News

Poly Pantry Fills Plates
While a student at Cal Poly Pomona, Alyssa Jane Christiansen (’11, sociology) occasionally slept in her car to avoid the cost of commuting to the mobile home in Upland she shared with her sister and their mother. She ate a lot of ramen — and never once bought a meal on campus. “I often skipped meals, ate less than I felt I should and went hungry because there was not enough money for food,” she said. Instead of buying groceries, she put gasoline in her car or paid for a textbook. Her life would have been different had the Poly Pantry existed during her time on campus. In an ideal …
CPP Produces Podcasts for a Range of Interests
Podcasts have never been more popular. Accordingly, Cal Poly Pomona has a growing list of podcast series produced by faculty, students and staff from various departments. Below are summaries of some of the podcasts currently being produced by the CPP community, the topics of which range from engineering deep dives to an inside look at the student-run newspaper on campus, The Poly Post, to discussion about the evolution of education. CEIS Podcast With Dean Jeff Passe This podcast is hosted by the Dean of the College of Education and Integrative Studies and there are currently 40 episodes that have already aired, each about 30 minutes long. Each episode can …
400 Students Present on Campus at 8th Annual Research Conference
The portrayal of Muslims in the media, ecotourism in Central America, and the risks of raw food diets were among the topics highlighted at the 8th Annual Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Conference (RSCA) at Cal Poly Pomona. Hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), the March 7 conference attracted more than 700 attendees, including over 400 student presenters, 76 alumni judges and moderators, and 225 faculty, staff, and members of the community who came to support the students’ hard work. “RSCA celebrates the wide-ranging creative activities, research, and scholarship that showcase the learning-by-doing philosophy of Cal Poly Pomona” said Winny Dong, director of the OUR. “It was …
Alumnus Geoffrey Okamoto Approved as IMF’s No. 2 Official
The International Monetary Fund has approved the appointment of Geoffrey Okamoto (’08 computer information systems) as first deputy managing director, the agency’s No. 2 official. The expedited appointment of Okamoto, who is a top international official in the U.S. Treasury, will increase cooperation between the IMF and U.S. government. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva originally proposed his appointment on March 12, 2020. “I look forward to our working closely together,” said Georgieva. “The IMF is putting all hands-on deck to help our membership address this crisis — and Geoffrey will play a key role in our efforts.” In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Okamoto said: “We’re going to …
Women’s History Month: Fascinating Females You Should Know
In honor of Women’s history month, Rosanne Welch and Peg Lamphier, Cal Poly Pomona lecturers in Interdisciplinary General Education and editors of the four-volume encyclopedia Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection (ABC-CLIO Publishing, January 2017), have provided a list of a dozen fascinating females in history everyone should know. Welch and Lamphier’s encyclopedia was named to the 2018 Outstanding References Sources List, by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association and to the 2018 list of Best Historical Materials by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association. Catharine …
Women’s History Month: Basketball Coach’s Legacy Stronger With Time
More than a quarter century after her retirement from coaching basketball at Cal Poly Pomona, Darlene May’s legacy is only growing stronger. Despite being forced form the bench in 1994 after a terminal cancer diagnosis, she remains the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division II women’s basketball. May died two years later with a resume that landed her in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. In 20 seasons at CPP, her teams compiled 519 wins opposite 119 losses and collected three national championships. May’s Broncos won 199 of their 207 conference games over that span, an astounding winning percentage of 96. Her trio of championships, in 1982, …
Horse Center Celebrates First Foal of 2020
Amid the gloomy atmosphere created by the COVID-19 crisis and the rainy weather, some good news has arrived to the Cal Poly Pomona campus: the first foal of the season was born at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center. The colt was born just after midnight on March 19. April Mason, the lead student who foaled out the mother, has given the colt the informal barn name of “Dillon,” said Cindy Reich, the lead for breeding and herd management at the center. In Gaelic, Dillon means “bright light” or “ray of light,” she said. The colt will get a formal name when he is officially registered with the Arabian …
Study Finds Bird Evolution Shaped by Tibetan Plateau
Elizabeth Scordato, an assistant professor of biological sciences, is the lead author of a study that found the evolution of barn swallows in Asia is shaped by the Tibetan Plateau. The results, published in the journal Ecology Letters, provide the most convincing evidence yet for the long-held hypothesis that the plateau is an important factor maintaining the vast diversity of birds found in Asia. “The formation of a species requires the cutting off of interbreeding. Once genes stop moving from one group to another, we can get a new species,” said Scordato. “Our goal was to find out why two of these subspecies of swallows interbreed a lot over …
Cal Poly Pomona Students Take Home National Baking Title — Again
For the second consecutive year, Cal Poly Pomona food science and technology students have won a national baking competition. The team of Viral Shukla, Gerardo Pedro, Chelsea Le, and Choco Chai took first place in the American Society of Baking (ASB) Product Development Competition, which was held March 1 in Chicago. The quartet beat out teams from the University of Florida and Purdue University in the competition finals. Each team had to create a new bakery food product using “novel protein source” that is not commonly found in food: for example, insects, algae, seaweed, or rapeseed. Team Hoppers celebrate. The Cal Poly Pomona team created “Hoppers,” which was inspired by …
CPP’s Tomatozania Sale Features Hundreds of Varieties
Cal Poly Pomona’s eagerly awaited TomatozaniaTM plant sale features hundreds of tomato varieties for purchase March 13-15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Plant Science greenhouse across from the Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store at 4102 S. University Drive in Pomona. Selections range from the more well-known San Marzano, Better Boy, Green Zebra and Cherokee Purple to the heirlooms and new introductions, such as Abu Rawan, Cosmic Eclipse, Paul Robeson, Tidy Treats and so many more. Varieties include those perfect for large to tiny gardens, as well as those that flourish in containers. All are non-GMO. The annual sale began in 1997, and its reputation has spread …