Cal Poly Update - October 2008
Alumni News
Show Your Colors Nov. 8 at Homecoming 2008
Cal Poly's Homecoming 2008 celebration is set for Nov. 6-8 in San Luis Obispo. Where were you in 1958? If you were a senior at Cal Poly, this is the year for your 50-year class reunion. Golden Grads can enjoy walking and bus tours of campus, dinner and reminiscing with fellow classmates. Everyone is welcome at the annual Homecoming Tailgate Barbecue and Wine Tasting on the O'Neill Green in front of the Business Building. Enjoy California wines and a tri-tip barbecue while Cal Poly's University Jazz Band plays. Get your tickets early -- the barbecue, wine tasting and football game always sell out at least a week in advance. For the first time this year, you can order your tickets online.
Golden Grad 50-Year Reunion Details - Homecoming Web Site
Order Tickets Online
Alumni: Meet the 2008 Mustang Olympians at Homecoming
Now is your chance to meet Cal Poly's Mustang Olympians: Olympic Gold Medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton, Olympic Silver Medalist Gina Ostini Miles, 2008 U.S. Olympian Sharon Day and Canadian 2008 Olympian Jimmy Van Ostrand, as well as U.S. Paralympian Mark Barr (a current kinesiology student and member of the Mustang Men's Swim Team). All five will be honored at halftime at Homecoming Nov. 8. Log in to PolyLink anytime in October and fill out the 'Meet the Olympians" entry form for a chance to win tickets to the CPAA Wine Tasting, Tailgate BBQ, Homecoming Game Nov. .-- and get your photo taken with all five Mustang Olympians on the football field.
Alumni: More details on how you can Meet the Mustang Olympians
Nearly 9,000 Alumni Now in PolyLink - Do You Know Them?
PolyLink, Cal Poly's Online Community, celebrated its first birthday in September. To start the party, PolyLink gave Cal Poly sweatshirts to 12 alumni who logged in during September. There are now more than 9,000 alumni who have become a part of PolyLink -- from the Class of 1937 through the Class of 2008. More than 1,000 of them are already signed up to be career mentors. Visit www.calpolylink.com today and find out more.
More details on PolyLink
Alumni: We Want YOU to Vote for the PolyLink Photo of the Year
The first-ever PolyLink Photo of the Year Contest is taking place in PolyLink during October. Alumni: We Want YOU to vote for the PolyLink Photo of the Year. The voting is only open to PolyLink member alumni (PolyLink login is required). One voter will win a $50 gift certificate -- just for casting a ballot.
Read more details about the PolyLink Photo of the Year balloting -- including how to get your First Time Login Code if you are alumni but not yet a PolyLink member. Julie Walz (B.S., Industrial Engineering, 1996) is the October PolyLink Photo of the Month winner. She gets a cool Cal Poly Alumni window decal and a chance to be in next year's Photo of the Year competition. See Walz's photo in the 2008-09 PolyLink Photo of the Year Gallery - no login required.
Travel to China with Cal Poly Alumni Next Spring
The Cal Poly Alumni Association and Cal Poly Continuing Education are touring China and cruising the Yangtze River
April 29-May 11, 2009. Tour Beijing's Imperial Palaces and the Great Wall, see Xi'an's Terra Cotta Warriors, visit Shanghai, cruise the Yangtze River, and more. The trip also features a special look at Chinese culture including a Peking Opera performance. You don't have to be alumni to travel with CPAA - all Cal Poly friends are welcome.
More on the Spring 2009 Trip to China
Alumni in the News: See the Space Station Interview
Cal Poly Magazine's interview with engineering alum Greg Chamitoff -- currently aboard the International Space Station -- made the news this month -- it was picked up by at least one California news Web. If you missed the interview, now's your chance to see it. Chamitoff wasn't the only Mustang alum in the headlines this month. Read on for more alumni in the news -- and find out if you know them.
