Welcome to the College of Architecture and Environmental Design for the Academic Year
2011-12.

This year our college is welcoming 283 new freshmen, 72 new transfer students, and 48 new graduate students into our programs. Combined with our continuing students, this brings the total number of students in the college to 1,705. We are delighted that in Cal Poly's second year of having a separate admissions program for out of state students, we have attracted a diverse group of undergraduates and graduates from across the nation and other countries too. This is a testament to the great educational reputations of our majors, as well as an understanding that when one comes to California to learn, you will graduate prepared to change the world whether in your own home state or in far off parts of the globe.

A combination of extended field trips, visiting guest lecturers, co-ops, internships and off-campus programs give our students direct exposure to the complex, large, urban areas and impressive rural ecological zones of our state, our nation and the globe. Our educational blend of theory and practice, studio intensive learning and community-centered engagement, involves bringing the best of the world to Cal Poly and taking Cal Poly to the world.

This year we further expanded our off-campus program options, with a total of 11 programs, which had 147 upper division students participating in exciting study in several California cities, other parts of the nation, and on several continents.

We have a dynamic tradition in our college and throughout our University of individual students, teams and whole classes entering regional, national and international competitions, bringing home great experiences as well as top prizes. Over the last five years, approximately 70 Cal Poly students have won first place in some form of national or international competition, and we all share in the pride of this kind of competitive excellence. Some examples of our student accomplishments are highlighted in both our college news, and on the department websites.

Our faculty continues to garner their own recognition for teaching excellence and timely publications, which you can review in greater detail on the websites of the five departments.

In addition to celebrating the great accomplishments of our students and faculty, this year we also celebrate the first full year to use our newly completed Simpson Strong-Tie Materials Demonstration Lab. This important interdisciplinary facility will help us keep our historic preeminence in building and landscape technical knowledge and skills. This large hall provides us with a unique hands-on experimentation and interactive learning facility, which is being programmed to accommodate exhibitions, competitions and product fairs of a scale and duration that we had no prior ability to support.

The surveys and polls we conduct and the independent ratings we read about our programs do validate that we currently graduate students ready to work hard, to work together and assume leadership roles in their chosen fields. As the nature of our professions is rapidly evolving, so too must we anticipate the future of our fields and maintain educational relevance. This means that like any college, we have to continue to respond to the changing needs of the environment and society we serve while maintaining the core experiences at the heart of our curriculum upon which our more than 60 years of reputation is based. Thanks to our energetic faculty and industry friends, we keep experimenting, forming new partnerships, and expanding our presence in communities all over the world. Our students are very active in helping us determine what might be in their interests, and how we can work with them to try out new forms of learning and new ways of teaching.

Even in acknowledgment of the continued economic situation and its short-term effect on our professions, the long-term projections show a great demand for our graduates, especially in the fast growing large metro areas of the US and the southern and western states. This is actually a good time to enter college as the recovery from past recessions have shown society will need a large influx of recent graduates in the planning, design, and construction fields while the recovery takes hold.

If you have joined us this fall as a student or parent, a hearty welcome. If you are considering coming to Cal Poly, please get to know us from our college and departmental websites, and visit campus if you can. Consider a trip during the last few weeks of a quarter when an impressive array of student project work is being feverishly finished in the labs and studios that are the centerpiece of all our majors.

If you are not from California and wonder what the experience of learning in a beautiful, small town on the Central Coast might be like, let me assure you that we combine all the assets of an idyllic location for focused learning, and proximity to major urban areas for learning and recreation. Cal Poly is within a half day of several of the world's destination cities, in a state that is international in outlook and vibrant in the composition of its citizenry. We offer a balance between small town livability and big city vitality, and our students will be immersed in both as we prepare them to help transform the world, from the scale of a home to the scale of entire cities and regions.

Sincerely,

R. Thomas Jones, AIA
Dean, College of Architecture and Environmental Design