DOCUMENTING THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF CAL POLY SLO
Cal Poly has a history of resistance, organizing, and survival: students of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, environmentalists, and anti-war activists challenging the status quo at Cal Poly. Radical student activism in the 1960s and 70s wasn’t just happening at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State — it was happening at Cal Poly, too. And the work didn't stop in the 70s, but continues through today. By recognizing that our institution and community is embedded in a history of radical organizing and community building, we can think of our activism as existing alongside those who came before us, and those who will come after us.
Here is an outline of some of the histories we have been able to uncover through stories and old news articles. This is, however, an incomplete timeline! The photos we were able to discover were also limited, leaving much of the history on this page without a visual representation. So check out the Kennedy Library Digital Archives or visit the Archives in the Library and help us create an even more complete historical archive of resistance and organizing. We want your help in both improving and sharing the history on this page!
1950s
1956: The first woman since 1906 graduates from Cal Poly.
1960s
1965: Anti-war protesters disrupt a debate on the war in Vietnam with a sign: "JOIN THE PANSY RANKS. AND AVOID THE DRAFT" (Kennedy Library Archives).
1967: Thirty anti-war student protesters demonstrate against the War in Vietnam at the annual ROTC formal inspection (El Mustang 3/10/67).
1967: Students for New Action Politics (SNAP) plan to demonstrate outside Administration Building where CIA interviews would be taking place at Cal Poly. The CIA cancel the interviews so no protest occurred (SLO Telegram-Tribune 11/17/67).
1968: 400 Student, Staff, and Faculty members of Students for New Action Politics (SNAP) protest Dow Chemical, maker of deadly napalm, who were on campus job recruiting (Mustang Daily 2/2/68, 2/5/68).
1968: Cal Poly decides not to build nuclear Fallout Shelters on campus because of lack of funding (Mustang Daily 4/8/68).
1968 (April 8): 1500 attend a memorial service on campus for Dr. Martin Luther King (Mustang Daily 4/10/68).
1968: Cal Poly Agriculture Students protest the College Park Square Purity Supermarket's (in SLO) boycott of California grapes. The store boycotted California Grapes in solidarity with Caesar Chavez and other farm labor union organizers (Mustang Daily 9/21/68).
1968 (Fall): The Black Student Union is formed. Black Student Alliance existed prior (need more information).
1968 (Oct. 30): Black students recreate the protest of John Carlos and Tommy Smith at the 1968 summer Olympics at a Cal Poly Football game (Mustang Daily 10/30/68).
1968: Mustang Daily Op-Ed calls students apathetic and non-involved (Mustang Daily 11/6/68).
1969: Then Governor Ronald Reagan declares his love for Cal Poly because it is apolitical compared to other universities in California (Mustang Daily 3/31/69).
1969: The Black Student Union meet with administrators to discussing demands for a Black Studies program and the recruitment of black faculty (Mustang Daily 4/2/69).
1969: United Mexican American Students (UMAS) forms at Cal Poly.
1969 (May 9): SNAP, TWLF, and UMAS students meet with administrators about Ethnic Studies program (Mustang Daily 5/13/69).
1969 (Oct. 14th): A thousand march from the Cal Poly Library to the SLO Selective Service Building against the War in Vietnam.
1969 (Oct. 15th): 500 gather on Dexter Lawn for the nationally recognized Vietnam Moratorium, where they erected 20 white crosses on Dexter Lawn and marched to the Administration Building.
1970s
1970: “ROTC off campus” is written on the Poly P following the Kent State massacre (Mustang Daily 5/12/70).
1971: Cal Poly Physics Professor Ralph Vrana is denied tenure in retaliation for his activism against the proposed PG&E Diablo Nuclear Power Plant (Mustang Daily 3/4/71). Vrana was one of a number of faculty who were fired or denied tenure in retaliation for their political opinions.
1971: Gay Liberation Front forms at Cal Poly (Mustang Daily 5/24/71).
