New Rankings from US News

[PL28]

From Cal Poly Pomona's website, it looks like Cal Poly Pomona is still ranking relatively high in the West from USNews.. especially in engineering. Hopefully these are good signs that lead to better administration at the school

http://polycentric.csupomona.edu/news.asp?id=2133

On other note, SLO is doing really well.. moving up few spots.

[jayandbutton]

i think there was another post about this recently. as i recall xiaoxue pointed out that cal poly pomona was ranked sixth in the west among non doctoral schools six years ago but now is tied for thirty second. i remember we were ranked seventh in the west by the same poll in the early nineties and as i recall had fallen to a tied for thirty third last year before azusa pacific was elevated to the "big boys" like cal and stanford as a doctoral/national university.

you are right...engineering continues to prop up this campus. the other strong unit is the collins school which does not get notice in the magazine but also is nationally known and almost stands alone with an almost USC feel about it. but when you don't have a permanent dean in the majority of your colleges and can't seem to find one in several and you keep losing your best faculty you aren't going up.

our san luis friends are at a totally different level, and part of the reason is because they are raising money like crazy and buying all kinds of things to make that a special place. have you seen the performing arts center there? wow. or compare the two swimming pools...ours is a joke. or the rec center...which we don't, and won't have.

and do we dare talk about the two football programs? the mustang program is getting a major upgrade. meanwhile, our stadium has been banned from use because the stands are falling apart. why is it that they can raise so much money, as a smaller school, and we can't?

[cppbronco]

Cpp cant raise the money that cpslo does cause they compete with many other schools in the area. who does slo compete with? also having alumni like xiaxue who turn against the school doesnt help. xman give back your degree!!..compared to last year cpp moved up and for public schools cpp is number 6..cpp will be back on top..true alumni need to give back...re the rec center thats the current students fault.the slo students voted for while the cpp students didnt...they shot themselves in the foot with that vote...

[PL28]

The issue with raising money and funding for school activities and scholarships are somewhat correlated to the amount of student involvement at campus... I think the more the school get students involved during their college life the more likely they'll donate and give back to the university.

[Admin]

Several years ago, several colleges at Cal Poly Pomona decided to decrease the number of required units to earn the degree. Let me tell you, this got many upper-class students joining clubs simply because they can graduate on time while balancing school work and social campus activities. And when students become an active member in their social clubs, their networking continues to remain strong outside of college and their pride for the school is present too. Pride plays a big role when it comes to endowment but if the school is not progressing well and losing nationwide ranks, pride slowly disappears.

Few years ago, Cal Poly Pomona struggled with accommodating the students with course offering because the instructors were not available to teach the course because of the California State budget crisis. And the tuition rate leaped not because of inflation. I don't know whether the number of course offering improved this year but I feel for the current students when they realize that an important course they needed is offered only once (if lucky twice) a year and the class gets full very quick.

I don't know if competition between Cal Poly Pomona and nearby universities factor in much when it comes to raising the funds. The university accepts plenty of undergraduate students and the number of alumnus grows every year obviously. Let us say that the total number of these two combined are compared with a similar university with the same number of students, Cal Poly Pomona might still struggle with competing for the greater amount of alumnus' endowment.

[jayandbutton]

admin, you are right. when cal poly pomona dropped the required units from 198 to 180 many of the distinctive enrichment courses were dropped or just not offered any more. as a result the unique polytechnic feel of the campus began to get morphed into just another cal state. that, combined with peer schools beating our pants off for money, has placed us in the academic doghouse. even more recently we have seen classes that once enrolled 20 get kicked up to 45, and classes with 35 or 40 now packed with 60 or 65. that's hardly building quality, folks.

i can understand why alums like xiaoxue not being loyal. when you suffer through four to six years of crowded or cancelled classes in buildings that never have been modernized and are fifty years old and THEN go to grad school at a so called lesser cal state with a ninety million dollar state of the art building you realize how far behind pomona has fallen. the money follows success, and it's happening much more readily at almost anywhere other than cal poly pomona, sadly.

but there remain some good signs, particularly in the collins school and in engineering. these units keep the entire university at least in the conversation.

[Dabackgammonator]

Cal Poly Pomona is ranked 12th in the nation in engineering for Universities whose highest degree is Master's. We need to work harder to be #1. C-A-L ! P-O-L-Y ! C-A-L ! P-O-L-Y !C-A-L ! P-O-L-Y ! POMONA POMONA POMONA!!!!

