California Polytechnic State University

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California Polytechnic State University
Motto	Discere Faciendo (Latin: "Learn by Doing")
Established	March 8, 1901
Type	Public
Endowment	US$155 million (2005)[1]
President	Warren J. Baker
Faculty	1,203
Students	18,475
Undergraduates	17,488
Postgraduates	987
Location	San Luis Obispo, California
Campus	Suburban, 9,678 acres (39 km²)
Colors	Green and gold
Nickname	Mustang
Mascot	Musty the Mustang
Affiliations	California State University
Website	www.calpoly.edu
See Cal Poly's quickfacts [2]

California Polytechnic State University, commonly called Cal Poly, is a public university located adjacent to San Luis Obispo, California, USA. Cal Poly is part of the 23-campus California State University system, and it is the second largest land-holding university in California.^[2] The university offers a full spectrum of degrees from seven colleges, but it is best known for its engineering, agricultural, architectural, business and printing programs. There are over 117,000 living alumni of Cal Poly.^[3] Cal Poly is known for their "learn by doing" philosophy.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Overview 1.2 Relationship with Cal Poly Pomona 1.3 Football team plane crash 1.4 Female admissions 2 Organization 2.1 Cal Poly Corporation 3 Campus 3.1 Commuting 4 Academics 4.1 Colleges 4.2 Ranking 4.3 Admissions 4.4 Tuition 4.5 Endowment 5 Student life 5.1 Residence halls 5.2 Greek life 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Overview

Cal Poly was established in 1901 when Governor Henry T. Gage signed the California Polytechnic School Bill. The California Polytechnic School was built adjacent to 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). Cal Poly's FM radio station, KCPR, also began as a senior project 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.

[edit] Relationship with Cal Poly Pomona

Cal Poly Pomona began as a satellite campus of Cal Poly 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.

[edit] Football team plane crash

On October 29, 1960 a chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly football team, hours after a loss to Bowling Green State University, crashed on takeoff at the Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio. Eighteen 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, although he has often said it stems from claustrophobia. Madden, who played football for Cal Poly from 1957-58 and was coaching at the nearby Allan Hancock Junior 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 San Diego State University.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1961, LA County Supervisor Warren Dorn and Bob Hope provided a "Mercy Bowl" in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum between Fresno State and Bowling Green State to raise a memorial fund for the survivors and bereaved families. The event raised about $200,000. As of 2006, memorial plaques for the crash can be found on campus at Mott Gym and the Mustang horse statue. A permanent memorial plaza opened with the new Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The memorial will has 18 copper pillars, one for each of the team members who died in the crash. Each copper pillar rises to the height of the player honored, and is adorned with a plaque about that player's life.

[edit] 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. Female students were again admitted in 1956 (27 years later). The university remains coeducational today.

[edit] Organization

The President of Cal Poly is currently (February 2007) Warren J. Baker who has been the president of Cal Poly since 1979.^[4]

[edit] Cal Poly Corporation

The Cal Poly Corporation is a separate non-profit 501(c) corporation operating in concert with the university. Its primary role is to furnish non-academic services for the university such as eateries, the bookstore, and endowment administration. This arrangement is relatively common at many of California's public universities. The corporation was founded in 1941, and it was known as the Cal Poly Foundation until February 1, 2006.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Commuting

Campus parking is somewhat limited. In its most recent survey of available parking spaces on campus, the Cal Poly University Police reported 2,615 general purpose parking spaces, 1,635 dorm resident spaces, and 6,621 total spaces.^[5] In its facilities Master Plan, the university admits that while more parking spots will be added, the actual ratio of parking to students will decrease since enrollment is expected to increase sharply.^[6] To resolve the disparity, the Master Plan calls on the university to reduce the demand for individual vehicle parking. As part of that plan, the university has constructed additional dorms and has tried to make campus life more enjoyable. However, many students would prefer not to live on campus for a variety of reasons, including the campus-wide ban on alcohol and mandatory meal plan. Recently, the school launched a public information campaign called "Options", which seeks to educate students on commuting alternatives, though it is not clear that the campaign has had any effect.

Bicycle racks are available throughout the campus, but the off-campus student population is mostly centered in areas either close enough to walk or areas judged to be too far to ride a bicycle. The city's SLO Transit bus system provides service to and from campus. Since the buses are partially subsidized by student tuition, Cal Poly students can ride for free.

[edit] Academics

[edit] Colleges

The University currently offers bachelor's and master's degrees in seven colleges:

• Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
• Architecture and Environmental Design
• Business
• Education
• Engineering
• Liberal Arts
• Science and Mathematics

[edit] Ranking

According to U.S. News & World Report's 2007 America's Best Colleges report, Cal Poly is ranked the top public university in the Western United States for schools whose highest degree is a master's. The College of Engineering was also ranked the second best public undergraduate school. Specific engineering programs were ranked 1st, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in electrical, industrial & manufacturing, computer, and aerospace engineering, respectively, for public schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's in the U.S.^[7][8]

In a 2006 poll conducted by the leading architecture and engineering journal DesignIntelligence, Cal Poly was voted the number three architecture school in the nation. The landscape architecture program was ranked in the top ten.^[9][10]

Cal Poly’s City and Regional Planning graduate program ranked highly in the Planetizen 2007 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs.^[11]

[edit] Admissions

31,103 students applied to Cal Poly for the 2006 fall quarter, and 11,726 were accepted (37%). Of those accepted, 3,836 (38%) enrolled.

Students are required to choose a major when they apply for admission and each candidate is judged against others applying to that major. Because of this, there are differences in the percentage of students admitted between majors. The architecture science majors and some liberal arts majors are particularly difficult to get into.^{[citation needed]} To prevent students from applying for an easy major and transferring to another major, the transfer process has been made difficult.

The average GPA of freshmen admitted was 3.87. The average combined SAT score was 1280. In fall 2006, 57% men and 43% women were enrolled in Cal Poly. Liberal arts majors are dominated by women, while engineering and physics majors are mostly male.^{[citation needed]} It is not unusual for upper division classes in these majors to have few or no members of the opposite sex.

[edit] Tuition

As of August 2006, tuition for the average student was US$1,450 per quarter^[12]. Tuition has increased rapidly in the last several years. In 1997, tuition was about US$700^{[citation needed]}. In 1981, the tuition was about US$300. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Student life

[edit] Residence halls

There are four styles of residence halls on the Cal Poly campus. The five North Mountain halls 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 were built in the 1960s, and Cerro Vista was completed in 2003. Construction on a new on-campus apartment complex, Poly Canyon Village, began in 2006.

Each of the residence halls represent a different living community on campus. The six red-brick halls are the Living-Learning Program halls for the different colleges of Cal Poly. The five North Mountain halls are organizationally a part of the engineering Living-Learning Program. The Sierra Madre and Yosemite halls are the First-Year Connection Program halls and focus on freshman-oriented transition programs. These buildings house students of all majors. The Cerro Vista Apartments is the Sophomore Success Program community and helps students transition into independent living. The total on-campus population is 3,600 (as of 2006), but will grow to over 6,300 after the Poly Canyon Village Apartments are completely opened in Fall 2009.

[edit] Greek life

Since 1949, Greek organizations have been present at Cal Poly. The Greek community consists of three governing councils at Cal Poly: Cultural Greek Council, Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association.

[edit] See also

• List of California Polytechnic State University alumni
• Alex G. Spanos Stadium
• Center for Coastal Marine Sciences
• Mercy Bowl

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Cal Poly Alma Mater and Fight Song

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