Alumni in the News
University News
CSU Approves Cal Poly Tech Park Funding
The California State University Board of Trustees approved Cal Poly’s request to design and build the proposed Technology Park Project Building at their meeting Sept. 16. The Trustees accepted the design-build proposal of $4.5 million submitted by Rarig Construction of San Luis Obispo. Another local firm, Omni Design Group, is the project architect. The project will be a 25,000 square foot, two-story building on Mount Bishop Road. The building will be leased to private high-tech firms seeking to locate their businesses on Cal Poly’s campus, enabling them to work closely with the university’s renowned faculty and students. Construction is expected to begin this fall.
More on the Cal Poly Tech Park
Cal Poly Announces Changes to Top Executive Staff
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs William W. Durgin (r) has been named university executive for research and external support. The appointment became effective Oct. 6. Durgin has served as provost and vice president of academic affairs since 2006. Robert Koob (l), who served as Cal Poly’s senior vice president and vice president for academic affairs from 1990 to 1995, has been appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs. Koob began serving a term appointment of up to two years on Oct. 6. A chemist by training, he earned a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker announced the appointments in late September.
Read more about the changes
Annual Parents' Weekend Set for October 25-26
Parents: this year you have your own weekend at Cal Poly! Cal Poly Parents' Weekend 2008 is set for Oct. 25-26. Come down and visit your student, take a tour of campus, and enjoy a Tailgate BBQ featuring music by Cal Poly's University Jazz Band before the Cal Poly Mustangs take on Southern Utah State in Spanos Stadium on campus. Watch the Cal Poly Parent Program Web Site for details and registration.
Sustainable Ag Resource Center
Starts Fall Season with Tours, Speakers
Cal Poly’s Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium (SARC) is reaching out on campus and off to increase visibility. The program, part of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, is working to advance sustainable agriculture across the West. SARC held a tasting tour featuring sustainably farmed Cal Poly wines, cheeses, grapes, strawberries, mushrooms, salads and more in late September at the campus Organic Farm. It also held its fourth annual fundraising dinner Oct. 2, featuring guest speaker Timothy J. LaSalle, CEO of Rodale Institute. The dinner featured dishes prepared by a host of the area's top chefs on the Central Coast.
Visit the SARC Web site
Read a SLO Tribune story on SARC
Cal Poly Kennedy Library Launches Digital Archive
The Kennedy Library has launched the DigitalCommons@Cal Poly, an online initiative that provides a centralized place to preserve and provide unlimited access to the rich variety of intellectual and scholarly work produced at Cal Poly. The DigitalCommons@Cal Poly contains research from a variety of disciplines, including agriculture, architecture, business, education, engineering, liberal arts, mathematics and science.
More about digital archive
Video Tour
Learn More About Cal Poly's Plans for On-Campus Student Housing
More than 1,500 sophomores are now living in the first phase of Poly Canyon Village - Cal Poly's newest student housing complex. Construction is continuing on the second phase. When the project is completed in 2009, Poly Canyon Village will offer 615 apartments with housing for 2,661 students, as well as 1,926 parking spaces and 11,255 square feet of retail space. It will also bring Cal Poly's total on-campus student population to 6,200. That will make Cal Poly's student housing program the largest in the 23-campus California State University System. Take a video tour of Poly Canyon Village and hear President Baker discuss Cal Poly's student housing plans.
Click here to see the video on PolyLink - no login required
Faculty & Staff
Professor Hoffman Publishes Research on Magnetic Field
The Earth’s magnetic field may be more complex than we originally thought. That’s according to groundbreaking research by Cal Poly Physics Professor Kenneth Hoffman and colleague Brad Singer, who published an article on their evidence in this week’s Science Magazine. According to Hoffman and Singer, two independent sources of Earth's geomagnetic field – one generated deep within the outer core of the planet and the other generated in the shallow core – are responsible for the ever-changing magnetism of our planet.
More about Hoffman article
Professor Receives Top Award from National FFA
Agriculture Education Professor Robert Flores is the national winner in the Community/Business Leader category for the H.O. Sargent Diversity Award program sponsored by the National FFA Organization. Flores is the head of the Agricultural Education and Communication Department at Cal Poly. He was nominated for his leadership promoting professional agricultural careers to minority students, scholarship fundraising, establishing strength training and teambuilding programs among youth leaders, and teacher training to accept and incorporate diversity in student populations. Flores first won the state competition in order to advance as a finalist for the national award.
