24th Annual
April 6th–8th 2017
presented by
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Table of Contents Alumni Welcome Center opens doors to its new downtown SLO location Building a sense of community with PolyCultural Weekend Getting ahead of the curve with Quarter Plus Grand Marshal Phil Bailey honored at Poly Royal Parade Journalism department unveils new broadcast studio Paying it forward with Cal Poly Corporation Pirates of Penzance: A celebration of laughter, love and duty 2
schedule of events Full Schedule of Open House Events
College of Liberal Arts
College of Science & Mathematics
Orfalea College of Business College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences College of Architecture & Environmental Design College of Engineering 3
Alumni Welcome Center opens doors to its new downtown SLO location by Hannah Benson
Many students remember Open House as their first experience as a member of the Mustang Family. Family accompanies you to see what the school and surrounding area have to offer. This experience might be your first introduction to college life. However, this weekend-long event isn’t just for students. Open House also caters to Cal Poly’s extensive alumni network, marking the transformation from prospective high school graduate to college student to alumni. Cal Poly prides itself on treating its students well no matter where they fall on that timeline. The new Alumni Welcome Center will work to serve this same goal.
However, the move marks an expansion rather than a transfer; the Alumni Welcome Center on-campus location will still be around. “The alumni association will still have an on-campus presence in the Albert B. Smith Alumni & Conference Center for an events planning office and a front lobby to pick-up alumni ID cards,” Assistant Vice President of Alumni Outreach Ellen Cohune said. Meanwhile, the new center is equipped with a dedicated event space to host local events and in-person donor meetings, as well as an outdoor patio. “The patio is shared with the students that live in the lofts, so it’s a really great opportunity to expose the students involved with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to some of our alumni that come back to town,” Cohune said.
The grand opening of this new Alumni Welcome Center is scheduled during Open House, with a welcome reception for alumni April 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. The event will be hosted at 852 Monterey St., located on the According to Cohune, the relationship between corner of Monterey Street and Chorro Street. Cal Poly and downtown San Luis Obispo will The new facility will have four student assistants and eight full-time staff members. Two of grow stronger with the addition of the Alumni those positions are new to the alumni relations Welcome Center. team; one specializes in alumni engagement “We will have a prominent downtown presence,” and giving programs and the other focuses on Cohune said. “We have the HotHouse, The marketing support. Lofts student residences — both
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associated with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — the University Store and now the Alumni Welcome Center.” The attraction of downtown is particularly strong for alumni. The alumni association is looking to promote alumni-owned businesses to visitors and past Mustangs can also recreate fond memories at the family-friendly Farmers’ Market on Thursday nights.
“Since 2013, the CPAA has tripled its number of alumni volunteers throughout the U.S. and has seen an 80 percent increase in the number of alumni chapters,” Cohune said.
The center’s new location and increased amenities will help support the generosity of the alumni network, which expands Cal Poly’s impact to a global level. The opening of the new Alumni Welcome Center signifies a new “A lot of people live in major metropolitan areas chapter for the alumni association, one that after they graduate and they like to come back many students will soon be a part of. to that small, college-town feel with locallyowned restaurants and shops,” Cohune said. It is important that the Cal Poly Alumni Association (CPAA) caters to this downtown allure, as the alumni engagement is growing more and more prominent with each passing year.
photo courtesy of Cal Poly Alumni
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Building a sense of community with PolyCultural Weekend by Caroline Ster
photo courtesy of Pilipino Cultural Exchange
PolyCultural Weekend (PCW) is a three-day orientation program that pairs conditionally admitted students with a current student in a cultural organization based on similar interests, such as ethnicity or major, to give them a feel for life at Cal Poly. About 20-30 cultural clubs on campus come together to show prospective students the academic, social and cultural resources that Cal Poly has to offer. Participants 18 years old and younger will stay on campus to fully experience residential life while transfer students older than 18 have the option to stay off campus. “Where I stayed in the dorms for PCW is where I live now,” architecture freshman Reii Nelle Del Campo said. “I got to see where I would live and get a feel for what it was like to live there.”