1972: Movimento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlán (MEXA) is formed at Cal Poly.
1972 (March 7): MEXA students protest at a speaking event for Cal Poly President Kennedy and CSU Chancellor Glenn Dumke.
1972: Students attempt to form the Gay Student Union (GSU). It is denied formation by the University and the Presidents Council, and a lengthy legal battle begins. ASI supports the GSU in legal proceedings.
1972: ASI Hosts Black Panther Party Co-Founder Bobby Seale.
1972: Over a thousand students, faculty, and community members rally in the University Union Plaza against the war in Vietnam (Mustang Daily 5/10/72).
1972: Over a thousand students, faculty, and community members march from the College Union to Downtown SLO against the war in Vietnam (Mustang Daily 5/15/72).
1972: Cal Poly students protest then Governor Ronald Reagan's visit to a CSU Board of Trustees meeting in San Luis Obispo (Mustang Daily 4/17/72).
1973(?): Gay Student Union members teach Atascadero inmates lessons on how to be gay, including cruising (Radical History Review Issue 100, Winter 2008, "Lessons in Being Gay").
1974 (May 2nd): The Cal Poly Ecology Action Club and Mothers for Peace protest the Atomic Energy Commission's hearings in SLO in regards to the Diablo Power Plant.
1976: The Gay Student Union was finally recognized by Cal Poly after a legal battle at the California Attorney General’s office.
1977: Bomb threat was called into University Police to go off in the meeting room of the GSU and KCPR
1977 (January): Gay Student Union students report discrimination to the ACLU resulting from a concern regarding an alleged gay disco opening in San Luis Obispo
1978: GSU write University President asking that sexual orientation be added to the non-discrimination clause for the University
1979: Request is made to the ASI Senate asking that sexual orientation be added to the non-discrimination clause.
1979: The Concerned Black Community (CBC), and organization serving as a voice in issues regarding the recruitment, retention, and promotion of Black faculty, staff, and students, was recognized by Cal Poly President Baker.
1980s
1981: GSU has booth and reception at Poly Royal
1981: Cal Poly students and faculty participate in the Abalone Alliance's blockades of the under-construction Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (See Butruce 2017, "Cal Poly Activism: The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant" available on the Cal Poly Digital Commons).
1982: After student organizing, the MultiCultural Center opens at Cal Poly.
1982 (Oct. 7): Cal Poly's ASI Senate votes in favor of the draft (Mustang Daily 10/8/82).
1987: National Coming Out Day established to commemorate October 11, 1987, March on Washington
1990s
1990: Cal Poly begins to offer a Women's Studies minor, becoming the last CSU at the time to form a Women's Studies Program.
1991: Academic Senate unofficially votes to approve CSU wide nondiscrimination resolution in regards to ROTC programs on campus
1992: San Luis Obispo City Council votes not to support a gay rights ordinance
1992: Movimento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlán (MEXA) organizes a protest in the Cal Poly University Union against Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system that would have prohibited undocumented immigrants from having access to various public resources, like public education systems, non-emergency health care, and other services within California (Mustang Daily 11/4/92)
1993: AIDS Quilt Display at Rec Center
1994: The Ethnic Studies Department is formed.
1994: Cal Poly becomes the last CSU to open a Women's Center (now called the Gender Equity Center).
1996: Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly first-year, disappears.
1996: Safer program is established, sparked by the loss of three Cal Poly and Cuesta women to gender-based violence.
1997 (Dec.): Breezes, the Central Coast's last LGBT bar, closes (Mustang Daily 11/25/97).
1997: The Black Faculty and Staff Association was formed from the restructuring of an organization formerly known as the Concerned Black Community (CBC).
2000s
2000: First Pride Week
2002: Monday, May 27, the rainbow P was painted over in homophobic protest during Pride Week (May 13-22)
2002: Opening of the Pride Alliance Center (now called the Pride Center) in a trailer
2002: First same-sex handholding day (Thursday, Feb 14)
2002: AIDS Quilt Display returns to Rec Center
2003: Egging of student booth on Dexter Lawn after Hand Holding March
2004: The rainbow P is painted over two times during Pride week
2004: The Empower Poly Coalition is formed at Cal Poly.
