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The following programs exemplify Cal Poly Pomona’s entrance into aggressive community outreach. In addition to traditional pedagogical missions, some of these programs, such as the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies and LandLab, also have substantial research missions, which foster public/private partnerships or substantial opportunities for securing state or national funding. Many of these are site-based with dedicated facilities, lending both presence and identity. Further details on these and other programs may be found in the Support Document file in the Team Room, and many of them are listed in the Centers of Excellence Annex E5.

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Cal Poly Pomona’s John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies [The Lyle Center, or CRS] is an interdisciplinary university—based setting for education, demonstration and research in regenerative and sustainable systems. Administered by the College of Environmental Design, students from all disciplines on campus can participate in course work, and a community of 20 residents lives on the site, working with regenerative systems as part of their daily lives. The term "regenerative" has been chosen to emphasize the intention of design to restore natural systems, not merely sustain them, while integrating the needs of the human community. The comprehensive design of the 16-acre site provides a living laboratory for people to study passive solar designed buildings, solar and wind energy capture, water recycling, nutrient recycling, food growing systems, aquaculture ponds, native walnut woodlands and human intentional communities. All of these have implications for contemporary human society.

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The Cal Poly Pomona Outreach Community Center for Urban Research was originally located in the nearby community of Ontario, California, and has recently moved to Pomona. Administered by the College of Environmental Design, OCCUR provides a unique oasis in the world of design for students to work on real urban projects in an off-campus interdisciplinary facility located in the heart of downtown Ontario. Studios, classroom space and an outdoor courtyard workshop areas are adjacent to the OCCUR offices, reminiscent of the successful atelier teaching methods of the past. Regular academic design courses for all ENV departments, as well as special courses, meet at the facility in single or multi-discipline units to work on projects tailored to specific urban issues or relating to a project for a community or organization. A report is published at the end of the course.

In the involvement of the university with the community as it pertains to student learning, Agriscapes plays a unique role. Rather than providing a venue for student learning off campus, it provides for learning by the community on campus. With the opening of Agriscapes by the College of Agriculture on campus, casual visitors, school children and their teachers, grocery shoppers and university students alike will learn about food production and the urban environment at this multi-faceted complex through hands-on interactive activities.

Agriscapes was designed to promote environmental and agricultural literacy in as interesting a way as possible. The intention is educate people who do not grow up on farms to understand where food comes from, that is, to become agriculturally literate. Visitors to Agriscapes experience sustainable landscaping practices, water and soil conservation, principles of recycling and integrated pest management. A dozen greenhouses are used to demonstrate crops of the world and hydroponics, and to conduct research on produce production and bio-technology.

The Apparel Technology and Research Center, under the administration of the College of Agriculture, should not be confused with the baccalaureate program, Apparel Merchandising and Management. The Center was created to provide a hands-on experience for students throughout the university who have a professional interest in the manufacture of apparel. The ATRC conducts research, outreach education and demonstration activities for the apparel industry. The Center houses a model manufacturing plant featuring state-of-the-art equipment and advanced manufacturing systems. This permits students who may be gaining experience or conducting research at the Center to be exposed to the most modern equipment and techniques. Funding for such equipment and systems is very expensive. Fortunately the Center was awarded a demonstration contract from the Defense Logistics Agency of the Department of Defense in the amount of approximately $13 million. The Center’s annual operating budget is approximately $1.7 million.

The National Institutes of Health (NIF) has funded two programs for biomedical research, one for faculty and one for students. The faculty program (SCORE) is funded as each grant proposal is approved. To date, the funding level is $5.8 million over four years. This may increase, as a number of grant proposals are in process.

The student program (RISE) is also for biomedical research. This program is specifically for research by under-represented minorities. To date, 3 proposals have been funded in the amount of $3million over four years.

The MBRS program is the predecessor for the programs described above. It included funding for biomedical research by teams of faculty and students. Seven projects were funded by NIH and started in 1998. These projects have all been completed and the program closed.

The initial partnership with industry in the College of Engineering was that of the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department established in 1983. Its Industrial Advisory Council has served as a model for partnerships with industry for other College of Engineering programs and for the College itself.

The College of Engineering established its Industry Action Council in 1990. It began as a partnership of the college and some sixty industry leaders, undertaking a critique of the curriculum, laboratory and facilities. As a result of the critique, the college responded with the largest and most successful public-private partnership ever initiated by Cal Poly Pomona, raising more than $14 million in six years from alumni, industry and foundations. This strong showing of private support prompted the State of California to allocate $23 million for a state-of-the-art engineering building.

An unforeseen benefit of the partnership of the College of Engineering and its various programs with industry was occasioned by action taken by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. ABET is the accrediting body for colleges of engineering in the United States. In the late ‘90s ABET introduced through EAC Engineering Criteria 2000. ABET 2000 requires the college to continuously evaluate what students are learning as a result of improvements and enhancements to course material as a result of ongoing assessment. The partnerships with industry are proving invaluable in this effort.

One of the principal methods of outcomes assessment of the various programs was and continues to be interaction with the industry members of the various support groups. Interaction takes the form of assessing graduate engineering students employed by support companies; assessing the curriculum vs. what students learn; and completing surveys for assessment purposes and serving as an expert resource in various curriculum matters.

The Industry Advisory Boards in the College of Agriculture are, as in the College of Engineering, discipline specific. Each program has its unique advisory board. The function of the boards varies from program to program. Eight such boards exist.

Assessment of the curriculum in the College of Agriculture is materially assisted by the advisory boards, the duties of which include curriculum review. The boards contribute to the development of curriculum goals, either by their interaction with the program or as a source for surveys of graduate achievements.

