Cal Poly delays year-round operations as it prepares for other major university changes
From the long-anticipated switch to semesters to folding another California university under its umbrella, Cal Poly is preparing for a number of major changes to campus life in the coming years — and that means another big shift has had to fall to the wayside.
Originally set to start in 2024, then pushed to 2025, the university announced in mid-June it plans to begin providing students with the ability to take classes all year long starting in the summer of 2027 instead.
The program will allow students to start their studies the summer after they graduate high school and then complete an additional summer term before they graduate.
Students in the program will also agree to spend two regular academic terms off-campus to supplement the time that they would have been off-campus during the summer.
Though not required, the university will encourage students who take part in the program to spend their time away from campus participating in jobs, internships or other career-advancing activities.
In an email statement to the university community June 13, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said the university delayed the start of the program to allow for administration to focus on a number of projects, including switching from academic quarters to a semester system and a possible integration with the struggling Cal Maritime.
Armstrong said the change “gives us a longer runway for planning a robust launch” of year-round operations while also completing the other changes in store for campus.
The expanded season of instruction will give Cal Poly the ability to accept more students, Armstrong said in his email.
“For every promising applicant we admit, we have to say ’no’ to three others who are just as well qualified and would be just as successful at Cal Poly,” Armstrong said. “There are limits to how large the university can become, but (year-round operations) lets us fully leverage our resources by spreading out attendance over the currently underutilized summer term.”
As part of the program’s original announcement, the university received an anonymous $300,000 annual donation to make career opportunities more accessible to participating students on financial aid.
The university also said in a news release it had plans to seek additional funding for the program to make sure “educationally enhancing experiences are available to all who want to partake.”