[jayandbutton]

you got a great attitude, gammon...you should be a dean or something at this place!

[xiaoxue]

i was there when the units were cut and that was a terrible move. yeah, all of us were glad to get out with our degrees sooner but as jay says we missed out on all those hands on courses that once made poly a special place.

now it's mostly a third tier cal state.

but good luck, maybe some day it will turn back around again. at least you have a good engineering school still.

[cppbronco]

xman..dont you ever give up. cpp maybe bad but it continues to be ranked above your csuf.. all csuf has is a new business buiding built with dirty money donated by a crook...nice ethics taught at that school...

[orangecounty58]

i wouldnt call cpp a third rate cal sate.to many good programs to say that. fact is in EE we were required to take more units then just about any engineering program I am aware of. one of my professors said he had increased the amount of units in order to force students to take more electives. at some schools these elective courses are graduate level courses. this way it makes a student "half-cooked". on average it takes a person about 18 months after graduating and being hired to begin to generate revenue for a company. a cal poly engineer should be able to start generating revenue in 6-8 months, if not sooner. hands-on approach and extra course works are their in order to keep the individual employed and productive. chances are when you were hired, one or two other individuals were hired, out of the three, one will most likely remain within a year and half. you are directly competing with the other hires, something that is not likely divulged to you. we are taught the structure of what to expect and look for at a job site in required course at cal poly. everything from the complete graduate school requirements & structure, questions used to trip you up in an interview, resume building(specific to engineering), legal aspects of working (how not to get sued) and a load of other material. i dont know many other place with a dedicated course of that nature.

[orangecounty58]

if i could pick a local business school to attend i'd actually go to Chapman, and if I were near Pomona I'd go to La Verne. both can get pricey and CSUF is a good place to go for the cash and its local, well at least to me.

[jayandbutton]

all these polls are just that, rankings made by people in washington and new york. what is more important and valuable is what people say who actually are on these campuses. that's where sites like college confidential.com and studentsreview.com come in handy since they are populated by students, parents, and faculty who know first hand when things are going well or not.

cal poly pomona engineering has earned its reputation from years of institution building as evidenced by its strong alumni base and building its job outreach portfolios. it's interesting you mention chapman, OC, because fifteen years ago i evaluated that school and found many holes and more recently taught business there. what a difference, similar to the rapid rise by USC among the so called big schools. we old timers along the way have seen clear evidence not only of others moving swiftly but our own place lagging behind.

what characterizes places on the move upward is leadership. it happened with president maxson at long beach state, with president doti at chapman, and is now beginning to happen with the new president at san jose state. strong leaders build strong teams, and strong teams build up the financial base. we had that kind of dynamo in president labounty during the pomona glory years when it was more highly regarded, in the hunt with president baker's campus at SLO. baker, by the way, is the longest serving president in the entire system.

at pomona, sadly, there has been more turmoil among deans and provosts in recent years than ever in the school's history. last year three deans were running six schools and colleges, and interim deans and provosts were running all over the place. several dean searches were delayed for lack of a proper pool of applicants. and the faculty turnover has reached dramatic and unprecented levels as they depart at every rank and place in their careers. this cycle of turmoil must stop if the campus ever hopes to return to the excellence we all would hope for.

[orangecounty58]

im not knowledgeable enough to give insight into what needs to be done in order to change what is occurring at pomona. their seems to be a disconnect between the campus and alumni. other schools thrive because their is a close connection post graduation. USC is superb example of strong post graduate pride/school contact. The CPP Alumin Association blows up our phones but never explain WHY they want money or can not answer where it goes. My only suggestion, and it could be a poor one, is to organize alumni in attempt to get their employers to donate. We have to people working everywhere. Half my graduating class probably works at Northrop or Raytheon. A few people I know are at Apple and I know 3 former Cal Poly (2 pomona, 1 slo) grads working for the former google vice president of engineering. Maybe a newsletter can be started and begin forwarding it to every student of CPP we know. if alumni dont care, I dont see much change happening.

the minimizing of deans is sure sign of problems. either A) finances are extremely bad B) nobody wants the job C) there are not enough qualified people applying D) there is a huge power struggle/control issue going on. could be a combination of many things creating the malaise and apathy.

