Cops clad in all-black riot gear. Dozens of demonstrators stacking desks, tables and anything dense into beaver-dam barricades. Halls and walkways decked out in endless graffiti. That was what Cal Poly Humboldt’s campus looked like last spring, and the California State University is trying to avoid more incidents like it by revising their Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) restrictions on free speech.

It’s proving controversial with professors and students, and many are furious about the changes.

TPM restrictions are limits on free speech imposed by the government that apply to everyone, regardless of the message. Examples include banning the use of bullhorns during protests, or capping the number of protestors at an event.

They’re not new to CSU campuses. However, the updated restrictions are more heavy-handed than in years past, banning things such as signs with sticks on them, using chalk for protest messaging, and wearing masks or scarfs that could obscure faces at protests. Protestors also have to identify themselves to university officials if asked.

The changes come the semester after a series of pro-Palestine protests rocked many CSU campuses, especially Humboldt’s, where activists barricaded themselves inside an administrative building and occupied the main quad for a week. Camping and demonstrating overnight are also now banned, as is barrier-making.

Cal Poly Humboldt has its own set of TPM rules that have been updated for the Fall 2024 semester. Campus will be closed to anyone who doesn’t live on campus between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., unless they have written permission, are on university business or are attending an event. Humboldt has also classified every building and room on campus as to whether or not protesting is allowed there and if it’s open to members of the public.

Students and members of the public alike can be punished for breaking these rules. Students could be subject to suspension, expulsion and loss of financial aid, or be barred from entering campus. Non-students who violate the policy will be “held accountable to the full extent of the University’s authority under existing laws, regulations and University policies.”

The new TPM restrictions do not yet apply to faculty, as negotiations with the California Faculty Association union haven’t been completed.

The California Faculty Association plans to take a hard line against the new policies during the negotiation process. The field representative for the Cal Poly Humboldt chapter of the CFA, Maureen Loughran, told the Outpost that the CFA wasn’t consulted before the new policies were put into place.

Like Loughran, many CFA members find the new policies Orwellian and worry about how they’ll be enforced.

“There already were Time, Place, and Manner policies in place, and they seemed to be working just fine,” Loughran said. “These new draconian measures really weren’t necessary.”

“We really fear that it’s not going to be equitably enforced,” Loughran said. “Basically, they’re going to come down on those they don’t like, whose speech they don’t like, and they’re going to permit it for those whose speech they do condone. We went on strike in January, right? ‘Oh, we don’t want the faculty to go on strike. Then we can just enact our Time, Place, and Manner thing and say, oh, but they have placards on sticks. Now we’re going to come down on them with the full force of enforcement and police control.’ But, the sorority is tabling in the quad, and they have cute little placards on sticks that have their sorority letters — no problem whatsoever, right?”

Tony Silvaggio, the president of the Humboldt CFA chapter and a sociology professor, agreed.

“It’s really more restrictive and more oppressive than other policy iterations,” Silvaggio said. “When it comes to this policy, a lot of our union activities, [such as] the strike in January, could certainly be limited. So we really want to make sure that we’re going to challenge this.”

As part of the new policies, the California State University system is dividing $2 million among its campuses. Cal Poly Humboldt is getting $75,000.

“The one-time funds are required to be used for educational programs and activities that support the balance among free speech activities, the educational purpose of the University, and campus safety,” Humboldt said in a statement to the Outpost. “Funds should be utilized with a focus on campus-wide learning and professional development opportunities that address campus climate, enhancing a culture of care, and other areas that support student development, co-curricular engagement, or teaching and learning within the context of the Time, Place, and Manner policy.”

Part of that allocation is going towards a “community engagement team,” a volunteer squad meant to de-escalate situations that might cause “large-scale interruption of campus operations”, according to Humboldt. Every CSU campus has formed one this semester.

The university claims its team is made up of 24 faculty, staff and students, but a list on their website shows only 15 different administrators.

The fact that there may not be any professors on a team whose purpose is to pacify students is something that enrages Silvaggio.

“There are no faculty on that protest response team, just administration,” Silvaggio said. “No one who was involved in the de-escalation of the protests last spring is on this team…it’s infuriating…I can’t see this as anything other than a snitch team or a narc team.”

