Many thanks to our generous donors who helped support Cal Poly Pomona during the previous year. The following is a sample of campus highlights from 2003-2004.

Founders' Celebration Raises $225,000
Founders' Celebration 2004 proved once again that Cal Poly Pomona's supporters care deeply about this annual opportunity to donate funds for student scholarships and academic enhancements. Entertainment by those icons of classic American comedy, the Smothers Brothers, contributed to a wonderful evening at the Pacific Palms Resort in the City of Industry where donors generously purchased auction items as varied as dinner for 10 with President and Mrs. Ortiz to a Fender guitar played by Tommy Smothers and autographed by the brothers. More than $225,000 was raised at the benefit gala.

New P added to CP on the Hill
Students who paint their group's colors on the landmark letters overlooking the campus will have even more work to do since the university added a third letter. From 1958 until 2004, the CP heralded the university name until the Cal Poly Pomona Alumni Association decided to distinguish Cal Poly Pomona from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The second P was added through the efforts of students entering a design contest and the physical labor of an engineering club whose student members installed the third letter and refurbished the existing two.

Degrees to Hispanic Grads on the Rise
Of the 3,008 bachelor's degrees awarded to Cal Poly Pomona's graduating class of 2002-03, 21.3 percent were awarded to Hispanic recipients placing the university among the nation's leaders. Using data collected in 2002 by the National Center for Education Statistics, the May 2004 edition of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education ranked Cal Poly Pomona 24 th in the United States among four-year colleges awarding bachelor's degrees to Hispanics.

Arabian Horse Herd Welcomes 22 Foals
A record 22 foals were welcomed to Cal Poly Pomona's Arabian horse herd in 2004. Fourteen colts and eight fillies made their entrance between early February and late June and all have been named. From Abercrombey, a colt out of Fashionada by the champion stallion Buckingham Bey V, to Vanity Fair, a filly out of True Mist by Millenium, all foals are part of the living legacy of W.K. Kellogg's original Arabian herd.

Student-Supported Endowment Reaches $100,000 Mark
Cal Poly Pomona students are remarkable in a myriad of ways, and one of the most notable is in their generosity. Beginning in 1998, the university's annual fund office began to solicit contributions to the Student Scholarship Endowment Fund — a program that is supported solely by and for students. To date, that endowment fund has generated more than $100,000, with monies going toward need-based scholarships every year. Part of the endowment fund's success can be credited to the way funds are solicited: students call their peers who give to help other students in need.

Cal Poly Pomona Foundation: Fulfilling its Mission
The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation continues to fulfill its mission of providing and supporting programs that are an integral part of the educational mission of the university. The Foundation is the largest employer of Cal Poly Pomona students, and its core commercial operations — including bookstores, dining services, housing and more — provide quality services that enhance campus life for students, faculty and staff. Earnings from these operations provide support for multiple university purposes, and surplus revenue is returned to the university, with a five-year total of nearly $2.9 million and a 2003-2004 total of $575,500. Further support is provided to the university through the Foundation’s acting as administrator for grants and contracts awarded by private and public institutions.

Athletics Marks Historic Year
The Broncos enjoyed a successful, and historic, athletic year. During 2003-04, the men’s and women’s basketball teams qualified for the NCAA Division II playoffs in the same year for the first time ever. The Broncos also hosted the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships and revived the athletic Hall of Fame. Legendary coaches John Scolinos and the late Darlene May were inducted, marking the first induction at Cal Poly Pomona since 1994. The men’s cross country team finished 11th in the nation after finishing third in the West Regional, a meet Cal Poly Pomona hosted. The women’s basketball team reached the West Region championship game for the fourth time in five years, the women’s soccer team reached the CCAA Championship Tournament for the sixth straight year, and the men’s basketball team achieved back-to-back 20-win seasons and qualified for the NCAA playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time ever. Cal Poly Pomona also earned five All-America honors.

$1.2 million Grant Incorporates NASA Research in Curriculum
While scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory monitor progress of the Mars Rover, a group of more than 70 students and 15 faculty at Cal Poly Pomona researched and designed their own robotic rover prototypes with the use of a $1.2 million NASA Partnership Award for the Integration of Research grant. The purpose of the grant is to incorporate cutting-edge NASA-related deep space exploration research into the undergraduate curriculum while strengthening postgraduate opportunities for underrepresented students.

