[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3320]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   CELEBRATING THE CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY CENTENNIAL

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                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 8, 2001

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today 
to recognize an educational institution that deserves praise for a 
century of distinguished teaching, research, and public service to the 
state of California and the nation. On March 8, 2001, California 
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo will begin an 18-month 
celebration of its centennial.
  Indeed, Cal Poly, as the university is often called, has a great deal 
to celebrate. In the 1890's, Myron angel, a San Luis Obispo County 
chronicler, was dismayed by the practical ineptness he experienced in 
spite of his college education. He campaigned for a local facility that 
would ``teach the hand as well as the head, so that no young man or 
young woman would be sent off in the world to earn their living poorly 
equipped for any task.'' Angel's prominence reinforced an earlier 
proposition of the district state senator, Sylvester C. Smith, to build 
a polytechnic institute in San Luis Obispo. Southern Pacific Railroad 
had just completed the last link in its coastal route and subsequently 
backed the proposal as an effort to increase business for the new line. 
On March 8 in the first year of the 20th century, legislation founding 
the California Polytechnic School was signed into law after six years 
of debate.
  The law included the practical mandate of its founders, ``To furnish 
the young of both sexes mental and manual training in the arts and 
sciences, including agriculture, mechanics, engineering, business 
methods, domestic economics, and others such branches as will fit the 
students for non-professional walks of life.'' A great deal changed in 
the ensuing decades--including the definition of a professional--
California Polytechnic School, a vocational high school, grew into 
California Polytechnic State University, a premier undergraduate 
institution. The essence of the original charge is still part of the 
state law, and has remained constant in the university's present 
philosophy.
  A tour of the modern Cal Poly campus traces the progression of ten 
decades, and confirms the strength of the original ``learn by doing'' 
philosophy. Among the facilities spread across the university's 5,051 
acres are fourteen research centers and institutes. The founders would 
be pleased to observe the activity, for example, in the Urban Forest 
Ecosystems Institute, where students apply their knowledge and research 
to assist the community's landowners and public agencies in improved 
urban forest management. They would also marvel at the Dairy Products 
Technology Center, where hands-on student research provides new and 
improved safety methods and technologies for the dairy products used by 
all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a number of relevant facts about Cal Poly that 
warrant recognition. Its first enrollment of 20 students has grown to 
17,000, and the institution has bestowed more than 107,000 bachelor's 
and master's degrees since 1942. And during World War II, 4,700 cadets 
were trained at the Navy's pre-flight programs located at Cal Poly. 
Remarkably, 97 percent of Cal Poly graduates are successfully employed 
or admitted to graduate school within a year of graduation.
  Cal Poly nears the end of its first century still focused on its 
founding purpose, which is an achievement that has not gone unnoticed. 
Last year, US News and World Report named California Polytechnic State 
University the Top Regional Public University in the Western United 
States for the eighth consecutive year. Cal Poly also received the 2001 
designation for Best Undergraduate Computer Engineering Department 
without a Ph.D. Program awarded by the same publication. The National 
Science Foundation has recognized Cal Poly's science program as among 
the most innovative in the nation. And the University Center for Teach 
Education is the only program in the state selected to join the 
prestigious National Network for Education renewal.
  As California Polytechnic State University rises among the ranks of 
major American universities, time continues to test and prove the worth 
of a Cal Poly education. The centennial slogan, ``A Century of 
Achievement, A Tradition for the Future'' clearly expresses the 
school's pride as an evolving institution, while remaining true to the 
school's original vision. Cal Poly graduates possess the knowledge and 
skills to step right into professional careers of planning, designing, 
building, operating and improving whole structures as well as entire 
communities, of managing farms and businesses, of developing minds and 
expanding knowledge. In short, Cal Poly and its graduates are making a 
profound contribution to the quality of life in California, the nation, 
and the world.
  Mr. Speaker I hope my colleagues will join me in congratulating 
California Polytechnic State University on a century of remarkable 
achievements.

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