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Cal Poly President apologizes to Smart family, admits mistakes

May 27, 2023

President Jeffrey Armstrong

Statement from Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong

First, it must be said that I can’t imagine the pain and hurt Kristin’s family has felt and still feels.

We are very sorry for what the Smart family has endured. What they have been through is unimaginably heartbreaking, and I feel for them in ways I can’t express with words. While it is a different administration now than was in place in 1996, we recognize that things should had been done differently — and I personally wish that they had.

On behalf of Cal Poly leadership, I can say that as people who live in this community with families and human emotions ourselves, Kristin’s story is something that is always with us and weighs heavy on our hearts. Her story continues to be a part of the Cal Poly story, and we are determined to do all we can to help ensure the safety of all our students now and in the future.

While we will never be able to control what an individual with bad intent decides to do, we are constantly working to help ensure things like this don’t happen again at Cal Poly. Cal Poly places the utmost priority on the safety of its campus community members. The university has robust programming aimed at providing public safety services to all of our students, employees and visitors.

We abide by the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act and the Clery Act — maintaining agreements to report relevant cases to local law enforcement and providing annual crime report statistics for public information.

Kristin Smart

The POST-certified Cal Poly Police Department is charged with maintaining the safety of our campus and providing education outreach around crime prevention.

We have robust Title IX programming through the Civil Rights and Compliance Office (CRCO), working under mandates of federal law and CSU executive order. This includes investigative programming as well as education and preventative outreach.

After Kristin Smart’s disappearance, we created the Safer program to provide advocacy; confidential resources; and training, workshops and proactive outreach on the topics of sexual misconduct, domestic violence, and stalking.

Departments across campus work closely to examine potential public safety issues in the physical campus, such as lighting and access, to address and prioritize issues as they arise.

And as with all aspects of our campus community, we examine all of these programs and procedures on an ongoing basis, with an eye toward continual improvement.


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Basically, this is what we pay Jeffery Armstrong $420,000 plus benefits for, plus a dozen support staff. I’ll write that bullshit for one-tenth the amount, and maybe sub it out for half of that and net $21,000 for nothing, but no benefits.


21

And we pay the football coach and equal amount of money.


11

Translation: Please, Mr. and Mrs. Smart, don’t sue us. Here’s a lame, half-hearted apology. Don’t file that civil lawsuit against us,


34

Sue, absolutely. Cal Poly was very quick to Investigate Kristin Smart, and I know a lot more about the information they openly leaked that I am not going to disclose here, but not her disappearance, because that didn’t look good. Other sexual assaults don’t look good, dorm suicides don’t look good. Cover everything up. Her roommate pleaded with Cal Poly Police that she had not run off with their non-existent boyfriend because of personal items left behind. The Cal Poly Police would not pursue her bank records because she was over 18 years old and it was none of the families’ business. A judge would have granted this in a second. Cal Poly promised the Smart family that her case would be a part of their Week of Welcome introduction program. I have asked a dozen female Cal Poly interns if there was any mention of her. None. A few knew about her from outside sources.


26

She disappeared 27 years ago, was declared dead 21 years ago. But I guess with no body being found, Cal Poly didn’t feel the need to say anything? Now that a fellow student has been convicted of her murder, the Prez decides to issue this sorry/not sorry?


44

“While it is a different administration now than was in place in 1996, …”


That’s right, let everyone know you had nothing to do with it.


47

Talk to any long-time Poly employee and you will hear stories about the things for which the Cal Poly Police has existed to suppress. Dozens of rapes, suicides, anything Cal Poly does not want its image tarnished with. Things that you would read about in the paper or KSBY if a press release were issued by a legitimate law enforcement agency


53

What a bunch of crap. Who cares that the Cal Poly Police are POST-certified? All cops are, good or bad. The Cal Poly Police conducted their usual PR coverup with the Smart case and they do it to this day. The Cal Poly Police exist only for this purpose. As with the fire services, police services should be contracted, to the SLOPD or the SLO County Sheriff’s Department. Cal Poly needs to do nothing except issue parking tickets.


33