Stop Mandatory On Campus Housing

I do not agree with the decision being made. I do not feel safe live in an unsafe and unsuitable building like Motel 6 and would not want any of my fellow classmate to stay there. I feel that money could and should be put into the education of Cal Maritime. The money could go to hiring new teachers so classroom sizes can decrease or more classes can be offer more than once a year. Students should not have to do another year of college because they just failed one class and have to wait until the next year to take it. Moving off campus was the best thing that I ever did for myself while at Cal Maritime. I feel that I can actually study and enjoy life more than I never could while in on campus housing. Teachers and faculty of the school notice that students that live off campus are much more relaxed and enjoy life more. Intern most students excel in their education.

If this petition doesn’t work they should at least lower housing prices since we have no choice but to stay on campus and be forced to pay their price, we need a choice.

2012 CMA Alumni

Wtf do you think you're doing????

A committee didn’t need to be formed to figure out why alumni involvement and donations are severely lacking here; things like this have plagued Cal Maritime for years. Requiring freshmen to completely fill the berthing spaces on The Bear, then have to completely move during their finals is absurd enough at a very stressful time of the year, now you want them living in a dangerous, unsanitary location and paying heavily to do so?? Stop adding more moneymaker dorms, and instead, expand the class offerings, better your faculty pay, and focus on the quality of education and graduates being produced. Every student, alumni, and professor feels there is just a constant money grab going on there, at the expense of the students, not only literally, but through the loss of quality professors due to the provost being unable to realize there are VERY few quality individuals looking to take a $50k/yr paycut, then still have to pay to get a master’s degree. My students ask me every year what has changed since I left CMA, and every year I answer them the same way: nothing has changed.

Seriously people - let’s stop punishing these parents and kids. Education is priceless. Let’s reward, encourage, help them to succeed. Instead of handicapping them.

While I understand that the threat of demerits was due to cadet trolling, it says a lot about the attitudes shown by faculty towards students that the tumors were given instant credibility. To state on the public facing website that “all students as of 2018 will have mandatory on-campus housing” is ludicrous. I also don’t give credence to the possibility that CSUM will attempt to force, say, parents such as myself who live off-campus with their children and spouses into a dormitory situation at the risk of forcing them to drop out. But again, the credibility that this train of thought has is appalling, and the example that is being set for future classes is mad. Are you intending to exclude adult students entirely from the school? I am self-centered enough to think that with a 3.9 GPA, Corps involvement, the leadership of a community outreach program, and the mature leadership and training I offer to my shipmates, you would consider older cadets such as myself valued members of the campus community? And this is not to brag; other older adult students in my class, ahead of, and behind me have made far greater contributions, and I’m only thinking of individuals I have known personally! You are discussing fully excluding a highly contributing sector of the campus community, and forcing subpar living conditions on the younger cadets.

Threatening cadets with demerits for their opinions is cowardly. All of the alumni mailers I get are going straight into the trash until CMA admin sorts themselves out. -Robert Belfield, MT 2012

It’s spelled depressed

This is a complete power trip

You will not force us to live on campus

My 2 sons were in their mid/upper 20’s when they transferred to Cal Maritime. Forcing adults to live with 18-23 year olds (still learning to him the inside the toilet bowl) is not reasonable. If the housing was better matched for cadets of similar age and was reasonable (cheaper than what they got off campus) then it may make more since. Still, it should not be without possibility of waiver for students who are performing well.

I’m tired of feeling oppressed by cal maritime

There are other ways to use the property. Please listen to the students and be open to other solutions.

I honestly believe that cadets are safer outside of the gates than within. Fall 2011 when confronted with reports of schizophrenic student behavior the housing staff and public safety both failed to investigate until a scared cadet called Vallejo PD. I doubt the quality of housing staff has changed much in 7 years.

My family has lived in Vallejo for the past 4 or 5 generations so when I found out there was a local engineering school I was thrilled. Being able to live with my family off campus was 95% of my reasoning for choosing Cal Maritime. I could not have been more wrong about that choice. I was made to believe that Off-Campus housing would be easy to obtain for a local, but instead I was required to live on campus for the first three years. Since then I have had to fight tooth and nail for the ability to live at home with my family. This resulted in my family and I incurring an unnecessary $35,500 of debt to pay for food and housing I didn't need. In addition, the heavy course load combined with the inability to escape campus at the end of the day caused me to experience depression for the better part of a year, which resulted in failing a class and needing to attend for an additional year. I for one lived at Motel 6 for about two months during my first semester while the Golden Bear was in dry dock. During our time at the motel, my classmates and I paid about $1800 in housing fees to live in rooms that were substandard. My bathroom at the motel had mold all around the bathtub and toilet both of which leaked during use. Others found razor blades in their bathrooms, as well as spiders and other bugs living in their bed sheets. I understand that there might be some legitimate financial reasons for the school to purchase Motel 6 and remove off-campus housing, but these decisions have been made with almost zero input from the student body. If the administration would like to institute these rules, I would highly suggest spending a week living in Motel 6 and experiencing what the average freshman student does. Substandard living conditions, nearly a mile walk to get to the only place your mandatory meal plan can be used (where you will inevitably get food poisoning), having no means of leaving campus (freshman are denied parking permits by default), and having decisions that

Not sure what's going on, but I absolutely don't agree with using the threat of demerits as a reprimand to student's lawful freedom of speech against policies they don't support, have no power over, yet are forced to pay into. I will be signing into this petition in a fashion of esprit de corps with my fellow cadets. We all sink or swim on this one, together.

All, Although this is a great place to share our ideas on the situation, it is highly advised that we all show up to the townhall meeting Thursday, February 8th at 11am in Mayo hall, and 4:30pm at Rizza. This is where we can have the biggest impact. It is open to students and the community. Bring overwhelming support for our argument. Bring you families. Bring your dog. Your cat. Anything that shows how far reaching their desicion is. I doubt they are going to respond to anything in the comments section. MAKE NEXT THURSDAY COUNT. If you are truly angered by this please show up and make your voice heard loudly.

Add this to the long list of reasons why Alumni don’t want to give back to Cal Maritime. All the university cares about is money and not the welfare of the students.

I have many concerns regarding the change in policy and the purchased property. First, is that the returning seniors have become accustomed to the independence and the responsibility of living off-campus. My husband and I have used this opportunity to turn it into a learning experience. We feel that our son has benefited by learning to budget, pay bills, plan and cook meals and schedule maintenance and repairs. We believe these tasks have helped to prepare him for his next journey after college. I have a couple of questions for the administration. What is to happen to the students that have signed two-year leases? What is my son to do with the furniture, housewares and the washer and dryer that we have purchased? I appeal to the administration to reconsider this policy change and waive it for returning seniors that are currently living off campus.