For its part, Cal Poly Humboldt says that if anyone hears about an event that violates the TPM policy, they are encouraged to talk with them about it and inform them of the rules. They are welcome to inform the university, but Humboldt says it’s only for monitoring purposes. Any punishment would come later.

“Enforcement and consequences to policy violation will depend on the situation,” Humboldt said in the statement. “The first priority is to educate about the policy and de-escalate any tense situations in the moment to bring immediate situations to a calm resolution.”

Why are so many faculty opposed to these measures, if all they’re meant to do is keep campus livable?

“No faculty member wants to be in our classroom not being able to teach their class,” Loughran said. “But I would say that there’s plenty of things that aren’t protests that are very loud happening on the campuses that prevent them from teaching, such as leaf blowers, people doing groundskeeping or construction. So there’s already things that don’t fit into the templates. It’s a short-term fix. There’s no real problem. This one moment in time, there was something that happened. We shouldn’t create restrictions and policies in place that will last long-term that really aren’t necessary and really could damage academic freedoms and liberties on campus.”

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The CSU TPM policy is here. Humboldt’s free speech policies are here.

Whose fault is the California homelessness crisis?

According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, cities and counties are to blame for failing to get people off the street — despite all the money he’s given them to do so.

That was the message the governor pushed yesterday as he signed a package of housing and homelessness bills at an event in San Francisco with legislators, carpenters’ union members and members of the press.

“There’s never been more support to address all of those concerns than in the last four or five years,” Newsom said. “So what gives? Time to do your job. Time to address the crisis of encampments on the streets in this state. And yes, I’m not going to back off from that. And you will see that reflected in my January budget. I’m going to fund success and I’m not going to fund the rhetoric of failure anymore.”

When asked by a reporter how the state will make sure cities such as San Francisco meet their housing goals, Newsom said: “(It’s) not the state’s job to figure out how to do that.” Instead, Newsom said his office is focused on enforcing housing laws; It threatened the city of Norwalk with legal action earlier this week.

“No local government, no local jurisdiction, no local entity needs to do everything,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta, also at Thursday’s press conference. “But every jurisdiction, every local government needs to do something. They need to participate. They need to build housing in their jurisdiction.”

Speaking at an affordable housing development in San Francisco, Newsom also gave an update on the $6.4 billion mental health and housing bond passed earlier this year. The state will use $2.2 billion to extend Homekey, which helps cities and counties turn hotels and other buildings into homeless housing. The new program, dubbed Homekey+, will start doling out funds in May 2025 for housing for people with mental health and/or substance use disorders.

The 32 housing and homelessness bills Newsom signed Thursday include:

• SB 1395 by Sen. Josh Becker: makes it easier for cities and counties to use tiny homes as temporary housing for homeless residents
• SB 450 by Sen. Toni Atkins: works out kinks in a controversial 2021 upzoning law
• AB 1893 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks: updates the controversial “builder’s remedy” law
• AB 799 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas: lays out requirements for reporting on the outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs

SB 7 by Sen. Catherine Blakespear: requires local governments to plan housing for their lowest-income residents

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

The town of Reedley has about 25,000 people — and five different public institutions that offer career education to its residents. There’s the high school, the adult school, the community college, the job center and the regional occupational program. In some cases, they work together to teach skills, such as welding.

Other times, they compete for the same students.

In a hearing last month, California Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, said that he worries some workforce programs are becoming increasingly “Balkanized,” despite numerous efforts to promote collaboration. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll help unify these programs by creating a Master Plan for Career Education. State agencies are required to create the plan by Oct. 1, though Newsom hasn’t said when he’ll release it.

At Reedley College in rural Fresno County, Dean of Instruction David Clark acknowledged that some programs compete — in other parts of the state — but said that in this small town, that issue is less relevant. “In Fresno, you might flip someone off and never see them again, but here, that’s your neighbor,” said Clark. Instead, he said, local workforce leaders in Reedley have close personal relationships with one another and collaborate frequently.

