Michelle
Part 1
I see two computer monitors, my phone, my headphones, and a keyboard. I can see that I'm doing work for a class where I had to read an article, and that meant that I had to go to the library. Because I don't have internet at home, I'm in the library, and we get assigned a lot of articles that are outside of the required reading. My phone, it's the only place that I have the internet at my house, and I have to keep it with me even though it's just a cheap, throwaway, Android phone. It's kind of my lifeline to campus. It's my lifeline to everything computer related when I'm not here at school.
I think anybody who's been houseless has probably spent as much time in the library as I have. It's a really good place. It's a very centering place. Right? Because you get in there, it always smells the same, it sounds the same. There's variations in there, but it's warm and comforting in there, and nobody messes with you. Right? There's probably about 60 computers to use on the first floor, and if you're not holed up in your car or hiding out in your tent, it's a good place to be. Right? People leave you alone, and you can just chill out, or you can sit there and stress about all the work that you have to do, but it's a very familiar place.
I got that $20 phone card or internet card, so I'm not as dependent on coming to campus. But I don't know how other people budget their money when they're living transitionally or living outside, which has gotta be really rough. I know that even adding $20 into my budget is kind of nerve wracking. I guess I'm not really sure what that looks like coming from the school. Maybe more financial aid or more ways that we could, ways that we can check things out. Why couldn't we ... We can check out laptops in the library. Maybe we could check out a web-enabled laptop that you can take with you. Right? It has a card in it that has the internet 'cause I see these teachers with fancy things. Why can't the students have fancy things? Yeah, and $20 really is very reasonable. It's only for California students only. It's a special thing. Yeah, 'cause I think that's a lot more expensive in other places. Maybe the college could look into getting those, getting a block of them for students that they could have access. Just go check it out at the library desk like you do everything else.
Part 2
Here I am sitting outside, reading a book, and sitting in my weird position like I always do. I'm up by Founder's Hall, and there's a nice shady corner that you can sit in, and nobody actually walks over there. I have a three and a half hour break between classes, so I usually save up my work to do then. I was reading a really heavy chapter, so I needed to be all alone and reading.
Well, I think that we all learn how to carve out our own niche on campus. Right? Where are the spaces that we can go and get things done and get things accomplished? I think that you learn to have very intimate view of your places on campus. Right? Where are your places that you feel safe, that you feel you can get in the zone? I come to BSS a lot because I like sitting in the little alcoves. They have plugs, and you can sit in there quietly, and people leave you alone. I like this bench because there's only one little thing of stairs that go over there, and people just don't walk by very often. If I need to concentrate a lot, that's a good place. I think everybody's able to find places like that 'cause campus is pretty big.
I think we need to keep cultivating that sense of community that exists on campus because people ... Everybody says hi and whatever, but, in general, we respect one another and give each other the space to do what we need to do on campus.
Part 3
Well, this is my most familiar thing besides the computer in the library that I see, and it's the bus. It's the RTS Transit System, the Redwood Transit System, and it's the bus that goes between Eureka and Arcata, the one I have to take to get to campus. I take a lot of buses, and it definitely ... Sometimes it's time to catch up on reading. Sometimes I have to get into campus on my phone, which is very difficult, but the bus ... It's not enough time get anything major done, but it's enough time to get a little bit of work done while you're going between Eureka and Arcata. It's nice to have that routine 'cause then you're like, "Oh, well, at least I'm gonna be there on time today."
I have to leave 20 minutes ahead of time to get to the bus on time, which means that I have to know the schedule, which means that I have to be prepared because otherwise ... 'Cause it's a 15 minute walk from my house down to the 101, and I have to leave ahead of time because sometimes RTS shows up three minutes early, which should be against the law, but that's a whole 'nother thing. That's my resiliency in taking my job as being a student very seriously is that I am on the right buses. Even though it seems like such a little, inconsequential thing, it's actually a really important thing for me.
Well, I like that at HSU, your ID pays for the bus. That's good. That's a really good benefit to having your student ID. The bus is kind of pricey. It's three bucks to go from Eureka to Arcata, so that's one thing that they're doing right. Let's give credit where credit's do. They are doing that right. I don't really know what we could do better around it. Maybe beef up the weekend service to make sure people can get to campus and get their studying done on the weekend because Sunday is a bad day. Maybe they could add like one more bus per ... I don't know. Have an agreement with the transit system 'cause they obviously already have some kind of agreement since our HSU cards work. Maybe they could talk to them about that, so the people who use the bus can still get their work done. I think we could advocate and say, "The bus has been a great source of resilience for students to be able to utilize it as a source or transportation. It's included in the student fees. And if we could have more access to it and the internet and to libraries and things of that nature on the weekend, then" ... Because getting to campus is so important.
