Recent News
History Alumnus Recognized on The Ellen Show for Work as Teacher
Dec 14, 2017
Wyatt Oroke (History, ’13) was recognized on The Ellen Show for his dedication as an eighth grade humanities teacher at City Springs Elementary and Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland.
KCPR is No. 1
Dec 14, 2017
Cal Poly’s student-run radio station 91.3 KCPR has taken the number one spot on the Great Value Colleges list of 30 Amazing College Radio Stations of 2017-18. Great Value Colleges is a website dedicated to helping students make decisions about college education.
Cal Poly English and Agriculture Professors Win USDA Grant
Dec 13, 2017
Yiwen Chiu, a professor in Cal Poly’s Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences Department, and Cal Poly English Professor Jason Peters have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Chiu and Peters will receive approximately $140,000 over three years to pilot an undergraduate curriculum that combines environmental science and rhetoric. One goal of the new curriculum is to teach students how to best communicate about sustainable agriculture.
Jason Peters,
English Department professor
“Creating sustainable agriculture requires scientific skills like quantitative analysis, sure, but it also requires students to learn to talk to a range of stakeholders in all sorts of situations to get people working together in innovative ways based on what the science is telling us,” said Peters. “And that’s where environmental rhetoric and communication comes in. With the program Yiwen and I are designing, students will learn how to get legislators, farmers, environmental scientists, citizens, and consumers all on the same page and collaborating to make the science of sustainability work.”
The curriculum will consist of required courses in environmental life-cycle analysis combined with courses in public rhetoric and environmental communication. The project is a partnership between professors and researchers in the two academic departments and the University Writing and Rhetoric Center at Cal Poly.
The grants are funded through NIFA’s Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program, which aims to help higher education institutions teach the next generation of food and agricultural science professionals. HEC also seeks to improve local economies by supporting the development of degree programs that respond to emerging employment opportunities.
Chiu and Peters will design and implement the pilot curriculum over the next three years. They plan to publish the results of the collaboration.
“We’ve learned so much from other scholars and teachers working across traditional disciplinary lines on these issues all around the world, and we hope to be able to contribute what we learn from doing this work at Cal Poly,” said Peters.
Read the most recent stories in The Link
Modern Languages and Literatures Department Gets New Name
Nov 15, 2017
The Modern Languages and Literatures Department has a new name – World Languages and Cultures.
CLA Honored Alumni 2017
Nov 13, 2017
2017 College of Liberal Arts Honored Alumnus - Chris Trapani
New Queer Studies Minor Launched Fall 2017
Nov 13, 2017
The Women’s and Gender Studies Department launched a new queer studies minor in fall quarter of 2017.
Students in New Political Science Course Draft Bills
Nov 8, 2017
Bill Number Two, Winter 2020:
Cal Poly students drafted a second bill that was signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 4, 2019, and went into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Senate Bill 467, which was introduced by Senator Bill Monning and co-sponsored by Assemblyman Jordon Cunningham, requires the University of California and California State University systems to place cost of attendance information on their websites.
The students wrote the bill in Cal Poly’s California Bill Project class, which is taught by political science Professor Chris Den Hartog. In the class — which spanned three consecutive quarters — students were asked to choose a problem to address, develop a specific policy that would help, and think critically about its pros and cons.
In the spring of 2019, they traveled to Sacramento to lobby for their proposed legislation. This was the second time a bill project class series was offered and the second time a Cal Poly student-drafted bill became law.
CLA Athletes Honored at Big West Conference
Nov 8, 2017
The following Cal Poly student-athletes were placed on the All-Academic Team by the Big West Conference, Pac-12 Conference or Mountain Pacific Sports Federation following the 2017 Spring Quarter for their achievements in the classroom.
Cal Poly Journalism Senior Crowned Miss California 2017
Oct 23, 2017
Cal Poly journalism senior Jillian Smith was crowned Miss California 2017 and was awarded with over $25,000 in scholarships for continuing her education. The competition was held on July 1 in Fresno, Calif.
Members of Inaugural Cal Poly Spanish-language Debate Team Ranked as World Finalists
Oct 16, 2017
Two Cal Poly Spanish-language debate team members finished as finalists at the largest international Spanish-language university debate competition — the Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español (CMUDE) — at the University of Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City this summer.