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The event kicks off Friday, April 21. On the first night there is a welcome dinner introducing the program, as well as giving prospective students a chance to meet their hosts for the weekend. Events during the weekend include tours of each college, a tour of downtown, club showcases, performances and countless activities. “The program has two parts to it,” PCW food coordinator and modern languages and literature senior Rachel Scales said. “The first is to help students of color or underrepresented students feel like they have a space here on campus and to help create a welcoming environment. The second one is to help people decide to come to Cal Poly.”
The overall goal of the weekend is to establish a sense of community and belonging as well as provide students with the resources and skills they need to be successful at Cal Poly. “It’s not just about trying to get high school students to come to Cal Poly, it’s also a lot of educating our own students on what resources are available,” PCW resource coordinator and mechanical engineer senior Maya Manzano said. “Getting connections early and knowing there will be people there for you is a big factor.” While lack of diversity at Cal Poly is something that PCW tries not to focus on, the event is not trying to hide it either. Cal Poly is a predominantly white student body, which is something that many students notice right off the bat. “Cal Poly is the least diverse out of all Cal state systems, so that’s a double edged sword,” PCW housing coordinator and electrical engineering senior Austin Rivera said. “It’s the least amount of people in those categories but that makes the community even tighter. PCW gives the students a chance to be exposed to that.”
photo courtesy of Pilipino Cultural Exchange
While the participants are attending all of their events, parents and guardians have the option of attending a Parent Panel and a First Generation Student Workshop. They will have the opportunity to ask questions to students, faculty and staff that are involved in different campus organizations and resources at these events. The PCW coordinators have been working toward making the event more accessible. PCW offers scholarships to families who may not be able to afford the event. Charter buses have been added this year to make the event more accessible, leaving from San Francisco and Los Angeles. Each bus is able to seat 80 people. PCW is a chance for prospective students to make lasting connections and see what life at Cal Poly would be like for them and strengthen San Luis Obispo’s cultural community.
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photo courtesy of Cheri Baumgarten
Getting ahead of the curve with Quarter Plus by Jacque Bergquist
Incoming freshmen have the opportunity to get ahead on their general education (GE) course requirements even before fall quarter begins through the Quarter Plus summer bridge program. Quarter Plus is a four-week summer program designed to help incoming freshmen acclimate to life at Cal Poly. It’s a chance for the students, dubbed “scholars” by the attending faculty, to take highly sought-after GE courses before the rest of Cal Poly students have access to them.
“The experience really gets students prepared to be successful in the fall,” Vice Provost of International Graduate and Extended Education Brian Tietje said. “It can be quite a transition for students to go from high school to Cal Poly.” However, the summer classes aren’t a walk in the park. Students cover what is usually 40 hours of class over the span of 10 weeks in four weeks during the summer. Luckily, they are not alone in this endeavor. In addition to the 200 students admitted to the program, these students also have the guidance of their professors as well as current Cal Poly students, known as learning assistants.
From Aug. 12 to Sept. 8, students take two fourunit GE classes. Every Quarter Plus student takes COMS 101, fulfilling GE area A2. From there, students will be assigned a second GE to take based on their incoming credits. Some of “Having the learning assistants was such a those classes include: Biology of Sex (BIO 123) pivotal moment in the program,” two-time for GE B2 or General Psychology (PSY 201) for learning assistant and business administraGE D4. tion junior Rachel D’Orazio said. “They were
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our first connection to college and to being a college student. They were really our role models in terms of what it took to be a successful student.”
