Diversity has been an issue at Cal Poly for decades. Here’s what it was like in 1982
Four decades ago, I was a student photojournalist at Cal Poly and our editor at the Mustang Daily, Tom Johnson, prioritized regular enterprise reporting.
At least once a month, a reporter would produce an in-depth story on issues that got lost in coverage of daily events.
The Jan. 14, 1982, issue addressed student diversity on campus, and many of the issues in that story written by Maura Thurman still resonate today, documented in a recent series by Tribune reporter Mackenzie Shuman.
Thanks to the Robert E. Kennedy Library university archives, which has indexed and digitized all back issues of the student newspaper, I was able to locate the article. The library is an excellent resource for anyone researching what was going on on campus over the years.
Both Cal Poly and California have seen a lot of changes in four decades.
But the problem remains from 40 years ago. Cal Poly still lags behind other CSU schools in non-white enrollment.
Share of underrepresented students has improved at Cal Poly
Students filling out enrollment forms in 1981 indicated non-white ethnic students made up 12.6% of the total student body. Only two CSU campuses showed lower percentages than Cal Poly, Humboldt State and Chico State.
Forty years later, 2021 enrollment numbers show 33.6% of students identify as one of three underrepresented groups: Latino/Hispanic (19.4%), Asian (13.5%) and Black (0.7%).
It is an improvement overall for Cal Poly, but other campuses have made bigger strides and Poly is now last in an even larger CSU system. San Marcos, Monterey Bay and Channel Islands have all been added to the system since 1982.
President Jeffery Armstrong said that when he was interviewed for the job a decade ago, diversity was a priority topic. “This is a long-standing issue and one that I have embraced and our leadership team have embraced,” he said.
There are structural disadvantages for Cal Poly to overcome.
Back in 1981, the university recognized that districts with poorly funded secondary schools didn’t have the advanced math and science classes that give an admission advantage for technical majors like engineering and architecture. Often it is communities of color that are left out of the funding stream.
Meanwhile, several universities have added off-site branches closer to homes of California students, making them less likely to take on an expensive residential stay away from home.
California geography shows the campus locations most isolated from large, diverse population centers are Humboldt, Chico and San Luis Obispo.
Likewise, the cost of getting a university degree has gone up, and the polytechnic schools have additional fees. Cal Poly in particular often can’t offer enough financial aid to compete against UC campuses for top low-income students.
San Luis Obispo is not known for affordable housing, though the campus had added to its inventory of dorms over the last two decades.
The campus is more diverse than the surrounding community, making support on campus vital.
The MultiCultural Center was opened in 1982 to assist students who feel cultural isolation far from home.
Daniel Rios was president of MECHA at the time and said, “We need support for one another. Names and colors will never change, so why do people think you can forget your culture?”
Dewitt Mark, president of the Chinese Students Association, had the closing quote for the article in 1982: “The way I look at it, we’re all one people, no matter what our background or color is. Everybody has to do their part.”