What’s more, he said that each institution serves a different population: Historically, community colleges focused on high school graduates, providing them with vocational training or a pathway to a four-year university. Adult schools offered short-term courses, such as English as a second language, often to immigrants and older adults. Regional occupational programs arose as a way to help high schools consolidate and coordinate expensive career training classes. Job centers were a place for adults to get help finding work.

To some extent, that’s all still true, but over the past few decades, the lines have blurred. High school students are taking college-level classes at growing rates. More than 40% of community college students in California are 25 and older, according to data from the Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, and the system is investing in short-term classes that rival the courses at many adult schools. While job centers once placed people directly in jobs, they’re now facing a push from state and federal leaders to send jobseekers back to school so they can earn better wages in the long-term.

The state’s existing higher education plan is from 1960 and “was designed to serve a very different California,” wrote Elana Ross, a spokesperson for the governor, in an emailed statement. She said the “current budgetary conditions” — namely, two years of multi-billion dollar deficits — “call us to work together more effectively.” The office refused to speak to CalMatters in an on-the-record interview.

In the hearing, Muratsuchi said he’s skeptical that the governor’s new plan will yield substantive changes to this convoluted system. “These are the same agencies that have failed to collaborate,” he said. “Why do we expect different results?”

‘Redundancy’ in Reedley

Clark has lived in Reedley for 35 years, and as he walks around the community college campus, he shares the town lore with pride. In 2002, the town voted against the construction of a Walmart. The town doesn’t have a movie theater or a mall either, he said. “People have tried to maintain that Norman Rockwell lifestyle.”

It doesn’t always reflect reality — Walmart, for instance, built a location just five miles away, in the town next door — but Clark said that Reedley is still more vibrant than some of the other rural towns in the Central Valley.

The reason is agriculture: It’s the “world’s fruit basket,” according to the town’s chamber of commerce. Reedley specializes in growing and shipping stone fruit such as peaches, plums and nectarines.

First: Students measure part of a tractor engine in their agricultural mechanics class at Reedley College. Last: Instructor David Tikkanen shows student Francisco Fernandez how to work on an engine lathe when shaving a metal rod. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

For the roughly 7,500 Reedley College students taking a career technical education class, the most popular programs are in agriculture and manufacturing, which overlap considerably, said Clark. Classes in health care, such as those for nursing assistants, are another common path, especially for women.

In a series of large classrooms, each one as big as a warehouse, college students learn how to repair tractor engines, how to weld the pieces of a truck bed, and how to create the metal pieces used in food packaging machines. Some equipment, such as machines for metal cutting, can cost the school over a million dollars per device. Most of the training for nursing assistants takes place at a retirement home.

On certain days, the college shares these classrooms with the Valley Regional Occupational Program so it can run its own manufacturing courses for high school students. By using some of the same facilities, the high school saves money and helps introduce students to college, said Fabrizio Lofaro, superintendent of the occupational program.

But for welding courses, which are more popular, the high school has its own facilities and offers less advanced courses.

The workstations for a welding class at Reedley High School. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

At night, and on weekends, the regional occupational program works with a different institution, Kings Canyon Adult School, to offer another set of welding classes focused on working adults.

Noe Mendoza, the learning director of the adult school, acknowledged some “redundancy,” especially with the community college. What makes adult schools different, he said, is that they’re accessible for adults who lack a high school degree or who need short-term, career-oriented training.

“They’re field workers or they’re working in the warehouses, the cold storages, and they want something different,” said Mendoza. “If it’s given here, it seems more attainable, even though it’s the same class.”

Community college leaders, however, insist that their courses are accessible too. In June, state leaders announced a policy change meant to draw adults without high school degrees toward college. Since the start of the pandemic, community colleges have spent millions of dollars recruiting older adults by offering shorter classes and career-oriented programs — sometimes reaching out directly to farmworkers.

Five different entities competing for students and money

Community colleges and adult schools have long competed for students. In the 1990s, the issue came to the fore when six Southern California school districts sued their local community colleges, saying that the colleges had overstepped their boundaries by teaching certain classes, such as high school equivalency courses or English as a second language. The judge found that both systems had a right to teach these classes.

The lawsuit is emblematic of long-standing duplication and conflict in adult education: A 2012 report by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office found “inconsistent state-level policies” and a “widespread lack of coordination.”