The industry advisory board in the Collins School is called the Board of Advisors. The responsibilities of the Board are related to long-range planning, new program initiation, provision of resources, acquisition of facilities, support for standards, recruitment, placement assistance, and consultation with the Dean.

The entire Board provides a mechanism for assessment of the program and of the preparation of the graduates. The School regularly polls the employers of its students to determine the value of its professional preparation. The Board, as representative employers, serves as a valuable source for such surveys.

The Board has been particularly successful in soliciting financial support for the School. The present building was provided by the financial support engendered by the Board. An addition to the School has been subscribed by the Board in the amount of six million dollars. The goal of the School, "...becoming the premier hospitality management program in North America" becomes realizable with the support of such an active Board of Advisors.

Advisory Boards in the College assist at both the college level and at the individual design level. Support, both financial and curricular, is provided by the various boards. Interaction with the community is frequent. The college impacts many functions throughout the San Gabriel Valley in what may seem disparate actions, but which have as a common theme: the environment.

As noted above, the mission of the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies involves education, research and demonstration of regenerative techniques. With such an all encompassing mission, the Center should and does have an Advisory Board from the many diverse fields that develop knowledge of the environment. The Center’s Advisory Board is particularly active in providing advice and counsel to the Center. It suggests activities to broaden the impact of the Center such as inviting high school students, teachers in Environmental Science, and professionals to visit the Center and learn from it. Plans for greater interaction with the public are in development.

The College periodically surveys its large alumni base of five thousand graduates to assess its programs and its curricula. The views and opinions of the alumni as they progress through the various stages of their professional careers provide unique insight into the value of the curricula and the changing demands of the professions.

The IBPP is an aggressive program in which Cal Poly Pomona seeks to promote regional economic development by providing technical and economic advice as well as creating centers to maximize entrepreneurial capacity. Under the aegis of the IBPP, a number of centers or programs have been created:

Incubation Programs

The business incubation and technology complex at Cal Poly Pomona is currently comprised of two business incubators. The NASA Commercialization Center focuses exclusively on ventures commercializing Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Dryden Flight Research Center technologies. The Pomona Technology Center specializes in entrepreneurial businesses in biomedical and telecommunications-intensive industries. The incubator combination offers new clients a full range of new product support resources: office management, business assistance and lab-to-market commercialization programs.

Innovation Village

The Village will provide the setting for technology-based companies with strong strategic linkages to the university’s centers of excellence. The Park will house up to 800,000 square feet of space designed and managed to accommodate and service the rapidly changing needs of tech-based companies.

The Village will focus on companies, ranging from small fast-growing start-ups to branches of multi-national corporations working in the areas of biotechnology, computer technology, engineering, multimedia design, agriculture, environmental design, and international training.

Pomona Technology Center

The 24,000 square foot Technology Center will co-anchor a 65-acre technology park housing the Innovation Village, the College of the Extended University’s continuing education center and the NASA Commercialization Center.

Internships

NASA Commercialization Center

The NASA Commercialization Center (NCC) is a high-technology business incubator that provides new or early-stage businesses with the necessary physical, management and product development infrastructure to successfully commercialize NASA technologies.

Internships offered by the university are of three types:

1. Intern credential programs.
2. Internships with industrial or commercial companies with a coop course.
3. Internships with industrial or commercial companies without a coop course.

The Department of Teacher Education offers internships in partnership with a number of school districts in the San Gabriel Valley area. The internship is an intensive two-year program, which leads to a Clear Credential in Multiple or Single Subjects (Mathematics or Science) or Level I Special Education with CLAD or BCLAD. During the internship, the student is employed full time by the district. The terms and conditions for each of the internships noted are clearly spelled out. In no case is the student being used to supplant a regular worker or to provide a source of cheap labor for the employing district or company. All of the internships are designed to provide the student with valuable hands-on experience in the Cal Poly Pomona tradition. They are well publicized, and students are urged to take advantage of them. Professional students who complete internships are very attractive to potential employers, and have an edge over students who do not take advantage of these excellent opportunities.

We have thought about the need for some kind of organization for all of this activity and initiative, to reference all the projects, grants, offices, outreach activities, institutes, and other new directions and programs we have been considering here. Such an organizing framework would be of considerable utility to the campus. At the present time, there is no index of such ‘centers’ other than those who have chosen to develop web pages and list themselves on the university site. The Research Council does not deal automatically with all of them, nor does any other governance structure. A kind of advisory or executive council for Centers of Excellence that helps coordinate them and provide internal and external information about them would be an excellent tool in management (Annex E5). A possible framework is as follows:

Centers of Excellence for Academic Enrichment

• College Based Programs
• The Learning Center
• The Writing Center

Centers of Excellence for Academic Research

• Landlab
• Agriscapes
• Apparel Technology and Research
• Lyle Center for Regenerative Research
• Center for Advanced Computing in Science
• GIS Center
• Intergraph Center of Excellence

Centers of Excellence for Academic Development

• Faculty Center for Academic Development
• New Faculty Center
• IT Fits Program/Faculty Computing Support Center
• Lecturers’ Support Program
• Engineering Clinic
• Engineering Institute

Centers of Excellence for Community Outreach

• OCCUR
• Pomona Project
• Cuba Project
• Zimbabwe Project

Centers of Excellence for Incubator Programs

• International Business Partners Program
• Innovation Village
• Pomona Technology Center
• NASA Commercialization Center

We can also try to develop ways of understanding our evolution through a componential analysis of these programs, as suggested in the matrix of Figure 33, which might eventually serve as a diagnostic or assessment instrument on which to base decision-making. That will be up to the campus to determine, through continuous self-study. This list does not include all formally established administrative offices such as Disabled Student Services, which are equally excellent. The Council for Centers of Excellence or whatever body the university establishes can agree on criteria for listing.