College of Education and I-Poly to Develop Model School
The College of Education & Integrative Studies (CEIS) and International Polytechnic (I-Poly) High School were awarded a $153,000 grant by the Confidence Foundation, which will allow them to collaboratively establish a model high school program that prepares students for the rigors of higher education and the professional work force. A Model for the Reform of the American High School Project proposes a model approach for assessing student work that connects the high school experience with the expectations of higher education and the work place. I-Poly and CEIS will work with experts from academia, business and industry who will help to further define the standards used in creating this model.

Collins School Turns 30
For 30 years, The Collins School of Hospitality Management has been preparing students for what is one of the fastest growing industries in Southern California. To mark the school's three-decade anniversary, the campus community and industry representatives took part in a celebration during winter quarter. The daylong event featured a hospitality career expo, industry expert panels, culinary demonstrations, a wine seminar, tasting fair and reception. Named in honor of benefactors Jim and Carol Collins, The Collins School is the largest and oldest four-year hospitality program in California. It is ranked among the top three undergraduate hospitality management programs in North America.

Cal Poly Pomona Ranks Third Regional University in West
Cal Poly Pomona is the third highest rated regional university in the West according to Project Connect 2003, a survey by the market research firm Carnegie Communications. The study looked into the widely criticized process of college rankings that heavily measures academic quality based on opinion of education experts, not those of the primary consumers of higher education — students. The nearly 4,000 college-bound students surveyed by Carnegie placed weight on different variables when assessing quality, such as student-to-faculty ratio, as opposed to an institution’s peer assessments. After shifting the weight of variables of academic quality, Cal Poly Pomona experienced the largest jump in rankings in the Western Region and the second largest in the nation. It increased 29 places from 32 in U.S. News & World Report’s last survey.

Grant Addresses Shortage of Qualified Math and Science Teachers in the State
The California Postsecondary Education Commission awarded Cal Poly Pomona a three-year grant totaling $861,805 in federal money that is earmarked for improving the quality of teaching and learning in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. In response to the severe shortage of qualified math and science teachers in California, Cal Poly Pomona will establish a Mathematics Teaching Center in the math department. This center will help recruit new teachers, assist current teachers in completing certification requirements and support new teachers with professional development. The university will partner with several school districts that have student test scores well below state averages. The project will serve more than 40,000 middle and high school students in more than 30 schools.

University Assists Russian University in Developing Curriculum
The Collins School of Hospitality Management is helping a Russian university develop its hospitality curriculum thanks to an unprecedented United States Department of State grant in hospitality for $299,804. The three-year grant allows groups of instructors from Petrozovadsk State University in Russia to take educational visits to The Collins School in order to develop 14 courses in tourism, as well as hospitality and restaurant management at their northwestern Russia campus. Other objectives include acquiring new library material, improving faculty English language skills, establishing Internet-based distance learning and continuing education seminars.

$100,000 Grant to Support Renaissance Scholars
Former foster youth participating in the Renaissance Scholars program are now eligible for a special scholarship thanks to a $100,000 grant awarded by the S. Mark Taper Foundation through Bienvenidos Children’s Center, a non-profit agency serving abused and neglected children and at-risk families. The two-year grant will provide up to 10 scholarships annually to Renaissance Scholars who are making satisfactory progress toward their degrees. Each year, more than 20,000 youth “age out” of the foster care system and are expected to make the transition to adulthood independently. Cal Poly Pomona established the Renaissance Scholars program in January 2002 to assist foster youth in making this transition successfully.

Nonviolence Center Launched
The College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences established the Ahimsa Center, dedicated to interdisciplinary teaching and learning about nonviolence and its practical applications at various levels, from personal to international. Ahimsa is an eastern philosophy of revering all life and refraining from harm to any living thing. The center offers courses — such as Nonviolence in the Modern World — to help students gain a critical perspective on nonviolence in religion, politics and society; lectures by distinguished speakers; and professional development programs that show how to incorporate nonviolence teaching in a curriculum. In addition, the center will host bi-annual international conferences to promote dialogue between scholars and the community.

NSF Awards $160,000 Grant for New Parallel Computing Laboratory
The National Science Foundation has awarded College of Science faculty members a two-year, $160,000 grant that will pay for a computer workstation network designed to drive research in parallel and distributed computing. While each successive generation of computers push speed and increase raw processing power, there are still limits on what one computer can do when it comes to sorting through mountains of raw data. Parallel computing takes a teamwork approach to such undertakings by dividing one project into several tasks among a network of computers.