“These are the same agencies that have failed to collaborate. Why do we expect different results?”
— Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, Democrat from Torrence

Similar competition exists between K-12 schools districts and regional occupational programs. California created the regional occupational programs in the 1970s as a way to consolidate career training across school districts. But the school districts aren’t required to collaborate with the occupational programs, and in some cases, districts launch their own career technical classes instead.

The federal government also invests in career education. Some of the money goes directly to community colleges and K-12 school districts, but the largest allocation goes toward California’s 45 workforce development boards, which operate the state’s nearly 180 job centers. For years, these centers helped low-income adults, unemployed adults, and certain youth find jobs, but research shows that sending a person back to school can yield better long-term results.

Now, job centers provide many students with tuition subsidies or cash to help cover daily expenses, such as rent and transportation, during school. Last month, a CalMatters investigation of job centers across the state found that roughly half of those subsidies went to for-profit trade schools, even when community colleges offered free or low-cost courses nearby. In some cases, graduates of these trade schools earned less than $30,000 a year.

In the eastern half of Fresno County, which includes Reedley, 16 students received a tuition subsidy in the past year to study agriculture, either through a welding or heavy equipment program, according to the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board. Some attended Lofaro’s regional occupational programs, while others attended Advanced Career Institute and the Institute of Technology, two local for-profit institutions.

Student Felix Nevarez welding a piece of metal during a class. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Fernanda Mendoza, a program coordinator at the job center closest to Reedley, said she recommends the private programs over the public ones because the for-profit schools provide students with “more of that one-on-one interaction.”

A hodgepodge of job training options create barriers for students

Over the past decade, state leaders have tried to revamp the career training system to foster collaboration. But critics say the interventions have created more bureaucracy and made few real changes.

In 2015, California created the Adult Education Program, which today sends out over $650 million a year on the condition that each region administers the money through a consortium of local adult schools, community colleges, and regional occupational programs.

The following year, the state created the Strong Workforce Program, which sends over $100 million a year to 72 community college districts.

Then, in 2018, California launched the K-12 Strong Workforce Program, but to ensure that high schools and colleges work together, the money flows through another regional network — which is different from the adult education consortia.

These three programs are just a fraction of the billions California taxpayers spent on career education in the past five years. Many agencies — including the state’s Education Department, Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and Rehabilitation Department — all have additional pots of money for similar programs.

A medical dummy lies on a bed for a nursing assistant class at Reedley High School. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

In Reedley, Lofaro said he applies for many of these grants. One of his competitors is another regional occupational program, which works with a different set of K-12 school districts in Fresno County.

Last year, Assemblymember Muratsuchi unsuccessfully proposed a bill that would merge the K-12 Strong Workforce Program with another, existing program run by the state’s Education Department.

The governor’s office hasn’t made any of its recommendations public, but it’s led forums across the state about the new plan. Kathy Booth is the director of the Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd, a nonprofit organization, and she helped the governor’s office engage with the public. In the hearing with Muratsuchi, she shared feedback from local leaders, who said the state’s workforce systems have created barriers for students.

“If you are a person who gets a partial training in one area, and then you need to get to a different area, it’s almost impossible to make that jump,” she told lawmakers. “And that is really underscored by this incredible lack of coordination between funding and underlying data.”

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Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.

Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt and Irvine foundations.

Just before 2 p.m. on Thursday, the National Interagency Fire Center announced the detection of a wildfire in southern Humboldt. The small blaze is located near Dean Creek just east of Redway. (See the map below.)

PG&E cameras pick up a faint wisp of smoke rising from the wooded area.

We will update if the situation becomes concerning. 

Just a quick note in case you missed our soft launch yesterday: 

LoCO Elections is back!

LoCO Elections is that thing we do twice every other year, in which candidates who are willing take questions directly from the LoCO electorate. It’s pretty fun!

Do you have a question for a candidate for Eureka City Council, Arcata City Council or Fortuna City Council? Go on over to LoCO Elections, click on that candidate’s head and find the link where you can put your question to them! If that question is not insane and/or irrelevant, it’ll be put to them!

