Cal Poly Update - May 2009
Alumni News
Know a 2009 Grad? Get 'Em a Grad Pack, Donate to the Senior Class Gift
Cal Poly Alumni Association Grad Packs include a one-year membership, benefits packet and a Cal Poly Alumni chrome license plate frame at the special rate of $20.09. Grad Packs make great gifts for graduating seniors and are available online or by calling the Alumni Office at 805-756-2586. Back by popular demand this year: the Senior Class Gift. Add $10 to your grad's pack to help fund more bicycle racks on campus. The bike rack class gift campaign was the idea of Cal Poly's Student Philanthropy Council.
More on 2009 Grad Packs
| More on Donating to the Senior Class Gift 2009
Open House 2009: See the Photos and Video Highlights
Cal Poly's annual Open House drew thousands to campus April 17-18. Families, new students, current students, alumni, faculty and staff enjoyed hundreds of activities, including the Cal Poly Rodeo, a Cal Poly Baseball game, the annual Design Village competition for architecture students, performances by the Cal Poly Band, displays by more than 200 student clubs and more. U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy was on hand to throw out the first ball at the Mustangs baseball game and talk to Cal Poly Rodeo Team members.
More Open House Photos and Video Links
Play Golf, Meet Other Alumni, Support Student Scholarships
Whether you’re an advanced golfer or just a beginner, playing in a golf tournament sponsored by an alumni chapter is a great way to have fun, meet fellow alumni and support students. The next two months offer plenty of chances to get out on the green for a good cause: raising money for Cal Poly student scholarships. May: the Modesto Alumni Chapter hosts the 21st annual Modesto Tournament in Stevinson on May 29; the Graphic Communications Alumni Chapter’s tournament is May 30 at Hunter Ranch Course in Paso Robles. June: The San Diego Alumni Chapter hosts a scramble tournament and beginner golf clinic at The Vineyard at Escondido Golf Course on June 14. On June 27, alumnus Jack Roddy’s course in Antioch -- Roddy Ranch -- will be the site of the annual Nor Cal Golf Tournament.
For details on each event, visit the PolyLink Alumni Events Calendar - www.calpolylink.com/alumnievents
PolyLink: 189 Openings on Job Boards, 12,008 Alumni Members
There are leads to more than 180 jobs on the PolyLink job boards this month. The postings are from employers specifically looking for people with Cal Poly degrees. What's on the boards? Accounting, sales, marketing, senior engineering, software development, quality control and even a corporate opening for a 'senior journalist. 'The PolyLink job boards are only open to alumni -- if you're not a PolyLink member yet, visit Cal Poly's social network to get your access code and get in.
The May PolyLink Photo of the Month winner is U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps Lt. Michael McCain (B.S., Environmental Engineering, 2000). He uploaded this shot from his 2005-06 service in Parwan Province in Afghanistan. He is a civil engineer and project manager for the engineering corps. His unit provides facilities acquisition, installation engineering and support for Naval and Marine operations.
See the PolyLink Photo of the Month Gallery - no password required
Go to PolyLink - www.calpolylink.com
Alumni in the News -
Vegas Star Passes, Madden Retires from Broadcasting, and More
Las Vegas Star, alum and former Mustang Baseball standout Danny Gans (Physical Education, 1978) passed away suddenly at age 52, and the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers highlighted his long and successful career as an impressionist in top casinos on the Strip. Longtime pro football coach and commentator John Madden (B.S., Physical Education, 1959, M.A., Education, 1961) retired from broadcasting -- a cultural marker noted by Time Magazine and CNN. Other alumni made headlines this month for moving up at corporations, launching political campaigns and more. Find out if you know any of them.
Read about Alumni in the News
University News
Cal Poly Launches First
Summer Academy for Working Engineers
Working professionals can hone their job skills this summer thanks to Cal Poly Engineering. For the first time ever, Cal Poly is offering an Engineering Summer Academy, which features more than 35 different courses, including wind power engineering, robotics, black belt java, sustainability for engineering and a radio frequency identification workshop.
More on engineering academy
Cal Poly and UCSB Launch New Engineering Center
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara are joining the forces of their engineering programs, linking Cal Poly's prominent undergraduate curriculum with UCSB's highly-ranked graduate research institution. The new Center for Collaborative Engineering Research and Education will expand opportunities for students and faculty, Cal Poly College of Engineering Dean Mohammad Noori said in making the announcement.
More on research center
University Opens Fall Student Registration Early
For the first time in the university ’s history, Cal Poly opened fall 2009-10 registration two months early to help accommodate student demand for classes. The change is also expected to help students finish their undergraduate education on time. Early registration -- for continuing students only -- began May 6. Student fees are due July 27.
