the administration to start enforcing its rules on parking and camping.

But the students themselves denied that conditions were either unsanitary or unsafe, and they charged that housing prices, rising fees and the country’s general economic malaise essentially forced car living upon them.

“Cal Poly Humboldt administration is under the illusion that students are living in their vehicles out of choice,” wrote student Brad Butterfield in a response sent out to the campus community the day after the administration memo went out. “In actual fact, we are living in our vehicles and are legally homeless because we cannot afford to pay rent, feed ourselves, and pay growing tuition fees. We have sacrificed housing so that we can be here, earn our degrees and rise out of poverty. There is no financial back-up for students like us.”