A ‘Complex Campus’ 

Cal Poly Humboldt’s long road to an accessible future

For a person who uses a wheelchair, getting from the bottom to the top of B Street at Cal Poly Humboldt is complicated. They need to travel between the Dennis Walker Greenhouse and Wildlife and Fisheries building, through several floors of the Science A and Science B buildings, past the art buildings and Music B, through the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center quad and past the library. Or they can take the shuttle.

Jim Graham, a co-chair for the Committee on Accessibility and Accommodation Compliance (CAAC), describes the impact of the campus service while walking to Science B on a recent day.

“The shuttle is extremely important for accessibility on campus. However, it sometimes will make students late for classes,” he says. “And, of course, a lot of disabled folks, myself included, … want to do this without a shuttle. That independence thing.”

He presses the automatic button for the front door of Science B, which results in the door slowly swinging open a few inches before clicking shut again.

“Oh, that’s not a good sign,” Graham says with an awkward laugh. “All right, well, that’s a work request.”

He soon figures out the button can open the door, but only by pressing it continuously. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), automatic doors must stay open for a minimum of five seconds to allow a person to pass through.

“Sorry, this is part of the job. We have a complex campus,” Graham says.

An Open Forum on Accessibility

Improvements to accessibility on CPH’s campus are on the administration’s radar and starting to be addressed, but several faculty and students believe the changes should be happening faster, or should have happened already. A group of disabled students, faculty and their supporters attended the University Senate meeting’s open forum on Nov. 18 to address accessibility issues, and their level of urgency.

Rick Toledo, a representative for Students for a Democratic Society, was among several speakers present. He acknowledged that the university is taking steps to address accessibility, but he says it needs to be a higher priority.

“We need to be honest about the fact that these are ADA violations that still exist, and we have to get these taken care of,” Toledo says. “And I think being honest about that, being open about that, helps us to secure funding for that as well, because we’re going to need to ask for money to fix a lot of this stuff. These are big problems.”

Astra Mattingly, a student who wasn’t able to speak due to the forum’s time limit, shared in an emailed statement that she has been assisting Graham in developing a campus accessibility map. What they found was hundreds of issues had already been documented in audits done by the university in 2008, 2003 and even before then.

“There was an email sent out earlier this semester that effectively blew smoke around saying, ‘Things are improving!’ They may be improving but not at the pace or effort necessary to remedy a decades-long issue of denying a human and legal right — the right to live with dignity,” Mattingly says.

Ann Johnson Cruz, an employer relations manager for the university’s Career Development Center who uses a wheelchair, suggested there are smaller, less costly changes that can happen sooner to help the campus population.

“There aren’t enough resources. Facilities Management has identified hundreds of projects that need to be done in order for all the locations that there is limited accessibility to be fixed,” Cruz says. “But I think that with some resources at our disposal, we can do more things to help the larger populations of students that are running into accommodation problems.”

Is Progress Happening Fast Enough?

Acting Vice President for Administration and Finance Mike Fisher, in a written statement provided by the university’s news and information department, said the university is making efforts to update the campus to ADA standards. According to the ADA, buildings built before its inception are not required to meet all current accessibility standards but must achieve some level of access through an alternative set of requirements.

“Recent campus improvements include over 300 trip hazards fixed and 26 new accessible drinking fountains added,” Fisher said. “Ten major projects have transformed the campus, including new sidewalks, improved entrances and better door access.”

Currently, the university has 28 projects planned to improve signage for accessible restrooms, parking and several buildings. Campus maps will also be updated to show accessible pathways, and the university has an ADA Transition Plan that will begin in the summer of 2026. 

In Graham’s experience, he’s found that the university is good at responding to urgent requests like a broken railing, but foundational issues like fixing ridges in pathways and adding ramps takes much longer. 

He also notes that a significant portion of the university’s ADA violations disappear as older buildings are being demolished to make way for future construction. While Telonicher House, the communications department building with a main floor only accessible by stairs, is slated for the same end, that project has been continually delayed.

“I’m right there with facilities, either tear it down or — in my opinion — put faculty offices in it,” Graham says.

Aaron Donaldson, a lecturer in the university’s communications department, previously worked in the Telonicher House but regularly had trouble accessing the main floor due to mobility issues. He now works in an office in Founders Hall but feels physically and socially separated from his colleagues. While he says he’s received support from the department chair and some faculty, Donaldson believes the department shouldn’t continue to occupy Telonicher.

“I feel like my department took way too long to get angry about this, and that’s part of what has alienated me from my department,” Donaldson says. “The fact that I had to speak up about this has alienated me from my department, and it’s just weird to think about what my relationship would be like if we could go back 10 years and have me working in an accessible space.”

Graham, along with other committee members and students, has spent hundreds of hours developing a map on the Access Cal Poly Humboldt website (jim.reclaim.hosting/CSUAccessNow) highlighting the accessibility of pathways, parking, doors and more. This data has assisted with the creation of new maps posted around campus with accessible routes and locations. However, Graham notes there are some details on the university’s maps that aren’t currently accurate but will hopefully be fixed by next semester. B Street, for example, is labeled as an accessible pathway but has a slope grade of 10 percent and no railings, according to Access Humboldt’s map.

Johnson Cruz recently joined the CAAC as their staff representative and wants to use the power of collective knowledge to share alternative routes that otherwise wouldn’t be easily found, especially since she has previously gotten stuck trying to navigate B Street.

“I can get down it just fine in my motorized scooter, but getting back up it, my scooter turns off because the grade is too steep, and there’s a risk of falling backwards, so the chair just shuts down,” she says.

Navigating Cal Poly Humboldt Today, Preparing for Tomorrow

Johnson Cruz has faced access issues her entire life, and while she finds them frustrating at the university, she tries to make the best of the situation until things change.

“It doesn’t always feel good, it definitely doesn’t feel equitable, but can you make it work, I guess,” she says. “Sometimes you make sacrifices. I need a job. So I’m not gonna storm off and quit if something isn’t perfect for me or workable for me. I’m going to really try to fight to find a solution.”

Donaldson has been advocating for accessibility on campus since he started at the university in 2015, including the addition of more signage and the renovation of older buildings. Despite his efforts, he believes the potential dangers of campus access issues are still not fully understood by the administration. 

He has stepped back from some of his advocacy work due to accumulating burnout, but finds motivation through Graham’s work and media coverage of the barriers many staff and students face on a daily basis simply trying to navigate a campus abounding with hills and stairs.

“I think we need a seismic retrofit on this campus,” Donaldson says. “I think the campus is harsh. They say that there are challenges and I think as an administrator, you do face challenges — a lot of meetings, where are you gonna get the money? But it is not challenging to navigate this campus. It is scary. Falling is scary. Worrying that you’re gonna fall is not a challenge, that’s anxiety.”

Graham feels more optimistic about the progress being made by the university, especially with increased communication to and from the administration. He says he hopes to see a more equitable version of the campus in the future, provided the university has the funds and staff to accomplish it.

“And my hope is that we’re shifting from doing processing planning, getting that in place, and then it’s more working together to get the resources we need to address these issues in the long run, because it’s going to take a while,” Graham says. “I mean, there’s a huge number of issues, but if we got a couple million dollars every year, for about 10 years, we would be in a very different situation.”

Griffin Mancuso (he/him) is a freelance journalist based in Eureka. He is passionate about uplifting the stories of local communities and wildlife education and preservation. More of his work can be found at griffinmancuso.wordpress.com.

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