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California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
File:Calpoly seal.gif
MottoDiscere Faciendo (Latin: "Learn by Doing")
TypePublic
EstablishedMarch 8 1901
EndowmentUS$140.1 million
PresidentWarren J. Baker
Academic staff
1,182
Students18,475
Undergraduates17,488
Postgraduates987
Location
San Luis Obispo
,
California
CampusSuburban, 9,678 acres (39 km²)
ColorsGreen and gold
AffiliationsCalifornia State University
MascotMustang
Websitehttp://www.calpoly.edu/

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (or Cal Poly for short) is a public university located in San Luis Obispo, California. Cal Poly is part of the 23-campus California State University system. The University offers a full spectrum of degrees, but it is best known for its engineering, agricultural, architectural, and business programs. The University is one of six polytechnic universities in the United States.

History

Overview

Cal Poly was established in 1901 when Governor Henry T. Gage signed the California Polytechnic School Bill. The California Polytechnic School was built in San Luis Obispo and held its first classes on September 30, 1903, offering secondary (high school) courses of study. The first incoming class was 20 students. The school continued to grow steadily, except during a period from the mid 1910s to the early 1920s when World War I led to drops in enrollment and drastic budget cuts forced fewer class offerings.

In 1924, Cal Poly was placed under the control of the California State Board of Education. In 1933, the Board of Education changed Cal Poly into a two year technical and vocational school. The institution began to offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1940, and was renamed the California State Polytechnic College in 1947 to better reflect its higher education offerings. In 1960, control of Cal Poly and all other state colleges was transferred from the State Board of Education to an independent Board of Trustees, which later became the California State University system.

The college was authorized to offer Master of Science degrees in 1967. From 1967 to 1970, the school’s curriculum was reorganized into different units (such as the School of Science and Math, the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the School of Architecture, which was created in 1968). The state legislature changed the school’s official name again in 1971 to California Polytechnic State University. Since the 1970s, the University has seen steady enrollment growth and the construction of many significant buildings on campus. Cal Poly celebrated its centennial in 2001, and kicked off a $225 million fundraising campaign, the largest fund raising effort ever undertaken in CSU history. The Centennial Campaign raised over $264 million dollars from over 81,000 donors, more than tripling the university’s endowment from $43 million to $140 million. Cal Poly’s endowment is in the top 10% of higher education endowments nationwide.

Cal Poly Pomona relationship

Cal Poly Pomona began as a satellite campus in 1938 when a completely equipped school and farm were donated by Charles Voorhis of Pasadena, and his son, Jerry Voorhis. The satellite campus was initially called the Voorhis Unit. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation donated an 812 acre (3.3 km²) horse ranch in Pomona, California to Cal Poly in 1949. Located about one mile from the Voorhis campus, the two became known as the Kellogg-Voorhis unit. The Kellogg-Voorhis unit broke off in 1966, becoming the fully independent Cal Poly Pomona University. Since 1949, the San Luis Obispo and Pomona universities have cooperated on creating a float for the Rose Parade. The float program is one of the longest consecutive running self-built entries in the parade, as well as the only "self built" floats designed and constructed entirely by students year-round on both campuses.

Female admissions

Cal Poly opened as a coeducational school and had 40 men and 12 women in its incoming class of 1904. In 1930, females were barred from the entire school. Female students were again admitted in 1956, 27 years later, and the university remains coeducational today.

Football team plane crash

On October 29, 1960 a chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly football team, hours removed from a loss to Bowling Green, crashed on takeoff at the Toledo, Ohio airport. Twenty-two of the forty-eight people on board were killed, including sixteen players, the team’s student manager, and a Cal Poly football booster. Cal Poly alumnus John Madden’s fear of flying is commonly attributed to the crash. Madden, who played football for Cal Poly from 1957-58 and was coaching at a nearby junior college (Allan Hancock College) at the time of the crash, knew many former teammates aboard the plane. Among the survivors were quarterback Ted Tollner, who went on to become head football coach of the University of Southern California and is the current offensive coordinator for the NFL's Detroit Lions.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1961, LA County Supervisor Warren Dorn and Bob Hope provided a "Mercy Bowl" in LA Memorial Colisem between Fresno State and Bowling Green State to raise a Memorial Fund for the survivors and bereaved families. Along with a special Southern Pacific Train for San Luis Obispo residents, the one time event attracted a crowd of 33,145.
Memorial plaques are at Mott Gym, the Mustang horse statue, the peristyle end of the Coliseum at the end of the 1961 Mercy Bowl game, and the foot of the flagpole in Mustang Stadium.
Under renovation today, the new football stadium will be dedicated "Memorial Stadium" to the 1960 Football Team, as well as adding a memorial plaza.
From book "Cal Poly: The First Hundred Years".

