About 35 years ago, something began to happen to college students — not overnight but slowly, little by little. It started as a subtle change but grew to the point where everyone took it for granted. What had been the stereotype of hundreds of thousands of young men and women across the country became a legend.

That defining character trait that made college students famous, and in some cases infamous, was passion. As a group, they generated a great deal of media coverage by speaking out on the highest profile issues of the day. It is safe to say that college students of the 1960s and early 1970s effected change.

It is not quite the same today. I can’t remember the last time I read about a political candidate visiting a campus and stumping for votes. In the past couple of decades, university’s identity as a centrifuge for political and social issues has changed.

But I noticed something recently. Earlier this spring, I announced that Cal Poly Pomona would be joining select colleges and universities in the country by pledging our support to the Presidents’ Climate Commitment Leadership Circle. The Commitment recognizes the unique responsibility that higher education has as role models, educating the people who will develop the solutions to reverse global warming. Cal Poly Pomona will develop a plan to assess and reduce the university’s greenhouse gas emissions in order to become carbon neutral and help ward off the impacts of global warming. From that single announcement, I have received more feedback from students than ever before. They want to step forward, get involved and help identify ways we can make a difference. You can tell that this is their calling. And since they will soon inherit the day-to-day operations of this planet, they have every reason to be proactive.

I look forward to sharing their efforts with you in upcoming editions of PANORAMA. It is an exciting time for Cal Poly Pomona but the best is yet to come. Let me know your thoughts. You can always send an e-mail to me at president@csupomona.edu.

Thank you for allowing us to come into your home with PANORAMA.

J. Michael Ortiz, Ph.D.
President