Read more about registration
Important Registration Information and Dates
$1.5 Million Grant Awarded
to City and Regional Planning Department
Cal Poly’s City and Regional Planning Department has been awarded a $1.5 million, three-year grant to help prepare the 2010 State of California Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan for the California Emergency Management Agency.
Read more on the grant
No Flu Yet, But Check the Swine Flu Q&A, Blog To See Cal Poly Precautions
So far, there are no cases of Swine Flu on the Cal Poly Campus -- among humans or livestock. Check out Cal Poly's swine flu precautions blog to see the steps taken on campus regarding the A(H1N1) Swine Influenza. The university also has a separate Swine Flu Q&A sheet posted.
Read the Cal Poly Swine Flu Precautions Blog
Read the Cal Poly Swine Flu Q&A
Media Coverage on steps protecting Cal Poly pigs
Stimulus Package Not Enough to Save CSU, Cal Poly from Budget Cuts
California will not receive enough federal stimulus money to avoid $948 million in cuts to specific programs in the 2009-10 budget, including a $50 million reduction to the CSU’s 2009-10 budget. The CSU Board of Trustees has endorsed Propositions 1A - 1E on the special May 19 ballot. Check the Cal Poly Advocacy Web for updates on Cal Poly, state funding and the current economic crisis.
More on the Stimulus Package, the May 19 ballot and the CSU Budget
Recruiters Still Looking for Cal Poly Grads Despite Hiring Slump
Employers are still coming to Cal Poly job fairs to recruit June grads for their openings, even in the tight economy. Recruiting for Cal Poly's accounting grads remains particularly strong. More than 80 firms from a variety of industries and professions came to Cal Poly in late May to recruit soon-to-be-graduates at a one-day job fair on campus. That's about half of the number of firms that usually recruit on campus every May, according to Cal Poly's Career Services Department. Grads from 2008 are faring well in the job market, according to the 2007-08 grad survey report by Career Services. The median starting salary for 2008 grads rose to $52,000.
More about 2008 Grads and 2009 Grads
Campus Hosts International Cube Satellite Developers
Cal Poly hosted an international workshop for developers of mini-satellites in late April. The event brought together 200 CubeSat developers from 38 universities and 35 companies from eight countries. They included Belgium, Columbia, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey. Visiting organizations included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, National Science Foundation, SRI International and others.
More on the CubeSat conference
Nobel Physics Laureate Carl Wieman Speaks at 2009 President's Cabinet
President Baker and Physicist Carl Wieman
Cal Poly hosted Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman on Sunday, May 3. Physicist Wieman spoke on “Science Education for the 21st Century: Using the Insights of Science to Teach Science.” The keynote speaker of the 2009 President's Cabinet meeting, Wieman addressed the failures of traditional educational practices. He also outlined new practices and technology needed for the 21st century, and their success so far. “Guided by experimental tests of theory and practice, science has advanced rapidly in the past 500 years. Guided primarily by tradition and dogma, science education meanwhile has remained largely medieval,” said Wieman.
More on Wieman's appearance
Read the SLO Tribune interview with Wieman
Center for Obesity Prevention Receives Support Proclamation
To highlight the epidemic of childhood obesity, Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee has presented a proclamation of support to the Cal Poly Center for Obesity Prevention and Education (COPE). The April presentation followed a bicycle ride by Cal Poly kinesiology students, who carried a petition signed by various community members stating their support for the mission of COPE. The effort was spearheaded by kinesiology student Emanuel Mullenneaux and center Director Ann McDermott.
Read more about COPE proclamation
Current Students
Cal Poly Women’s Water Polo Team
Captures Fifth National Championship
The Cal Poly Women’s Water Polo team captured the Collegiate Water Polo Association National Championship on Sunday, May 3, with a victory over Notre Dame at the UC Davis Schaal Aquatic Center.The 6-4 victory gave the Cal Poly team its fifth national championship – more than any other school in the nation. The team won the national title in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008.
More on the Women's Water Polo Team victory
Orfalea Business Students Compete at SIFE Nationals in Philadelphia
A team of students from Cal Poly's Orfalea College of Business represented the Mustangs in Philadelphia at the national Students In Free Enterprise competition May 10-12. Cal Poly's SIFE team was among five California colleges to win honors at the SIFE Western regional championships in Los Angeles recently. The Mustang business students earned a spot at nationals along with regional competitors including the University of Arizona.
More on the SIFE Competition, including video
Graduating Architects' Design Projects On Display May 22-24
Cal Poly’s fifth-year architecture students will exhibit their thesis projects in an exhibition titled “Rise and Run.” The expo opens Friday, May 22 with a gallery reception from 6-9 p.m. in Chumash Auditorium and continues through Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The reception and expo are free and open to the public.
