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Cal Poly spending $243,000 on diversity consultant

January 28, 2019

Amid a push to change the demographics of the Cal Poly campus, the university is spending $243,000 on a diversity consultant. [Tribune]

Damon A. Williams, an Atlanta-based consultant, and his team will provide Cal Poly a total of 38 days of consulting. About 15 of the 38 days will consist of consulting on the university campus.

Cal Poly held an event on Thursday in which university officials introduced Williams while announcing the launch of their “Inclusive Excellence Action Plan.” The plan is a 12-month initiative intended to accelerate the process of Cal Poly reaching its diversity and inclusion goals.

Last year, the university faced heavy criticism from activists and media over alleged racism on campus and at Cal Poly-related events. In particular, a fraternity blackface incident sparked large protests on campus.

Additionally, Cal Poly was found to have the least racially diverse student population among all universities in California. In 2017, the Cal Poly student body was 54.8 percent white, according to enrollment data released by the CSU and UC systems.

Cal Poly already has an Office of University Diversity and Inclusion, whose director serves as a university vice president and chief diversity officer.

University spokesman Matt Lazier said the funding for Williams’ $243,000 contract will not come out of the general fund, tuition or student fees. It is unclear how the diversity consulting project is being funded.


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Throw money at it. That fixes everything in SLO County. I bet they could have hired a consultant for a lot less!!!!


5

A possible goal, objective and policy to consider would be increasing the diversity by increasing enrollment of students from working class middle class California families and making Poly an option for the poor. Less than 3% of the student body is from households earning less than $20,000. ECONOMIC diversity of the students is whats lacking.


4

There is plenty of opportunities for those students but they need to qualify with grades, community activities, test scores, etc. and there lies a problem, I know several people who’s kids have a 4.0 or better, have a scholarship and work community projects, sports, etc. for there entrance into Cal Poly and still don’t make it. Most of the 3% you mention are probably getting grants and means 780 are getting a complete free education along with others who are getting partials, loans and scholarships and paying the full tuition. Maybe is we limited the education to legal (Visa, HB, green card, etc) students we could see more American students in need receive an opportunity to attend.


4

Poly reports its about 30,000 a year for state citizens and 40,000 for non state residents. Pell Grant and Student loan limits can cover about half the cost. its the middle class kid with working parents that face the catch 22. Their parents make too much for them to qualify for aid and their parents make to little to foot a 30K a year education expense. Not fair. Worse, the wealthy can easily afford to remove their kids from their taxes at age 15 and their kids can qualify for loans and grants by freshman year where a working family counts on that child deduction to make ends meet. Its the teacher, daycare provider, bank teller, small business owner, dual income working family thats kids need to cease being economically excluded from Cal Poly. State Citizens followed by American Citizens should maybe have priority for an enrollment seat.


11

A complete and total waste of money in my opinion…..now if you really want to help students of all colors races and creed….bring in a US constitution expert and teach these students something worth while that will bring us together not highlight our differences….


17

Are you serious? If they locked most of the faculty up in a room with a constitution, they’d go insane and run out screaming incoherently. Probably true of most of the students by their senior year, too.


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