“I love the environment. It allows me to have a conversational style and encourages participation. The smaller the group, the more comfortable environment, the more students Learning assistants help students adjust to the are willing to ask questions,” political science professor Ronald Den Otter said. “Large college workload. They help organize study classes are not student friendly, and I don’t sessions, moderate group discussion and teach time management skills that are invaluable for think they’re really teacher friendly either.” students just graduating high school. These In addition to advising on academic success, skills help better prepare students for fall quar- learning assistants organize social events. ter and the rest of their time at Cal Poly. These events give students the chance to destress and socialize, as well as showcase what “I have to contribute a lot of my success acaSan Luis Obispo has to offer. This includes demically as a student now to the Quarter Plus scheduling beach days, planning hikes, hostprogram,” D’Orazio said. “It taught me how ing barbeques or visiting downtown, all to give to manage my time, it taught me how to work students a chance to build relationships with well under pressure and it taught me to really enjoy the challenges, because that can be hard.” each other. While shorter than a usual quarter, students who decide to take the Quarter Plus program aren’t losing out on any class time. During the four-week period, students are still expected to write papers, turn in homework and take midterms and finals. The smaller class sizes, usually around 35 students, increase the amount of discussion and interaction between students and professors, even with the shorter frame of time.
photo courtesy of Cheri Baumgarten
Teaching incoming freshmen how to balance a heavy academic life as well as a healthy social life is one of the learning assistants’ goals, and helps transition students from high school to college life. “College is a challenging experience,” D’Orazio said. “Quarter Plus helped me see the beauty in challenging myself, and in failure too. It showed me that I really could be successful.” The Quarter Plus program costs $3,814, which covers housing and dining in addition to the two GE courses. During the course of the program, students will stay in the Poly Canyon Village apartments. Applications are currently open at www.quarterplus.calpoly.edu for incoming freshmen that meet the minimum requirements for the program.
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Grand Marshal Phil Bailey honored at Poly Royal Parade by Beth Strutz
For years, Cal Poly’s Open House and concurrent Poly Royal Parade have been an exciting weekend for Mustangs and their supporters. This year College of Science and Mathematics Dean Phil Bailey is being honored as the parade’s Grand Marshal, according to a press release by Program Coordinator for New Student & Transition Programs Nate Alcorn. Bailey is a long-respected professor at Cal Poly, having taught at least one class nearly every year of his almost 50-year tenure. He’s been heavily involved in Open House since his arrival, serving as faculty adviser for the chemistry department’s Open House committee, in addition to presenting “chemistry magic shows” for thousands of students and families every year. Though Bailey is retiring at the end of the 2016-17 academic year, he will continue to be involved in both Open House and the university. According to the press release, he plans to manage the Frost Program — which includes a variety of scholarships for undergraduate students and supports undergraduate research — as well as oversee construction of the new Science and Agriculture Teaching and Research Complex. Bailey’s legacy will also continue in a phrase that is ingrained in the minds of nearly every Mustang — “Study 25-35 hours a week.” This
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photo courtesy of Brittany App
mantra, first coined as a part of his “25-35 Campaign,” is emblazoned on magnets, posters, flyers and often repeated in emails, syllabi and classes all over campus. Bailey is also an active proponent of the famed Learn by Doing philosophy, emphasizing thorough understanding and application of the concepts learned in the College of Science and Mathematics, rather than just rote memorization and regurgitation. He also cites the importance of healthy eating, self-care and plentiful sleep for success, while consistently supporting student success in the academic arena. “We thought selecting Dean Bailey to be our Grand Marshal would be a great way to honor him and all he has accomplished for the Cal Poly community in his years here,” co-chair of the 2017 Open House committee and civil
engineering senior Rebecca Villalobos said. As Grand Marshal, Bailey will be the ceremonial leader of the Poly Royal Parade, which serves to kick-off Open House’s Poly Royal Celebration. The celebration consists of the Poly Royal Parade and the Poly Royal Rodeo. It involves a wide variety of activities celebrating Cal Poly organizations, history and the Learn by Doing philosophy, as well as everything Cal Poly and its Mustangs have to offer. For more information about Open House, visit www.orientation.calpoly.edu/open-house, or call 805-756-7576.