See the details on Architecture students' display
Mustang Ramses Barden Drafted
by New York Giants
Wide receiver Ramses Barden has become Cal Poly's third draft choice in the third round over the last five years. Barden was selected by the New York Giants in the NFL Draft April 26 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Barden was the 85th overall choice, becoming the second-highest draft selection in Cal Poly history. He joins Mustang linebacker Jordan Beck, drafted in the third round in 2005 by the Atlanta Falcons and defensive end Chris Gocong, chosen in the third round in 2006 by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Read more about Barden
Society of Civil Engineers and Concrete Canoe Win Big in Hawaii
Cal Poly’s Society of Civil Engineers brought home awards from the Aloha State recently, after competing against 16 other universities at the American Society of Civil Engineers Pacific Southwest Regional Conference. They competed in 12 events, winning first place in four events and placing first in the overall conference standing.The society placed first in the concrete canoe competition and third in the steel bridge competition, allowing them to qualify for national competitions.
More on engineering awards and this year's concrete canoe
Student Places in Top Five at National Equestrian Championships
Cal Poly student and Equestrian Team member Vanessa Thomas placed fifth in the competition for the United States Equestrian Federation/Cacchione Cup at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championships in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
More on Thomas' showing at the IHSA event
Cal Poly Students Lend a Hand in New Orleans
Fifteen Cal Poly students spent their Spring Break in New Orleans helping residents as they continue to rebuild and recover from Hurricane Katrina. The trip was organized through Cal Poly’s Alternative Breaks, a program that gives students an opportunity to travel and donate their time during their academic breaks.
More on the New Orleans trip
Cal Poly Students Launch iRESPECT Campaign
A group of Cal Poly Students have launched iRESPECT, a campaign that asks the campus community to sign a pledge for respect, acceptance and tolerance to improve the campus climate. Under the guidance of Dave Wehner, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, students planned and created the iRespect campaign on campus in mid-April.
More on the iRESPECT campaign
Faculty and Staff
Professor Hany Khalil
Food Science Professor Heading to Iraq
in Summer
to Aid Reconstruction
Cal Poly Food Science Professor Hany Khalil will spend his summer in Balad, Iraq, helping to restore a canning factory. Khalil will leave June 19 for Iraq, where he will lend his food processing expertise to USAID’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in its efforts to rebuild the country’s economy. It's not his first aid mission to a war zone. He traveled to Afghanistan to help further that country's fruit-drying industry.
More on Khalil's trip to Iraq
Dairy Science Department Head Receives
Beef Improvement Pioneer Award
Bruce Golden, Cal Poly’s Dairy Science Department head, received the Beef Improvement Federation Pioneer Award at the group’s annual meeting in Sacramento. The federation presents the awards each year to individuals who have made significant contributions to the group and the beef industry.
More on Bruce Golden's award
Biology Professor, Students Study Snakes on the Carrizo Plain
Cal Poly Professor Emily Taylor and her students spend a lot of time in the company of rattlesnakes -- voluntarily. Taylor and students in Cal Poly’s Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Laboratory have spent the past four years on the Carrizo Plain in east San Luis Obispo County studying rattlesnakes and two species of lizard. Biologists with Cal Poly’s reptile laboratory are stalking the Northern Pacific rattlesnake -- for science. Taylor, her students and her research were profiled in the Fall 2007 Cal Poly Magazine, and recently in a feature spread in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Read the Fall 2007 Cal Poly Magazine Story on Taylor and the Rattlesnake Research
Read the Tribune stories on Taylor and Cal Poly's rattlesnake research project
Professor's Native Grasses are Hot
When he's not teaching at Cal Poly, Professor David Fross stocks California native grasses at his nursery wholesale nursery in Arroyo Grande. Right now, his business is booming -- thanks to low water supplies in California that have landscapers everywhere going native. Fross is the founder of Native Sons Wholesale Nursery -- one of the first commercial growers of plants native to California. The business is closed to the public but supplies native plants to more than 100 retail nurseries statewide, as well as landscape professionals.
Read the Sacramento Bee feature on Fross
Arch Professor Headed for Getty, Smithsonian
Cal Poly architecture professor Stephen J. Phillips has received residential fellowships for postdoctoral research from the Getty Center and the Smithsonian Institution. Phillips will spend one year at the Getty Center and six months at the Smithsonian American Art Museum before returning to share his research and experiences with students.
Read more about the fellowships
Coming Up
Tickets On Sale Now for Lyle Lovett's Aug. 8 Show
On Saturday, August 8, at 8 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, Cal Poly Arts presents Lyle Lovett in concert. Four-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Lovett remains at the height of his career, which includes 13 albums and more than 4 million records sold. Appearing with his popular acoustic group in support of his latest "It's Not Big, It's Large" album, Lovett's return to SLO is the perfect sound for this summer.