More on the award for Flores
Cal Poly Receives NSF Grant to Study Women in Science
Four Cal Poly faculty members were recently awarded nearly $200,000 by the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Program to study the experiences of female faculty in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields at Cal Poly. The NSF’s IT (Institutional Transformation) Start grant asks investigators to look at the problem of low numbers of female STEM faculty and develop a plan for improvement that is both institution-specific and sustainable over time. During the year-long study, researchers from three different Cal Poly colleges will look carefully at current institutional trends including hiring, retention and promotion of faculty.
More on the study and grant
President Baker Addresses Panel on
Education Crisis in California
The reduction in state budget support, continued resource inequities among schools, shortages of qualified teachers, persistent achievement gaps among population segments, high student attrition and low completion rates are factors in California's education crisis. Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker served on a “State of Education in California” panel Sept. 19. The panel opened a summit hosted by the University of Southern California and the Competitiveness Crisis Council.
Read more about education crisis panel
USC Grad, Seattle Arts Leader
Named Cal Poly Arts Director
Cal Poly Arts has a new director: Steven T. Lerian. Lerian was selected to be in charge of programming and donor development for Cal Poly Arts after an extensive nationwide search. "Cal Poly Arts is at a critical time in its history. We were seeking a leader with vision and collaborative expertise to help position the organization for the future,” said Dean Linda Halisky of the College of Liberal Arts in announcing Lerian's appointment.
More on Lerian
Current Students
Cal Poly Students Volunteer $5M Worth of Community Service Time
Nearly 10,000 Cal Poly students volunteered in and around San Luis Obispo during the past academic year -- performing more than 200,000 hours of community service work worth nearly $5 million locally. Students volunteered through the university's Community Based Learning classes, Student Community Services projects, and Alternative Spring Break Program, as well as university-sponsored Days of Service and philanthropy projects run by Cal Poly's fraternities, sororities and clubs. A total of 9,500 Cal Poly students volunteered for a total of 223,525 hours of community service work during the 2007-08 academic year - aiding in booming student volunteerism rates in the CSU system.
More on Cal Poly students' volunteer efforts
Paralympian Mark Barr Returns from Bejing to Start Senior Year
After competing in the Paralympic Games, Mark Barr is back at Cal Poly to start his senior year as a member of the Mustangs' swim team. Barr lost a leg to a tumor when he was 14 years old. He just competed in six events in Beijing despite having his appendix removed in June. His best finish in Beijing was eighth place in the 100 meter butterfly. "The Paralympics history is growing, but it's just as much as competing in the Olympics. It's a huge honor to compete at the Paralympics and do that," Barr told KSBY news in an interview taped just after the fall quarter started at Cal Poly.
See the KSBY story - Read the Cal Poly Magazine Story on Barr (pdf)
Senior Named National Intercollegiate Men's Polo Player of the Year
Horse polo player Cooper Hibbard was recently named the U.S. Polo Association’s 2007-08 Male Intercollegiate Player of the Year. Hibbard is a senior at Cal Poly planning to graduate in December with a degree in AgBusiness; he started playing polo in his freshman year. “When Cooper first started out with us as a freshman, he was pretty green,” said Cal Poly Mustangs’ coach Megan Judge. “But he was a natural horeseman and a born team leader. By his sophomore year, he was mentoring the newcomers."
Read the story on the HelenaIR Web
Coming Up
World-Renowned Expert in Online Gaming and Security Speaking Oct. 16
The Orfalea College of Business is hosting a free lecture by Gary McGraw, a global expert in the economics of online gaming, piracy, cheating and software security. McGraw will speak at Cal Poly Oct. 16. McGraw is the first speaker in the Fall Distinguished Speaker Series hosted by the Orfalea College of Business.