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photo courtesy of Andrew Epperson
Journalism department unveils new broadcast studio by Austin Linthicum
While students were on spring break, the Cal Poly broadcast studio was undergoing a major upgrade from standard to high definition. After its last upgrade in 2003, the studio had fallen far behind the times. Recent graduates said employers noticed the lack of high definition quality in their work compared to their peers from other universities. “When our broadcasts were in standard definition, it discouraged me to show them off,” journalism sophomore Connor McCarthy said. “They didn’t match the quality of the content we were producing.” The department realized that making the upgrade was necessary, but all they had were sporadic donations and hand-me-downs from local news affiliates. The total cost amounted to $125,000 — out of reach with their budget.
In Spring 2016, Horner and several other journalism students went to Cal Poly's "An Evening of Green and Gold," an event showcasing student achievement to some of the university's largest donors, and began pitching the upgrade. While at the event, Cal Poly Foundation Chairman Bill Swanson approached the journalism department booth and the students gave the pitch. “I honestly thought he would forget who I was in an instant,” Horner said. Fast forward to Fall 2016; Horner was invited to pitch to a select group of Cal Poly donors by College of Liberal Arts Dean Doug Epperson.
“I was super nervous, but I made a very passionate pitch,” Horner said. “I told them that I put a lot of hard work into my pieces at the station, but was embarrassed to show them because it looked like I was from the ‘80s!” “We had to replace switchers, distribution amps, processors and the list goes on,” broadcast Horner said she initially thought it wasn’t gospecialist and adjunct journalism professor ing to happen because there was no response Thomas Morales said. “It's a lot more extensive from the audience. than simply replacing the cameras.” However, that night she received an email Leah Horner, last year's Mustang News broadcast news director and Winter 2017 graduate, took on the challenge of raising the money. “I realized the quality of our education at Cal Poly is incredible, but our technology did not reflect that,” Horner said.
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from Swanson asking who to make a $100,000 check out to for the "Bill and Cheryl Swanson HD Studio." The remaining $25,000 came from Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong.
photo courtesy of Andrew Epperson
“We are so grateful to the Swanson family for stepping forward,” journalism department chair Mary Glick said. “The students do a good job. Now they will be able to compete on equal ground.” New features include a 360-degree camera, picture-in-picture, transitions and the ability to connect to more in-studio and remote video sources. Other networks will also be able to connect to Cal Poly’s live video feed for interviews. Current Mustang News broadcast news director and journalism senior Chloe Carlson is excited to take Mustang News shows to a “whole new level.” “Students will have the opportunity to get a better feel for what it is like to direct a show in a modern control room,” Carlson said. While Horner graduated in winter, she said all her work was worth it to improve the department as a whole and for everyone that will get to use it. "I know that the studio will be put to amazing use in the future," Horner said. "This is an important step to becoming one of the best journalism schools in the country." photo courtesy of Andrew Epperson
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photo courtesy of Erica Patstone
Paying it forward with Cal Poly Corporation by Jacob Lauing
Campus Dining feeds students. The University Store helps educate them. But Cal Poly Corporation — which owns and operates Campus Dining and the University Store — serves the Cal Poly community more than just tri-tips and textbooks. As an auxiliary organization at Cal Poly, the Corporation invests millions of dollars back into the university every year. There are approximately 90 auxiliaries in the California State University System, all of which provide revenue-producing services to their primary entities. Cal Poly Corporation’s main commercial services include Campus Dining,
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the University Store, Cal Poly Downtown, Cal Poly Print & Copy and Conference and Event Planning. Auxiliaries are self-supporting, meaning they receive no state funding. Net revenue earned by auxiliaries stays on campus. Incorporated in 1941, Cal Poly Corporation has been giving back throughout its history. During World War II, the Corporation collaborated with the Navy to run a flight school on Cal Poly’s land. The project provided revenue to support buildings, train flight school faculty and fund many housing and food services jobs at Cal Poly.