More on the concert
Theatre & Dance Presents 'Phantom Tollbooth'
Cal Poly's Theatre and Dance Department presents "The Phantom Tollbooth," adapted from the well-known literary classic. The play runs May 14-17 and 20-22 in the Spanos Theatre on campus. Curtain times are 7 p.m. with additional 2 p.m. weekend matinees.
More on The Phantom Tollbooth
New York Architect Speaks on 'Urban Condition' May 15
Rafi Segal, who currently leads urban planning at KPF architects in New York, will speak on "The Urban Condition" as part of the Hearst Lecture Series. The presentation will be Friday, May 15 at 4 p.m. in the Business Rotunda, Room 213.
More on Segal
Cal Poly Choir, Master Chorale Perform Brahms May 16
Johannes Brahms’ "Ein Deutsches Requiem" is the centerpiece for the Cal Poly Choirs and Cuesta Master Chorale performance at 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Center on Saturday, May 16. The 250-member chorus and orchestra will combine for the evening in celebration of Thomas Davies’ 25 years of choral leadership.
More on the Brahms concert
Early Music Ensemble Performs Mission Masters May 23
On Saturday, May 23, the Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble will present "Masters of the Mission." Award-winning Music Professor Craig Russell will lead an exploration of this fantastic repertoire. Showtime is 8 p.m. in Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. The evening will feature works by two giants of the Mexican Baroque era: Ignacio de Jerusalem and Manuel de Sumaya.
More on the Masters of the Mission
University Jazz Night is May 29
The Cal Poly Music Department presents University Jazz Night at 8 p.m. in the Cohan Center on Friday, May 29. The concert will feature an eclectic mix of jazz standards and modern compositions and will be performed by the University Jazz Bands No. 1 and No. 2 and the Cal Poly Jazz Combos plus a guest artist.
More on University Jazz Night
Cal Poly Symphony
Spring Concert is May 30
The Cal Poly Symphony Spring Concert will present "Looking East, Looking West" at 8 p.m. in the Cohan Center on Saturday, May 30. Hear Cal Poly student musicians perform "The Yellow River Concerto." The Cultural Revolution in China was not the easiest time for virtuoso pianists or orchestral musicians. Some orchestras were banned outright from performing any Western orchestral music. But a group of five composers rearranged a patriotic cantata from 1939 into a genre of music closely tied to the tradition of European virtousi: a piano concerto. “The Yellow River Concerto” used patriotic material to look West, into the musical tradition of Europe, at a time when doing so was unacceptable.
More on the Cal Poly Symphony Spring Concert
Experience Mixed Media Concert 'Emergent Forms' June 2, 4
This marks the 14th season the Cal Poly Music Department has presented "RSVP" a diverse transmedia performance celebrating electroacoustic art. This year’s performance is set in post-apocalyptic times and examines age-old struggles. The event features a unique blend of sound, visuals and staging directed by faculty member Antonio G. Barata. See "RSVP XIV: Emergent Forms" Tuesday, June 2, and Thursday, June 4. Showtime is 8 p.m. both evenings in the Pavilion of the Christopher Cohan Center.
More on Emergent Forms
Hear 'Visions' at Cal Poly Wind Bands Spring Concert June 6
On Saturday, June 6, the Cal Poly Music Department presents the annual Cal Poly Wind Bands Spring Concert. This year's title is “Visions” and showtime is 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Center. The concert will feature Hollywood session trombonist Alex Iles and the music of Eric Ewazen’s extraordinary work for trombone and wind ensemble, “Visions of Light."
More on the Wind Bands' spring concert
Olivera, Forbes Organ in Powerful Concert June 7
A passionate and gifted master, Hector Olivera is famous for his prodigious technical proficiency and personal interpretations of both classical and popular music. The afternoon recital will include William Ralph Driffill’s Toccata, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air from Suite No. 3 and Prelude and Fugue in E flat “Saint Anne,” Trumpet Tune/Air/Voluntary by Jeremiah Clark and Henry Purcell, César Franck’s Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, and Hans Friedrich Micheelsen’s Toccata, Canzona, and Fugue on Es Sungen drei Engel.
More on Olivera
See Arab Music Ensemble in Spring Concert June 7
The Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble Spring Concert is set for 7 p.m., Sunday, June 7 in the Spanos Theatre. Join the ensemble as it performs vocal and instrumental selections of some of the best-known art and popular music of the Eastern Mediterranean and larger Middle East. San Luis Obispo’s own Middle Eastern dancers top off the performances with folkloric dancing.
More on the Arab Music Ensemble Spring Concert
Kennedy Library Book Exhibition on Now
“Slightly BOOKISH,” is a free public exhibit showcasing art and books through June 5 in the Kennedy Library Gallery. The display features books created by artists in various mediums. In the pieces take traditional, unconventional and innovative forms that will redefine viewers’ perceptions of books. Works incorporate typography, handmade books, letterpress books, installation pieces and hands-on instruction relating to books as art.
More on the book exhibition
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