Highlander Newspaper

Issue date: 2/9/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Trias Threatened programs include Philosophy, Physics, and certain Engineering programs. 12 to 20 majors are threatened in total.

Cal Poly is at risk of losing certain programs and departments due to inadequate funds. The campus is now going through an evaluation process set to determine which campus programs will be eliminated if the new state budget is passed.

Programs that are in danger of being eliminated are those with fewer than 150 students enrolled, including Anthropology, Economics, Industrial Engineering, Journalism, Philosophy, Physics, Spanish and Theatre, according to the Poly Post, the school's sudent newspaper. Approximately 12 to 20 majors are in danger of being removed.

In response, the Cal Poly Students for Quality Education, a statewide, student led organization, has put the effort in to collecting 4,000 signatures to send to the office of Provost Marten denBoer as a message of support for the smaller programs on the campus.

"[SQE] wants to extend our reach to more than just the Cal Poly campus … we want to get the surrounding community involved as well," said Ruben Vazquez, a third-year aerospace engineering student and member of SQE, to the Poly Post. "It's important that students remain united so we can protect individuality on campus."

President Ortiz tried, unsuccessfully, to mediate the financial situation as a liaison between students and those in charge of budget restraints.

According to The Poly Post, "later this year, voters will be able to decide the fate of California Assembly Bill 656, which could be the unifying answer for saving public education in the state." This would result in a 12.5 percent tax of oil producers of their annual revenue, most of which would end up in the CSU system.

Cal Poly Pomona is not the only CSU to have experienced threatening budget cuts-last fall, CSU Dominguez Hills was in danger of losing a number of its academic programs. A series of student rallies are cited as having prevented the cuts from manifesting themselves as a reality; however, a number of non-academic programs, including their campus newspaper, were not saved.

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