Letters to the Editor: College students living in cars, in the richest state of the richest country

To the editor: I was shocked to read about American students having to live in their cars to get an education in the richest country in the world. Then I was shocked even more by Cal Poly Humboldt’s cruel response.

You would think an institution of higher learning filled with well-educated leaders would make an effort to find a more humane solution to the problem than running these young people off its property as if they were unwelcome pests.

Bill Carey, Los Angeles

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To the editor: It seems unfair to target Cal Poly Humboldt on the front page for not allowing students to use commuter parking as live-in locations for their RVs, cargo vans and campers.

The students say they can’t afford to pay for housing and don’t wish to take out student loans, but I’m not aware of any university in California that allows its commuter parking lots to be used this way.

There are good reasons not to allow campus parking lots to become the sites of makeshift housing for those living out of cars and vans. To do so would deprive other students, some of whom need to live at home to afford college, of desperately needed parking, which is in short supply at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Affordable housing for students is a critical need. Perhaps The Times could investigate what legislators are doing to expedite its construction, or what Southern California universities are doing to accommodate their students without housing.

But targeting a rural university 650 miles north of L.A. for not allowing its parking lots to become homeless shelters seems grossly unfair.

Jennifer Keller, Trinidad, Calif.

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To the editor: Cal Poly Humboldt is part of the California State University, a public system that gets more than half of its funding from state taxpayers.

We the taxpayers should demand Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson and other university officials open up their homes and driveways to students who want and deserve a higher education despite their limited economic means.

Your article cites the university’s defense that it is merely adhering to longstanding parking regulations. Well, change the regulations. Provide a safe, communal area for low-income students who yearn for an education.

Steve Saeta, Santa Rosa Valley, Calif.