Cal Poly cancels Open House, rodeo and campus tours to protect against coronavirus
Several Cal Poly events scheduled for spring have been canceled amid efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 across the state, President Jeffrey Armstrong announced Thursday afternoon.
All events associated with Cal Poly Open House, PolyCultural Weekend, and the annual Poly Royal Rodeo and Tractor Pull have been canceled “out of an abundance of caution,” Armstrong said in video circulated online.
The university focused on events with large attendance that attract people from many areas of the state and beyond, a Cal Poly website says.
The rodeo was scheduled for April 17-18 and would have would have been the 80th annual Poly Royal Rodeo.
Cal Poly has also canceled campus tours for prospective students through spring quarter, and the university pushed back the start of the spring quarter a week while it prepares for the possibility of switching to remote instruction.
Armstrong said that given what we know now, Cal Poly appears to be a relatively safe place. There are no known coronavirus cases on the Cal Poly campus or in the surrounding community.
“Given the small population of the county and the distance to large cities, we are relatively isolated. Unfortunately, this relative isolation works both for us and against us,” Armstrong said. “It protects us during the school year, but it also means that students who may be exposed during traveling may inadvertently bring illnesses back into the county.”
Students have been asked to cancel travel to any spring break areas where there are known cases of the virus, including the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Spring quarter was delayed a week to give faculty and staff time to transition to all online classes if that is deemed necessary. And all spring sports have been suspended.
Events were canceled across the state following new guidelines. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a directive by executive order on March 11 that all nonessential large events over 250 people should be canceled or postponed at least through the end of March.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