Also, of course: You can scroll down and read the other questions that other people put to the candidates and their answers. It’s pretty fun! A lot of candidates have really enjoyed it in the past, as have their constituents.

Now, are you a candidate for Eureka or Arcata or Fortuna City Council who is not signed up for LoCO Elections? Check your back email for my invitation for you to register. Can’t find it? No problem — just shoot me a line at hank@lostcoastoutpost.com and I’ll set you up.

Happy election season!

From the Arcata Police Department website.

It’s nearing midnight. You’re on your way back home from doing whatever it is you do, and as you approach a stop sign, you barely tap the brakes, swing through the intersection and keep moving. The fact that you just whipped a California Stop is as far away from your mind as you are from Mars. A pair of LED headlights flick on in the rearview and permanently damage your retinas. Blue and red lights spin, your mind whirls and all you can think is: Why? There was no one around!

Get a chance to ask this Saturday, when the Arcata Police Department will host an open house and barbecue at the police station from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

APD hopes it’ll be a learning opportunity for people who don’t often interact with police officers.

“I think when we deal with people, it’s generally during times of emergencies, high stress, high emotions,” APD Sergeant Brian Hoffman told the Outpost yesterday. “I think the vast majority of people don’t have a lot of contact with the police, and so there can be this stand-off-ishness. So it’s really just getting people to come down and meet everyone and let people realize we’re just like everybody else — fathers, brothers and sons and daughters.”

Hoffman says past events like this one have been successful.

“I think if you ask a lot of people about the local police in the area, I would think that they would say that Arcata PD is the most empathetic, and we really go out of our way to try to have a connection with people who are dealing with them,” Hoffman said. “Generally, it’s during the worst times in people’s lives when we’re called in. So it’s good for officers too to be able to see people and recognize ‘Hey, there are people that like what you do and are glad we’re here.’”

The Arcata Police Department is located at 736 F Street, Arcata.

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Dear Editor:

Your coverage of Measure F, the Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative, leaves out the main purpose of voting Yes on Measure F: to allow for more housing for hard-working families, seniors, and workers while ensuring downtown businesses don’t shut down or move away. It is very clear if you read the ballot measure.

Thousands of Eurekans signed petitions so voters could say YES to Measure F, enabling more housing in Eureka and supporting small businesses. Two former mayors and more than 50 downtown business owners also support Measure F.

Measure F does two essential things for Eureka: one, it will open up the Jacobs site by zoning it for hundreds of homes to be built there, and two, it saves our Downtown small businesses by ensuring they have the accessible parking they need to survive. It is not one or the other, housing or business. Measure F does both.

As co-sponsors of this important ballot measure, we want the additional housing Measure F to enable, not just the limited housing currently planned that wipes out Downtown parking. We want a thriving future for Eureka. That’s why we are voting Yes on Measure F.

Michelle Costantine, Eureka
Mike Munson, Eureka

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Ballot Battles, Lawsuits and a Ticked-Off Millionaire: CalMatters on Eureka’s Parking Lot Wars
• Security National Has Spent $710,645 and Counting on Measure F, the ‘Housing for All’ Initiative
• Eureka City Schools’ Deal With a Mystery Developer for the Jacobs Campus is Dead
• Anonymous AMG Communities Confirms Death of Jacobs Campus Deal, Vows to Try Again After Election Results
• Security National Just Dropped Another $286K Into Measure F, Bringing Its Total Spending to Nearly $1M
• How Will the Collapse of the Jacobs Campus Deal Impact Measure F? It Won’t, Backers Insist.
• What’s Next for the Jacobs Campus? The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees Will Consider Five Options at Thursday’s Meeting
• Humboldt Progressive Democrats Endorse Candidates in Arcata, Eureka City Council Races, Urge ‘No’ Vote on Measure F
• Measure F Could Wreak Legal and Financial Havoc on Eureka, California Housing Defense Fund Warns
• With $1.15M From Security National, Measure F is Now the Most Expensive Ballot Initiative in Eureka History
• THE ECONEWS REPORT: What If Measure F Passes?
• The Measure F Campaign Called Him a Criminal and a Cheat. He Has a Different Story to Tell.