That tradition of paying it forward continues today. Cal Poly Corporation funds student investment management projects in the College of Business, purchases and resells student-made Cal Poly food products, and provides financial support to various university programs as well as on-campus facilities such as the Sports Complex, Spanos Stadium and the engineering plaza. And paying it forward does not stop at just cash. Cal Poly Corporation employs more than 2,000 students who work across the Corporation’s commercial and corporate services. Between preparing food at Campus Dining, assisting in University Store operations and contributing to the Corporation’s marketing and information technology efforts, students gain hands on, Learn by Doing experience. In 1993 the Corporation received Swanton Pacific Ranch from Orchard Supply Hardware owner Al Smith, an acquisition that has created many opportunities for students in forestry, natural resources and farming. From meals to textbooks, students at Cal Poly trade cash for goods with the Cal Poly Corporation every day. Those daily exchanges provide the funds for a larger transaction, one where students are paid back in more ways than one.
photo courtesy of Cal Poly Corporation
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Pirates of Penzance: A celebration of laughter, love and duty by Meghan Dieckmann
Cal Poly’s student opera theatre will be performing Central Coast Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic operetta Pirates of Penzance spring quarter. “It’s very silly, all the Gilbert and Sullivan’s are very silly. It’s about a bunch of pirates in the south of England and one of the pirates, named Frederic, who is the main character, is a pirate’s apprentice,” Marcy Irving, co-founder and director of Central Coast Gilbert and Sullivan, said. The opera starts with Frederic’s 21st birthday, the day that marks his release from his apprenticeship. “He has a very strong sense of duty, and he’s going to leave the pirates because he realizes a pirate is a bad thing to be, so he’s [leaving to] have a more respectable life,” Irving said. On his birthday, Frederic happens to meets the young and beautiful Mabel, and the two of them fall in love. Meanwhile, the rest of the pirates fall in love with Mabel’s beautiful sisters, but the noble father of the girls, Major General Stanley, objects to the pirates and a fight ensues.
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Some roles are double cast to provide as many students with chances to perform and learn as possible, according to a press release from the music department. Music senior Chris Wall plays Frederic, the pirate apprentice; music senior Corey Hable plays the major-general, who may lose his daughters in marriage to the orphan band of pirates; mechanical engineering sophomore Joshua Mueller and chemistry sophomore Chris Tusan play the conquering pirate kings; local musician Liam Daley plays Samuel; theater senior Hannah Littier and music senior Samantha Foulk play the beautiful Mabel; mechanical engineering senior Kelsey Ishimatsu-Jacobson and music junior Lauren Hartog sing and act as Ruth; and music senior Gabriela Crolla, music senior Jill Gibson, music freshman Molly Gooch and music senior Jennifer Jang sing the roles of Edith, Isabel and Kate, the daughters of the major-general. The show could not have been possible without students helping as stage managers, assistant directors and producers, as well as assisting with makeup, costume design and stage design.
The student choir will be featured in the show, along with students performing as the various characters, promising a lively operatic and musical performance.
The show is being performed to celebrate retiring music professor Tom Davies, who is conducting Pirates of Penzance and is Cal Poly’s director of choral activities and vocal studies.
“It’s fabulous, it’s a classic. I’ve really loved Gilbert and Sullivan my whole life, so for me, my mission in life is to spread Gilbert and Sullivan, especially to young people — so I hope people do come because it’s fun and upbeat and catchy,” Irving said.
The show will be open to students and the public Friday, April 7 and Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Alex and Faye Spanos Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at the Ticket Office from noon to 6 p.m, or by calling 805-SLO-4TIX. Tickets are $9 for students and $14 for the public.
Irving named the organization after the original Gilbert and Sullivan, a pair of British opera composers in the 1800s who are still famous today for their work. Pirates of Penzance promises to be a hilarious and feel-good performance, able to be enjoyed by students and families alike.
Photo courtesy of Jacalyn Kreitzer Back: Corey Hable, Joshua Mueller; Middle: Gabby Crolla, Sam Foulk, Jill Gibson, Liam Daley, Kelsey Ishimatsu-Jacobson, Hannah Littier, Lauren Hartog; Front: Molly Gooch, Jacalyn Kreitzer, Chris Tusan
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