Alma Mater

All Hail, Green and Gold,
May your praises e'er be told!
Of friendship, and of courage,
And of stalwart sons of old!
All Hail, Green and Gold,
In your name we shall prevail,
So to California Polytechnic,
Hail! Hail! Hail!
- Harold P. Davidson

Fight Song

Ride high you Mustangs,
Kick the frost out, burn the breeze;
Ride high you Mustangs,
Those bow-wows we'll knock to their knees.
Hi! Ki! Yi!
Ride high you Mustangs,
Chin the moon and do it right;
Ride high and cut a rusty,
Fight! Fight! Fight!
- Harold P. Davidson

What does it mean?
"frost out": warm up by running
"burn the breeze": run fast
"bow-wows": Fresno State Bulldogs, former football rival for the Victory Bell
"Chin the moon": rear up, as a horse
"cut a rusty": go a-courtin'
From: http://www.cpmaniacs.com/cms.php?node=FightSongMeaning

Endowment

File:Campaign results endow.gif
Cal Poly's endowment by year.

Cal Poly’s endowment more than tripled during its Centennial Campaign from US$43.1 million to US$140.1 million. It is now the largest in the CSU system, representing one-fifth of all endowed funds in the 23-campus system. Growth is attributed to gifts and prudent stewardship.

Cal Poly’s endowment is in the top 10% of higher education endowments nationwide based on market value.

Academics

===Programs and degrees===

The Agricultural Sciences Building

The university currently offers BA, BS, BAR, BLA, BFA, and Masters Degrees in seven colleges:

  • Agricultural Business
  • Agricultural Science
  • Agricultural Systems Management
  • Animal Science
  • BioResource and Agricultural Engineering
  • Crop Science
  • Dairy Science
  • Earth Sciences
  • Environmental Horticultural Science
  • Environmental Management and Protection
  • Food Science
  • Forestry and Natural Resources
  • Fruit Science
  • Nutrition
  • Recreation Administration
  • Soil Science
  • Wine and Viticulture


Outside the Architecture Building
  • Architecture
  • Architectural Engineering
  • City and Regional Planning
  • Construction Management
  • Landscape Architecture


  • Accounting
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Industrial Technology
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Masters of Business Administration
  • MS in Industrial and Technical Studies
The Cotchett Education Building


  • Administrative Services
  • Counseling/Guidance
  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Education Specialist
  • Literacy and Reading
  • Multiple Subject
  • Single Subject


  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • General Engineering
  • Industrial Engineering
  • Manufacturing Engineering
  • Materials Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Software Engineering


  • Art and Design
  • English
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Graphic Communication
  • History
  • Humanities
  • Journalism
  • Liberal Studies
  • Modern Languages & Literature
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Political Science
  • Psychology and Child Development
  • Social Sciences
  • Speech Communication
  • Theatre/Dance
  • Women's Studies


  • Biochemistry
  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Kinesiology
  • Mathematics
  • Microbiology
  • Physical Sciences
  • Physics
  • Statistics


Ranking

The main atrium of the Architecture Building
The Engineering West Building

According to U.S. News & World Report, Cal Poly is ranked the top public, largely undergraduate university in the western United States. Among the highest-regarded engineering schools, it is number 2 and 3 (for schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's) in the nation for its Computer and Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering programs respectively.

In a 2002 poll conducted by the leading architecture and engineering journal DesignIntelligence, Cal Poly was voted the number 2 architecture school in the nation.

Admissions

Students are required to choose a major when they apply and each candidate is judged against others applying to that major. Because of this, there is a large disparity between what type of student is admitted in different majors. However, the number of applicants in all majors exceeds the number of spaces available. The architecture science majors and some liberal arts majors are particularly difficult to get into. The agricultural majors are the easiest. To prevent students from applying for an easy to get into major and then transferring to another, the transfer process has been made extremely difficult. In some majors it is all but impossible.

