California Notes

Cal Poly Plan
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has initiated a series of reforms that officials hope will repair some of the damage done by the state budget cuts of the early 1990s and also will enable students to earn degrees in less time with.

The "Cal Poly Plan" includes these elements:

• Updating instructional equipment, especially in the laboratory sciences;
• Hiring 30 new tenure-track faculty members, who will be specialists in their fields but who also will be interested in designing new courses and trying new teaching methods;
• Helping students graduate in less time by improving the academic advising system, providing more help in "high risk" courses and encouraging students to take heavier course loads;
• Increasing campus capacity by operating year-round, with a full summer quarter.

"In a nutshell, what we're trying to do is reduce the time it takes to get a degree, without sacrificing quality," said Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker.

The changes are being financed partly by an increase in student fees -- a $135 boost this year, $279 next year, $360 the year after that. Total fees at Cal Poly SLO this year are $2,238, among the highest in the 22-campus California State University system.

Baker said this was the first time a Cal State campus has used student fee revenue to hire new faculty members.

"Some faculty members were uncomfortable about asking the students to pay more," said Harvey Greenwald, professor of mathematics and chairman of the faculty Academic Senate, "but we figured it was up to the students to decide."

Baker said 55 percent of students surveyed a year ago by the Cal Poly Plan steering committee said they supported the fee increase, but there has been no formal vote as yet. That will come this spring in the form of a referendum on whether or not to increase the second and third-year fees, as planned.

"Many student groups oppose the fee increase but we feel this is the only way for the campus to get some new money," said Tom Spengler, a member of the board of directors of the Cal Poly Associated Students.

The fee increase is expected to generate $2.1 million this year, of which $300,000 will be used to increase student financial aid.

The rest of the money is paying for innovative uses of computers for instructional purposes, redesigning the "core course" in the College of Business, and providing students with instant electronic access to their records, among many other projects.

If these efforts to improve both efficiency and quality are successful, Baker said, not only will Cal Poly's academic offerings and research capacity be improved, but students will be able to graduate in less time, thereby freeing up space for others.

However, Professor Greenwald pointed out that Cal Poly already is close to its Master Plan capacity of 15,000 full-time students, and that the San Luis Obispo community has made clear its objections to campus expansion. "So we will not, by ourselves, be making much of a dent in 'Tidal Wave II'"-the expected admissions crush of the next decade, Greenwald said.

-- William Trombley

 

A Head Start

A new agreement among UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara high schools will allow some students to accelerate their studies and receive a bachelor's degree from UC Santa Barbara in three years.

The students must complete at least one year of college work while still in high school, either by taking college courses or by passing Advanced Placement examinations. Students who maintain a 3.3 grade-point average in high school courses, or a 2.75 GPA in college work, will be automatically admitted to the university. Or they can enroll at Santa Barbara City College and later transfer to UC Santa Barbara.

"This is really a great deal for all three of the institutions involved," said Jack Friedlander, vice president for academic affairs at Santa Barbara City College. "We're all trying to give the students a head start on college."

-- William Doyle