See details to attend McGraw's presentation
Read about other events in the Orfalea College of Business
Vocalist Sophie Milman at the PAC October 16
By way of Russia, Israel and Canada comes a promising young jazz luminary, Sophie Milman. Milman – with a nod to Diana Krall and Norah Jones – is “turning heads in the jazz world” (Billboard Magazine). Her rich, nuanced vocal levels and sold-out tours are earning her rave reviews from critics and fans alike – she just received the 2008 “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year” Juno Award.
More on Milman
Antarctica, Global Warming the Focus of Oct. 17 Presentation
Cal Poly will host award-winning photographer and filmmaker Sebastian Copeland Friday, Oct. 17, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Spanos Theatre. Copeland will give a lecture and media presentation on his book “Antarctica: The Global Warning.” The event is free and open to the public. In 2006 and 2007, Copeland trekked to Antarctica with a team of researchers to collect data and document how global warming is affecting that continent.
More on Copeland's appearance
Make it Through the Night
with Kris Kristofferson Oct. 17
Heralded as an “artist’s artist” with an unvarnished voice and an uncanny ear for lyrics and music, Kris Kristofferson is a three-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who has delivered a myriad of multi-covered hits over the last three decades. Those include “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” “For The Good Times,” and “Loving Her Was Easier.” Cal Poly Arts presents Kristofferson in a solo acoustic show focused on his songs. As Kristofferson himself describes it: “It’s like being an old blues guy, just completely stripped away.”
More on Kristofferson's concert
Cal Poly Music Department Presents
Poems of E.E. Cummings Oct. 18
Katherine Arthur, soprano, and Susan Azaret Davies, piano, will perform a song cycle of eight poems by E.E. Cummings set to music by Kenneth S. Habib. The lecture-recital set for Saturday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m., in the Davidson Music Center, Room 218, will feature a discussion of the compositional design of the song cycle by Habib along with elucidative performance demonstrations by Arthur and Davies followed by the premiere of the entire cycle. Tickets at the door: $5 general; $2 students and seniors (not available for discount).
More on the Oct. 18 recital
Lubovitch Dancers Offer
'Men Stories' Oct. 25 at the PAC
Lar Lubovitch, one of America’s most versatile, popular and highly acclaimed choreographers, returns to Cal Poly in celebration of his 40th anniversary season. This will mark the company’s first U.S. tour in more than a decade. The lyrical and lushly romantic 12-member company offers "Men Stories" – a powerful exploration of masculinity that has never before been seen on tour – as well as Dvorak Serenade and Little Rhapsodies, set to Schumann’s symphonic etudes.
More on Lubovitch
Cal Poly Choirs' Debut Concert:
American Idols Oct. 25
Meet the 2008-09 Cal Poly Choirs as they present music of our American heritage. PolyPhonics, The University Singers, and the Early Music Ensemble will be joined by the university's barbershop quartets and award-winning a capella ensemble, Take It SLO. Selections will include folk songs, barbershop harmony, patriotic songs and spirituals. Renowned composers include Stephen Foster, Aaron Copland and Randall Thompson. Toe-tappers to soothing ballads! Outstanding student soloists! The event is set for Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Center.
Ticket Information and event details
MCC Presents 11th Annual Culturefest Oct. 26
The Cal Poly MultiCultural Center presents the 11th annual Culturefest Oct. 26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mitchell Park. The park is located on the corner of Pismo and Osos streets in San Luis Obispo. More than 20 campus and community organizations will showcase their rich heritages with booths and displays. This year's theme is "USS Culturefest: Sea of Diversity." Visitors can enjoy music, dance, hands-on activities, entertainment, performances and food.
More on Culturefest
Travel to Wisconsin to See the Mustangs take on the Badgers
Looking for a real autumnal experience? The Mustang Football team and fans are headed to Madison Saturday, Nov. 22, where the Mustangs will face the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Join the Cal Poly Alumni Association for a pre-game tailgate and then cheer on the Mustangs in Camp Randall Stadium at UW. Ticket purchase deadline is Oct. 31. CPAA's pre-game Tailgate starts at Union South roughly three hours before kick-off.
Click here for details and to order tickets online