Recent News
Cal Poly Spring Jazz Concert on May 28 to Celebrate New Single
Apr 27, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO —Cal Poly’s Jazz Ensemble and Vocal Jazz Ensemble will present the Spring Jazz Concert at 7:30 Saturday, May 28, in Spanos Theatre.
The concert will celebrate the digital release of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble’s new single, “Sunlight,” which is an arrangement by Cal Poly Director of Jazz Studies Arthur White of a tune by Esperanza Spalding. Music major and vocalist Danna Dumandan and Grammy award-winning drummer Gregg Bissonette are featured on the recording, and White performs the other instruments. The single will be available from streaming music services the week of May 23 and is part of a full album that is scheduled to be released in the fall.
Cal Poly to Open New Latinx Center in Fall 2022
Apr 26, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly plans to open a new Latinx Center during fall quarter 2022, with a tentative grand opening ceremony and celebration slated as part of Latinx Heritage Month in September.
The new center is intended to create an environment that fosters belonging, empowers Latinx students to thrive, and provides them holistic support. In turn, the center will offer Latinx students the opportunity to gather and build community while exploring their cultures, histories and traditions. Open to all students, the center will feature an accessible computer lab, lounge space and culturally relevant workshops and collaborative programming.
The Latinx Center will be the newest addition to Student Diversity and Belonging (SDAB), a collective of campus resource centers within Student Affairs that aim to provide a home away from home for underrepresented students at Cal Poly.
Cal Poly Finance Team Advances in Global Competition with Analysis of PayPal Stock Outlook
Apr 26, 2022
Business Students won local, regional titles in CFA Investment Research Challenge and
advanced to the highest level of any team from the university’s Orfalea College of Business
SAN LUIS OBISPO — A detailed analysis of PayPal’s stock outlook, with a recommendation to sell, helped a team of Cal Poly finance students surpass hundreds of others recently in the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge.
Competing against over 900 schools from North, Central and South America, the Cal Poly team was one of just 17 that advanced to the Americas' semifinals held this month, having won the local and subregional stages. The global competition includes over 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from universities in more than 91 countries. Students are tested on their analytical, valuation, report writing and presentation skills.
Cal Poly Animal Science Students Advance to National Competition with First-Place Win
Apr 25, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly animal science students used their knowledge of drought, livestock and rangeland management to win a recent regional competition, advancing them to the nationals in June. The team animal science majors took first place at the 2022 Western Section of the American Society of Animal Science Academic Quadrathlon, held April 1-2 at Cal Poly.
The team included Sophia Juarez from San Pedro, California; Rachael Stucke, from San Mateo, California; Ashley Tartaglia, from Delano, California; and Genna Vieira, from Fremont, California. They competed in four events: a written exam, oral presentation, a practicum of eight labs, and a quiz bowl.
Cal Poly’s Leaning Pine Arboretum Receives $1 Million Donation for Upgrades and Improved Programming
Apr 25, 2022
Gift from longtime university supporters Kathleen Enz Finken (former provost) and Gerald Finken honors agriculture dean Andrew J. Thulin
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Kathleen Enz Finken, Cal Poly’s provost from 2012-19, and her husband, Gerald Finken, both longtime supporters of Cal Poly, have donated $1 million to the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science’s Leaning Pine Arboretum. The gift was made in honor of Andrew J. Thulin, the college’s dean since 2013 and former head of the college’s Animal Science Department.
Nestled on five acres, the Leaning Pine Arboretum is Cal Poly’s living classroom for students, faculty and the community. The arboretum features a stunning array of landscape plants representing the world’s five Mediterranean climate regions.
This collection of landscaping serves multiple purposes for the university and community. An extension of the Cal Poly Horticulture and Crop Science Department’s Environmental Horticulture Science facility, the arboretum’s foremost goal remains education: a resource for independent study, research and workshops that promote horticulture best practices for Cal Poly students and faculty spanning numerous areas of study.
Cal Poly Announces Renamed 1901 Marketplace Dining Complex, with Renovation Underway
Apr 21, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Following months of campus feedback, Cal Poly has renamed its Campus Dining complex (Building No. 19) 1901 Marketplace, a nod at the university’s founding year and in recognition of what the reimagined facility will become.
The renaming of the university’s longest serving dining facility, the former home of The Avenue and 805 Kitchen, is part of a major renovation that will create a gathering place at the center of Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing culture.
Cal Poly Campus Dining Joins Plant-Based ‘Grate-Ful’ Event on April 27 to Raise Sustainability Awareness
Apr 21, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly Campus Dining will join 300 other colleges and universities nationwide to recognize Stop Food Waste Day by hosting a “Grate-Ful” event and celebrating gratitude for the Earth on April 27.
Campus Dining is working with campus and community partners on activities such as volunteer harvesting and donations, plant-forward menus, teaching kitchens, sustainability pledges, Earth-friendly activities and more.
“We’re proud and excited to participate and share with as many people as possible some easy ways they can reduce their impact on the Earth,” Campus Dining Director Jess Dozier said.
San Luis Obispo International Film Festival Features May 1 Showing of ‘La Perla,” Starring Famous Cal Poly Alumnus
Apr 20, 2022
Latino Outreach Council and Cal Poly Office of University Diversity and Inclusion collaborate to show film starring Pedro Armendáriz, who attended from 1928-32
SAN LUIS OBISPO — As part of a collaboration years in the making, the Latino Outreach Council of San Luis Obispo County and Cal Poly’s Office of University Diversity and Inclusion are co-sponsoring the showing of “La Perla,” an iconic Mexican-American film, during the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1 at the Fremont Theater.
The 1947 film is based on John Steinbeck’s classic novella “The Pearl,” which published that same year. Steinbeck and renown Mexican director Emilio Fernández co-wrote the screenplay. The film stars Cal Poly alumnus Pedro Armendáriz as a poor fisherman who discovers a perfect pearl that subsequently transforms his and his family’s lives.
Armendáriz was a famous Mexican actor born near Mexico City in 1912. From ages 16 to 22, he attended Cal Poly, which then was a polytechnic high school and junior college, from September 1928 to the spring of 1932. He graduated in May of 1931 and stayed on as a junior college student for part of the next year.
Pianist W. Terrence Spiller to Perform Beethoven Sonatas May 13 at Cal Poly
Apr 14, 2022
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Pianist and Music Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will give an all-Beethoven recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 13, in the Pavilion of the Performing Arts Center.
The recital is the sixth in his survey of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven. For this year’s program, Spiller will perform two of Beethoven's most famous “named” sonatas: “The Tempest,” and the mammoth “Hammerklavier.”
Spiller retired from full-time teaching in March 2021, but he continues to teach applied piano in the Music Department.
Cal Poly Named a Top Producer of 2021-22 Fulbright U.S. Scholars
Apr 14, 2022
Three Cal Poly Scholars Awarded Fulbright Scholarships for 2022-23
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly has again been named a top producer of U.S. Fulbright scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The distinction was in the Master’s Colleges and Universities category for the 2021-22 academic year.
Cal Poly’s 2021-22 Fulbright scholars are Barry Jones, emeritus professor from the Construction Management Department, and Michael Lucas, emeritus professor from the Architecture Department.
Lucas taught in the Institute for Aesthetics and Arts Culture at University of Prešov in Slovakia with courses on Embodied Aesthetics and the Built Environment. He researched the wooden churches in the villages of the local Carpathian Mountains, which have survived wars and social change for 300 years.