California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
| File:Calpoly seal.gif | |
| Motto | Discere Faciendo (Latin: "Learn by Doing") |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | March 8 1901 |
| Endowment | US$140.1 million |
| President | Warren J. Baker |
Academic staff | 1,182 |
| Students | 18,475 |
| Undergraduates | 17,488 |
| Postgraduates | 987 |
| Location | , |
| Campus | Urban, 9,678 acres (39 km²) |
| Colors | Green and gold |
| Affiliations | California State University |
| Mascot | Mustang |
| Website | CalPoly |
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 of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1938 when a completely equipped school and farm were donated by Charles Voorhis of Pasadena, California and his son Jerry Voorhis. The satellite campus was initially called the Voorhis Unit. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation then donated a 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 it had 40 men and 12 women in its incoming class of 1904. However, in 1930, females were barred from the entire school.[citation needed] Female students were again admitted in 1956 (27 years later). 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, and it is believed that this incident caused Madden to develop his well-known fear of flying. 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
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 university currently offers BA, BS, BAR, BLA, BFA, and Masters Degrees in seven colleges:
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Ranking
According to U.S. News & World Report, Cal Poly is ranked the top public university in the Western United States, for schools whose highest degree is a master's. 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
Cal Poly's admissions process is highly selective. 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 2006, 31,103 students applied to Cal Poly, and only 11,726 were accepted (an acceptance rate of about 37%). Of those accepted, 3,836 (38%) enrolled. The average GPA of freshmen admitted was 3.81, but even higher in some majors. The average combined SAT score was 1245. In Fall 2006, 57% men and 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
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.
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. Currently, the resident halls are mostly for freshmen and sophomores. More resident halls are expected to be completed by 2009. 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. Average rent for students living off campus who desire their own room is in the neighborhood of $550/month.
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 1960s. 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.
Each of the residence halls represent a different community on campus. The North Mountain Halls are Living-Learning Program halls for engineering students, and are mostly occupied by third-year transfers. The six Red Bricks are also LLPs for the different colleges of Cal Poly(Muir: Science and Mathematics, Sequoia: Architecture and Environmental Design, Trinity: Liberal Arts, Santa Lucia: Engineering, Tenaya: Business, and Fremont: Agriculture). Sierra Madre and Yosemite Halls are the First-Year Connection halls and focus on freshman-oriented transition programs into a college environment. Cerro Vista is the "Sophomore Success" program and helps students transition into living independently (e.g. cooking, apartment-style living).
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
- El Corral Bookstore
- Campus Dining
- Gift and Endowment Administration
- Sponsored Programs
- Educational Web Services Web application development, consulting, and hosting provider for the CSU
Notable alumni
- Marijon Ancich, winningest California high school football coach
- Gary Bloom, CEO of VERITAS Software
- Robert L. Gibson, retired chief, NASA astronaut office; piloted five space shuttle missions, including the first docking with the Russian space station Mir
- Kathleen Holmgren, Senior Vice President, Sun Microsystems Network Storage Solutions
- Michael Berryman, actor
- Mike Krukow, MLB baseball pitcher, radio and television announcer for the San Francisco Giants
- Mark Lucovsky, software architect known for being a part of the team that designed and built the Windows NT operating system for Microsoft.
- Chuck Liddell, Light Heavyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
- John Madden, sports broadcaster and former American football coach for the Oakland Raiders, who led his team to a win Super Bowl XI during the 1976-1977 season.
- Abel Maldonado, California State Senator (Since 2004)
- Bruce McPherson, California Secretary of State (Since 2005)
- Farzad Nazem , Chief Technical Officer of Yahoo
- John Orton, former Major League Baseball catcher
- Scott Peterson, convicted of killing his pregnant wife Laci Peterson who was also an alumna.
- Bill Phillips, former Mayor of Aliso Viejo, California
- Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne which won the ten million dollar Ansari X Prize
- Kristin Smart, went missing while attending in 1996.
- Ozzie Smith, retired Major League Baseball player and Hall of Fame inductee (2002)
- Frederick W. "Rick" Sturckow, US Marine aviator and two time NASA space shuttle pilot-astronaut
- William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of Raytheon
- "Weird Al" Yankovic, pop music singer known for his parodies
- Jordan Beck, NFL linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, taken in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft.
- Chris Gocong, NFL defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles, selected with the 71st overall pick in the 3rd round of the 2006 NFL Draft.
- Monty Roberts - internationally-renowned horse trainer and author
External links
- SLOweather.com has weather conditions, web cams, and forecasts for the area around Cal Poly