Cal Poly students return this week. Help us welcome them ‘SLOme’ | Opinion

This week, our newest Cal Poly Mustangs will move into residence halls and participate in orientation programs that, among other goals, will help them connect to the broader community of San Luis Obispo.

We are unique among many of the California State University campuses in that the large majority of our students move to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly. While nearly 6% call SLO County home, most of our students come from other parts of the Golden State and beyond.

This fall, we are housing more students than ever before on campus — 8,801, including 5,540 new first-year and transfer students. That’s the highest number of students living on campus and the highest percentage — about 39% — in our recorded history.

This percentage will only increase; we have plans to build a minimum of 3,000 new beds over the next six years. As well, we are phasing in the requirement for all students to live on campus for two years. We want as many of our students to call university residence halls home as possible so that the Cal Poly campus is the center of their experiences and support network.

Additional on-campus housing is also in response to concerns about a shortage of housing in surrounding communities. In recent years, the local community has had a roughly 3% rental vacancy. This makes it difficult for students — and others moving to San Luis Obispo, including new employees at Cal Poly and in other industries — to find a place to call home.

For our students who don’t live on campus, our off-campus housing coordinator provides support to help them create connections, learn their rights and responsibilities and become engaged with the community.

A place they call SLOme

Many of our incoming students aren’t familiar with the place they now call “SLOme.”

While we have numerous programs and resources to create connections and foster pride and ownership of our community, we can’t do it alone. Similar to how raising a family takes the community’s collective energy, it takes the same strong community to nurture our Mustangs.

When I moved my family to the Central Coast 11 years ago, I immediately picked up on San Luis Obispo’s warm and supportive attitude. I instantly felt at home here and continue to feel a sense of responsibility to ensure our students are improving our community. This means doing what we do best — educating our students on everything from their academic disciplines to being good neighbors when they live off-campus.

Service learning in SLO

We know the return of our students changes things around San Luis Obispo. We’ve been working to address some of the impacts, such as loud partying and other disruptions in neighboring residential areas. And our efforts are paying off. Noise violations and other neighborhood wellness issues are trending back down to pre-pandemic lows.

I also want to point out some of the positive things to look forward to, based on students’ past contributions to our community.

Hundreds of students will gain leadership skills and volunteer with community partners through our Leadership and Service programs. Overall, Cal Poly students provided upwards of 120,000 hours of community service last year, including about 68,000 volunteer hours by students involved in Fraternity and Sorority Life.

The Center for Service in Action matched 600 students and nine student organizations with 13 different community partner sites last year. Among them were 168 students selected for the inaugural cohort of the statewide College Corps program, who spent 55,000 hours supporting organizations such as City Farm SLO, San Luis Coastal Unified School District and SLO Climate Coalition. And, after a Los Osos neighborhood was damaged in mudslides in the January storms, College Corps students helped residents clean up their homes.

These hours give our students valuable experience tackling problems in our local communities and make where we live better for everyone.

Many Cal Poly students’ connection to the community doesn’t end at graduation. Our latest Career Services Graduate Status Report shows that nearly one in five of our students who graduated in 2021-22 chose to start their careers in San Luis Obispo County, becoming further ingrained in our communities. They will be our future K-12 teachers, city leaders and small business owners.

So, here’s our ask: When you see these students moving their belongings back into residences this month, take a moment to wave or introduce yourself. Ask them what clubs or programs they’re involved in, or what research they hope to pursue. I see you as part of our team too. Building relationships with the newest members of our community has powerful impacts on everyone. Let’s welcome them to their new home.

Keith Humphrey, Cal Poly’s vice president for student affairs, leads the university’s efforts to deliver programs and services that advance student learning, development and success outside of the classroom.

This story was originally published September 13, 2023 at 8:20 AM.