Front Page  »  

Cal Poly top spender in presidential home renovations

May 29, 2012

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has spent more money on presidential residence renovations than any other California State University campus in the past decade. Since 2004, Cal Poly has doled out $831,000 remodeling its top residence, and 99 percent of that came from state funding. [BayCitizen]

In total, CSU campuses have spent more than $2 million over the past 10 years renovating eight university-owned presidential residences. At least half of the spending came from state funding sources, and the figure does not include annual maintenance and repairs, the Bay Citizen said.

When Cal Poly welcomed President Jeffrey Armstrong  in 2011, the campus shelled out $230,000 on lighting replacements, kitchen upgrades, new wood flooring and more for its University House. That was in addition to the $200,000 in renovations the university had completed in 2010.

The $430,000 spent over two years was also about $100,000 more than was previously reported in the Tribune.

“There were some people who felt like maybe it costs that much to refurbish,” said Glen Thorncroft, a mechanical engineering professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and president of the campus faculty union chapter to the Bay Citizen. “The problem is, it’s just so disjointed from the budget realities that it’s hard to fathom that we’re spending these kinds of monies on things that aren’t paying for classes for our students or going to hire faculty to teach the classes.”

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s former President, Warren J. Baker, moved out of the presidential residence in 2004, when he opted instead for the $60,000 annual housing allowance afforded by the CSU.

Cal Poly then transformed the University House into an event center and spent $384,000 from 2004 to 2008 on renovation projects.

After the 2010 upgrades, the university turned the house back into a residence for Armstrong, using about $6,200 in foundation funds to pay an interior designer.


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


14 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

A head shaking in disgust moment because there are simply NO words for this…


0

What is the use of all this reporting, on spending taxpayers monies on unneccessary things etc., when the ones doing it will NEVER be held accountable for overspending, raising student fees and just plain justifying why they deserve it and we need to pay for it.

If they had to pay it ALL back…that would be worth reporting.


0

So would you prefer that there is no reporting like this?


0

This is truly appalling and disguesting. How much do these Presidents want? Who says that with a salary of $350,000 PLUS and then all the benefits (retirement, car allowance, landscapers for their palaces, maids for their cleaning/cooking. special box seat for them, their family and guests (with all the food/drinks they want) at the football and other sports events and an allowance for their entertaining other big shits that they should be entitled to this living arrangement with free utilities. These are the first that should be run out of California. This is absolutely obscense. Get them in their own housing and tear down that house and we will no longer have to be discussing this waste of taxpayer’s dollars. What a waste and shame on them all for their pure greed.


0

AND WHY DO WE HAVE TO SUPPLEMENT ANY OF THESE PEOPLE’S LIVING EXPENSES WITH AN ANNUAL ALLOWANCE OF $60,000. WHO DO THESE PEOPLE (if you want to call them that) THINK THEY ARE, RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE? THERE ARE PLENTY OF MEETING/ENTERTAINING VENUES AT CAL POLY, AND BESIDES, WHO ARE YOU ENTERTAINING DURING THE YEAR THAT COSTS $60,000. GIVE IT UP!


0

One word: DISGUSTING. President Armstrong: make this right.


0

It appears we know how the “student success fees” are being used.


0

The state should have given the millions to the teachers in H.S. all the way down to pre-school. Money would have helped to re-imburse the money they spent and are spending for supplies. Over a thousand a year I’ve been told. Pitiful that they get low wages and have to spend their own money on what should be free to them.


I talked to a teacher in Lompoc the other day and she told me she spends at least a thousand a year. Plus she makes a grand total of $40,000 a year. That’s the pits. I know they work day and night for the kids.


Extra blessings to the teachers. I certainly couldn’t do their job. I would end up with most of my students sitting in the corner.


0

Your article should go back a little further. When President Kennedy retired and Baker became president of CP his on-campus housing received a major remodel. The word around campus was, “you should see the size of his wife’s shoe closet”. Much if not all of the remodel was done with state funds and state labor. I also remember when Baker became president he told the students he would have an open door policy where even students could come and talk to him… but it never happened.


0

Correction… Presidential residence should read PRESIDENTIAL PALACE!


0

Cal Poly has long worked to be number one in a number of educational fields. It is a pitty it has achieved number one status in wasting public funds on this particular project.


0

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.


0
1 2