NEWS RELEASE
NOVEMBER 16, 2001
Contact: Teresa Hendrix
(805)-756-7266
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Cal Poly will receive some $294,000 in federal
education grant money over the next three years to help recruit and
retain students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The grant money will pay for recruiting at 32 partner high schools and
three Upward Bound programs throughout California. The grant money
will also pay for a summer program at Cal Poly to help those students
better prepare for college-level work, an academic advisor for the
students, and training for 20 Cal Poly faculty and staff members who
will serve as their mentors.
Cal Poly has pledged to continue the statewide recruitment after the
grant has ended, said Harry Hellenbrand, dean of the College of Liberal
Arts and chair of the university's Diversity Enhancement Committee.
The university actually began the program this year, before receiving
the grant money.
Cal Poly will receive $94,571 from the federal Department of
Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)
grant program. The university will receive $103,781 in 2002 and
$95,989 in 2003 for a total of $294,341.
The grant is important because it will help the university recruit and
retain students from underrepresented ethnic groups or socio-economic
groups who meet all qualifications to get into Cal Poly but who might
not have chosen to apply because they didn't think they could get in,
Hellenbrand said.
"We want to make sure that the university draws qualified students
from all socio-economic levels and family backgrounds from throughout
the state of California. We are unique within the California State
University system, in that Cal Poly is the only member of the CSU that
has a statewide mission," Hellenbrand explained.
Attracting students from underrepresented areas and backgrounds has
proved difficult because Cal Poly is "impacted" under the CSU
admissions system. It receives roughly four times more applicants every
year than it has openings for new students.
Thanks in part to the new grant, Cal Poly will now work with its 32
partner high schools to attract qualified students from those schools
and help them stay enrolled at the university. The university will
also help those students apply for financial aid.
Those partner high schools include Santa Maria High School, Lompoc High
School, Cabrillo Senior High School, Salinas High School, Calexico High
School, the California Academy of Math and Science, Chula Vista Senior
High School, Coachella Valley High School, Dorsey Senior High School,
Etiwanda High School, James Logan High School, the Los Angeles Center
of Enriched Study, Crenshaw Senior High School, Garfield Senior High
School, Roosevelt Senior High School, Newark Memorial High School,
Fremont Senior High School, Ramona Senior High School, Alisa High
School, Thurgood Marshall Academy, Andrew P. Hill High School and Wasco
High School.
The university will select 10 more partner high schools for the program
over the next year, Hellenbrand said.
As part of its effort to recruit students from disadvantaged
socio-economic backgrounds, the university will also reach out to
recruit students from three Upward Bound math and science programs for
teenagers held at Cal Lutheran University, UC Berkeley and USC.
Upward Bound serves students whose families are classified at 150
percent below the poverty line or whose parents have not completed high
school. The program has a proven record of preparing those students
for college.
Cal Poly was among 77 U.S. colleges and universities and six in
California to receive such grants from the FIPSE program.