[jayandbutton]

a year ago there was a big press conference to announce that a well known newspaper publisher from the inland empire was named to run the university's new capital campaign.

after all the hoopla died down a week or two later, nothing happened.

a year now has passed and all the noise about a capital campaign has ended, and one wonders if any kind of campaign at all is going on, other than the cheesy cold calling done by student helpers toward alumni who mostly are put off by the sophomoric attempts to fund raise.

chalk that one up to leadership, too. or lack thereof. the students, faculty, staff and alumni deserve better.

[orangecounty58]

the newspaper guru might have seen the poor leadership and pulled out. when im annoyed with something i usually flood my congressperson's/representative's email box. usually doesnt get anywhere, but send enough letters of dissatisfaction and youll get a reply; even a reply that has nothing to do with what you e-mailed about.

here is the link for district Rep.Grace Napolitano

http://napolitano.house.gov/

im going to send her a lengthy letter once i become more informed of the problem. seems like you know a bit jay. any good sources of info?

[orangecounty58]

http://polycentric.csupomona.edu/news.asp?id=1127
1 million for a wind tunnel. if they can manage to get a million for something like that, I dont see a problem getting grants for equipment, instructors, and building remodeling. especially since Aero is a very small department.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califor...of_Engineering

the pics only show how old the building is. if you have ever walked on the second floor that connects the building, you can see how poorly they are connected


san jose state just got a $15million for the engineering department from a RE developer this year. i think our congresswoman needs to go out and attempt to hit the pockets of people she has helped make money

[orangecounty58]

dont know if the newspaper guy was Eddy W. Hartenstein who I found off one of the news link on this board.

http://polycentric.csupomona.edu/new...124&rss_a_id=2
use to be chairman and ceo of directtv, board of directors of SanDisk, etc. I don't know what he knows about publishing, but the guy revolutionized television. I think we need better cold callers, then some damn kids asking for money. Give me a list, a phone and a Monster Energy drink.


seriously though, i think we need to utilize marketing/advertising and the alumni list. get people who know how to TALK/COMMUNICATE and SELL. ive worked around the real estate business, debt consolidation business, loan modification business, advertising sales business and you need the right people who now how to get people to open up the wallet.

[PL28]

Maybe if we improve our athletics facilities and have decent men and women's teams, we can persuade the student body to be more involved (in sports at least). Then they will feel more connected to the university and will probably result in more donations. Or we can just hope Jim Zorn does well in the NFL as a coach and give back to his old alma mater.

[orangecounty58]

when i arrived on campus we had a football team. to bad most of the players had unrealistic visions of playing professional football, even while playing offensive line at 5'9.5" and weighing 250lbs. i could go on how they acted, how i acted in return, but in all honesty dropping certain sports programs only strengthened the school academically. putting money into our sports programs will not fix the problems we are discussing. the school had to cut certain sports in order to keep schools functioning. we do need facility upgrades, but the school's reputation hinders on the strength of the education within the colleges, not sports. although, strong sports programs leads to name recognition. brand building at it's finest. the only problem with that is, our school doesn't compete in division I sports. Pomona is a commuter school, so students do not stay at school much longer then they need to. No one hangs out to go watch games, because no one is around to do so.

another big issue is the perceived perception of perspective students/parents of the school. do a search online and youll see very good questions and observations by parents. pomona is seen as stagnant, while many schools like SJSU are being seen as "up an coming". the gap in gpas between a top tier school and pomona entering students needs to shrink. it will eliminate those who were not suppose to be in certain programs and help with the dropout rate; thus increasing our ranking and status. plus it wont cost anyone a dollar, unless the objective is to herd in the cattle at X dollars per head. pomona is usually a third or lower choice by students/parents. for instance, i went to cal poly after being accepted to USC, UC Davis and UCI. financial issues eliminated davis and SC. later i found out my personality type probably would not have mixed well at So. Cal. Which also led me to attend Pomona, and not UCI. Pomona still has great students, who tend to help one another, not a priority at many other campuses. i dont regret going to Pomona for many reasons. Just need to find those who have as much pride as the rest of us to try and fix the problem.

we need to progress an make our campus state of the art. if you look at our extended university programs, it fails in comparison to CSUF, UCLA, UCI,Chapman and others. ive attended UCI's extended university engineering program. It is a great way to generate revenue. Other campus offers real world applications from people working currently in the industry and not school staff member. it seriously looks like management has their heads in hard to reach areas.