Backgrounders

The following background information is compiled by the Office of Public Affairs. For more information, please contact Uyen Mai at (909) 869-5331 or news@csupomona.edu.

Background

Campus History
Cal Poly Pomona opened in the fall of 1938 as the Voorhis Unit of the California Polytechnic School, with an all-male enrollment of 110 students. Read how the university grew into nationally-ranked 1,438-acre campus in Pomona with an enrollment of nearly 20,000 students.

Costs to Attend
As a part of the California State University system, Cal Poly Pomona is one of the most affordable universities in the nation. Fees for an entire year are only about $4,000 compared to $40,000 at private institutions.

Quick Facts
Short facts and stats on Cal Poly Pomona

Biographies

President - Dr. J. Michael Ortiz

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Vice President for Instructional & Information Technology

University President - Dr. J. Michael Ortiz

Dr. J. Michael Ortiz became Cal Poly Pomona’s fifth president on Aug. 1, 2003. For more than 25 years, Ortiz has dedicated his life to advancing education. Since joining Cal Poly Pomona, Ortiz has actively championed the university as well as broader issues impacting higher education.

Ortiz began his career as a special education teacher in Albuquerque, NM. He went onto becoming a professor with Appalachian State University from 1972 to 1990. He was interim and associate provost at the University of Southern Colorado from 1993 to 1996 and dean of continuing education and director of the summer school from 1990 to 1993. He was most recently provost and vice president of academic affairs for California State University, Fresno from 1997 to 2003 and associate provost and professor of special education in 1996.

Ortiz earned his baccalaureate and master's degrees in 1970 and 1971, respectively, at the University of New Mexico. After earning his doctorate in early childhood special education at the University of North Carolina in 1981, he did postdoctoral work at Harvard University. Read more...

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dr. Marten L. denBoer will join Cal Poly Pomona as its provost and vice president for Academic Affairs on Aug. 14, 2008. Dr. denBoer previously served as associate provost at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) since 2001, where he successfully raised academic standards, created and developed new scholarly programs and expanded technological resources and infrastructure.

Dr. denBoer has an extensive background in science, having served as the chair of the physics department at Hunter College of CUNY and as a faculty member at Hunter and at Polytechnic Institute of New York. As a scholar, denBoer has published more than 70 scientific articles and has presented at national and international conferences, universities and research laboratories. His research has been funded by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. denBoer earned a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and master's and PhD degrees in condensed matter physics at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Vice President for Instructional & Information Technology

After leading Cal Poly Pomona’s Instructional & Informational Technology as interim vice president, Dr. Debra Brum was named the new vice president for the division in 2006. As vice president for I&IT, Brum is responsible for campus technology, including voice and data infrastructure, support for the use of technology in teaching, learning computing and laboratories, and the university and division Web sites.

Brum has worked at Cal Poly Pomona for the past 22 years, serving as associate provost, associate vice president for Faculty Affairs, chair of Computer Science and administrator-in-charge of Academic Affairs.She holds a doctorate in information and computer science from UC Irvine, bachelor’s in mathematics from Michigan State University and a master’s in computer science and mathematics from Cal Poly Pomona.