Throughout the summer A&F staff from each unit have been hard at work completing projects, upgrading classrooms, planning events and preparing the campus for the coming year. Whether that work was making room for student success or saving the campus nearly $8 million, it was anything but a quiet couple of months.
Here are 10 quick updates from our 10 units.
Facilities Management and Development
This summer the FMD teams have made significant progress on a number of capital projects and substantial headway on the space optimization initiative.
Building 15 & Student Success Center
Building 15 has been converted into a vibrant center for student affinity groups and construction has begun on the Student Success Center in the adjacent space. The 35,000 square-foot center will include student support amenities like career services, scholar programs, student diversity and belonging centers, as well as multipurpose classroom and event spaces.
Student Housing
Over the summer, crews completed the foundation work—including footers and columns—and connected major infrastructure such as water, sewer and storm systems. These accomplishments pave the way for the first modular units to be stacked starting in mid-October. The first tower is slated for completion in Summer 2026.
Public Safety
A lot has happened within the Public Safety ranks over the summer. On July 25, following a national recruitment Robert Plastino was sworn in as the next chief of the Cal Poly Police Department. He brings more than 27 years of experience with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s office where he oversaw more than 250 staff in the department’s north county and south county operations.
Directly following Plastino’s swearing he then swore in officers Lance Wilson, Amanda Bird, Miguel Tamayo, Matt Davis and Michael Maguire as well as K-9 Dex.
K-9 Dex followed the retirement of K-9 Zeus after 7-1/2 years of serving the Cal Poly community.
On top of that TAPS is launching a second day-time Mustang Shuttle bus this fall to help better service the student, faculty and staff moving around campus.
Performing Arts Center
Looking back on the 2024-25 season, the Performing Arts Center proudly welcomed nearly 10,000 students to free school matinee performances and supported more than 300 events, drawing a total audience of over 100,000 patrons.
Now the Performing Arts Center team is gearing up to support an exciting 2025–26 season that truly offers something for everyone. The lineup includes four Broadway touring productions, international dance companies, orchestras, theater, comedy, distinguished speakers and family-friendly events.
Cal Poly Arts will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a stellar season featuring more than 35 performances, including major names like Morgan Freeman, Patti LuPone, and The Book of Mormon. Tickets are on sale now at pacslo.org.
Strategic Business Services
This past June Strategic Business Services (SBS) closed out the year with the announcement from the Chancellor’s Office that Cal Poly’ procurement team was the top performing for Medium campus with $7.7 million in cost savings.
To go along with that amazing stat, the SBS team continued working in partnership with Facilities in support of the construction of student housing program.
They wrapped up 18 successful months since implementing CSUBUY on campus and in that time have established Cal Poly as a system leader.
Throughout this summer the Risk Management team has worked closely to help integrate processes and systems with the Cal Poly Solano Campus including implementing a Driver Safety Program.
University Housing
More than 8,900 new and returning students and their supporters begin arriving this week for Mustang Move-in. New students move in Sept. 11-12. Continuing students arrive Sept. 15-16.
Housing is seeking volunteers and forming Mustang Welcome Teams to help welcome residents, guide them through their move and answer questions. Volunteers get $50 credit on their PolyCard for each shift worked and a welcome team t-shirt.
While preparations are in place to ensure a smooth experience, the campus community should expect significant traffic and parking impacts. View all event information on the Transportation and Parking Services webpage for the least disruptive routes and parking.
On top of move-in, work continues on the Future Housing Project and the first modulars for Building A are anticipated to arrive in late fall. A viewing area is being prepared to enable the campus community to see the progress of construction. Cameras have also been set up on Truckee Road and Klamath Road to allow for viewing online.
Audit and Consulting Services
Audit and Consulting Services (ACS) continues to collaborate across campus and with the CSU Audit and Advisory Services team. Over the last year ACS has performed work related to the integration of Cal Poly Maritime Academy, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Cal Poly Partners Workday implementation and hired its first student assistant.
ACS has served as a liaison for various CSU led audits including, Faculty Assigned Time and Additional Employment, Construction (Building 19), Executive Travel and Hospitality and Accessible Technology Initiative, as well as many other data analytics and special engagements.
Going forward, ACS looks to continue building on its data analytics and artificial intelligence work to improve project performance and metrics tracking. ACS will also be presenting to management/leadership teams throughout all functional areas to communicate previous, current and future work, and to educate on the services ACS provides.
Financial Services
After nearly 20 years of service to Cal Poly, all in Financial Services, Dee Q. Louie retired this summer. Always prudent and thinking ahead, Louie notified his colleagues of his pending retirement two years ago! He did so to allow plenty of time to cross train each member of his team. Known for his institutional knowledge and deep understanding of accounting policies; his patience, kindness and thoughtfulness, Louie will be sorely missed by his coworkers.
Following that news, the other summer accomplishments pale in comparison.
The Financial Services team closed out the fiscal year for Legal financial reporting was – as always – a success.
Work to integrate the Cal Poly Solano Campus into the Financial Services processes and team meetings continued.
They kicked off annual physical inventory cycle, closed out COVID-19 FEMA claims, resulting in reimbursement of over $1 million and made progress on the 2023 and 2024 winter storm FEMA claims.
Operational Business Support
In support of the successful CSUBUY rollout, the Operational Business Support (OBS) team continued training on the new system. This included multiple CSU-wide trainings with thousands of attendees.
The A&F Server Migration over the past couple of months has been a success. This work completed the migration of the Cross Departmental drive from physical and outdated servers to SharePoint.
Progress has been made in modernizing OBS workflows and forms. By increasing the utilization of AdobeSign and ImageNow, OBS is continuing to streamline workflow to support efficiency, organization and transparency of work processes.
ITS
This summer ITS has been hard at work on a campus-wide network upgrade. The Common Network Initiative (CNI) — is a CSU-funded project to upgrade network equipment in all state-owned buildings across campus. The upgrade will improve the campus community’s everyday experience online with faster speeds, more reliable connections and better support for all the devices. The new equipment will help make those activities smoother and more dependable.
As a result, speed and access to the entire campus wi-fi was improved by upgrading 5,400 wireless access points.
Throughout this process ITS was able to keep the wireless networks up and running 99.9% of the time during the last academic year.
On top of that heavy lift, the team also completed upgrades to 76 classrooms, representing over $1.2 million in classroom investment.
Cal Poly Partners
Work continued on the Vista Meadows faculty and staff housing development this summer. The most significant activity has been the asphalt concrete paving and overlay on Grand Avenue. Rough grading is nearly complete, underground wet and dry utility installation is in progress, and the Allen block retaining wall phase is now underway. Final permits for house construction are anticipated in the fall.
Work to reimagine the student dining experience and bookstore operations at the Cal Poly Solano Campus made big strides over the summer. The Commercial Services team has been onsite throughout summer rebranding two dining venues and ensuring facilities were up ready for the return of students. The Marketing and Communications team has been busy updating and creating a new website for the Cal Maritime Corporation.