In Fall 2004, 27,063 students applied to Cal Poly, and only 9,880 were accepted (an acceptance rate of about 37%). Of those accepted, 3,836 (38%) enrolled. The average GPA of freshmen admitted was 3.77, but even higher in some majors. In Fall 2004, 9,043 (57%) men and 6,784 (43%) women were enrolled in Cal Poly. As with everything else, the number of men and women is skewed by major. Liberal arts majors are dominated by women, while engineering, physics and architecture students are mostly male. It is not unusual for upper division classes in these majors to have few members of the opposite sex.

Tuition

As of September 2005, tuition for the average student was US$1,415 per quarter. Tuition has increased rapidly in the last several years. In 1997, tuition was about US$700. Some of the increases were to make up for the budget cuts by the State of California. Some tuition increases were made in order to hire additional faculty and improve campus facilities.

Campus

File:Christopher Cohan Center.jpg
The Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center

Cal Poly owns more land than any other California university, with the exception of UC Berkeley. There are 9,678 acres (39 km²) in total. The lands are used for student education, mainly agriculture. The lands include the main campus, two nearby agricultural lands and two properties in Santa Cruz county.

The Recreation Center

Parking

Parking on campus is a perennial problem, eliciting strong emotions in students and nearby residents. A large portion of students live off campus and commute to Cal Poly, in spite of the very high rents. Many choose to live off campus because of the campus-wide ban on alcohol, the long walk to downtown San Luis Obispo and the additional freedoms of off-campus living. Cal Poly has responded by building additional dorms and trying to make living on campus more enjoyable. The measures have been at least partially successful. A more direct approach to the parking crisis was the building of parking structures. However, the completion of the first parking structure was delayed for years, and the others aren't scheduled to start for several additional years. The parking situation has been made worse by the closure of one of the largest and most convenient parking lots on campus. The parking lot has since been cleared to make way for additional engineering buildings. Parking will undoubtedly remain a problem for years to come. Use of bicycles, while not as popular as one would expect, would likely alleviate parking woes for many students. Additionally, the city's bus system provides mostly adequate service to-and-from campus. It can be riden for free by students since part of the students' tuition goes toward funding the buses.

Although parking can be a frequent concern of enrolled students and university faculty, on-campus parking is plentiful compared to parking issues that plague some large American cities.

Similarly, housing costs in the city of San Luis Obispo, as in many California locations, are sometimes considered expensive. These costs, however, are not at all bad when compared to many other, more expensive California locations.

Residence Halls

There are five groups of residential halls on the Cal Poly campus. The five North Mountain halls (Diablo, Shasta, Palomar, Lassen, and Whitney) are the oldest on campus and were constructed during the 1950s. The Sierra Madre and Yosemite halls were finished by 1968. The six Red Bricks (Muir, Sequoia, Trinity, Santa Lucia, Tenaya, and Fremont) were built in the 1970s. The newest dormitories are in Cerro Vista (Morro, Cabrillo, Hollister, Romauldo, Islay, and Bishop), and they were completed in 2004. Construction on a new dormitory, Poly Canyon Village, began in 2006.

Cal Poly Foundation

The Cal Poly Foundation is a separate non-profit 501(c) corporation operating in concert with the University. Its primary role is to furnish all non-academic services on the campus, including cafeteria/dining, retail services (bookstores, clothing, etc.), publishing, and other programs on the Cal Poly Campus. This arrangement is relatively common at many CSU’s and UC’s.

In recent history the Foundation has not enjoyed a very popular reputation on the Cal Poly Campus. Most regard the Foundation’s products and services sub-par and overpriced when compared to what is readily available outside the campus. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the Foundation has a chartered monopoly on nearly all services on the campus and thus does not face any substantial competitive pressures. The Foundation has severely limited the presence of outside fast food chains and other retailers when compared to other CSU and UC campuses, limiting diversity. Student input into the Foundation’s leadership is very limited and many feel that it has grown detached from the needs of the student body it services.

As of February 1, 2006, Cal Poly Foundation has changed their name to the Cal Poly Corporation.

Foundation Operations

Notable alumni


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