2005: Transgender Awareness Day (Nov. 18)
2007: The Ethnic Studies Department begins to offer a major in Comparative Ethnic Studies.
2008: Crop House incident: agriculture students hang a noose and a confederate flag outside their university-owned house
2008 (Oct. 30): "Massive on-campus protests" follow after the New Times reports on the Crop House (Mustang Daily 11/12/08).
2008 (Nov. 12): 300 attend a form on diversity and inclusivity following Crops House Incident. ASI President recommends not taking punitive actions against students involved (Mustang Daily 11/14/08).
2008 (Nov. 13): Mustang Daily column says Cal Poly should embrace the Crops House incident because it "contributes to the marketplace of ideas" (Mustang Daily 11/13/08).
2008-2009: Openly gay student elected as ASI President
2009: Pride Center moves to the University Union in April
2007: First LGBT class offering at Cal Poly: LGBT Literature and Media (ENGL 382)
2007: The Asian Pacific Islander Faculty & Staff Association is formed.
2008: PRISM Peer Mentoring is established
2008: First Lavender Commencement
2010s
2012 (Nov.): Phi Sigma Kappa hosts Colonial Bros and Nava-Hoes themed party, national outrage follows.
2013 (Fall): New minor, Indigenous Studies in Natural Resources and the Environment, begins.
Early 2015: The Queer Student Union (QSU) is formed.
Early 2015: The Queer Studies Working Group, comprised of students, staff, and faculty, is formed to propose a Queer Studies minor.
2015 (April 14): QSU organizes a "shit-in" to demand All Gender Restrooms on campus. The protest is covered by the Rush Limbaugh Show. Some restrooms are converted to All Gender the following summer.
2015 (May): California Faculty Association (CFA) holds a rally outside the administration building advocating for increased faculty pay and improved teaching/learning conditions.
2015 (Sept.): Cal Poly students release a "Disorientation Guide" providing an alternative orientation to the official Cal Poly Orientation by focusing on social justice.
2015 (Nov. 2): A broad coalition from QSU, Triota, and the Comparative Ethnic Studies Student Association protest CSU Chancellor Tim White's Open Form on campus, calling for increased resources to Queer Studies, Women's & Gender Studies, and Ethnic Studies at Cal Poly.
2015 (Nov. 11): Racist, transphobic, and anti-Islamic comments written by Cal Poly students on the Cal Poly College Republican's "Free Speech Wall" causes days of protests on campus and the formation of SLO Solidarity.
2015 (Nov. 29): SLO Solidarity Releases a list of 41 Demands to Cal Poly administrators outlining action steps for an improved campus climate for underrepresented students. These demands were written within the national context of similar demands at over 80 other universities in the US.
2015 (Dec.): SLO Solidarity organizers receive a death threat in response to the Demands.
2015 (Dec.): Over a thousand march on campus in support of SLO Solidarity.
2016 (May): Cal Poly students hold ‘funeral’ for CSU to protest possible tuition hikes
2016 (Nov.): Thousands march in downtown SLO in multiple days of protest against the election of Donald Trump.
2017 (Jan.): Hundreds of students participate in a walk-out in protest of Donald Trump's inauguration day.
2017 (Jan.): Students protest alt-right figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos' event on campus, hosted by the Cal Poly College Republicans.
2017 (March): Students from across the state, including many from Cal Poly Students for Quality Education, attend the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach, protesting a 5% tuition increase that would be voted on.
2017 (May): Hundreds march against rape culture in response to Lauren Southern's speaking event hosted by the Cal Poly College Republicans.
2017 (June): A broad coalition hosts the first annual SLO Pride March, linking the annual SLO Pride event to the historically political roots of Pride. Hundreds march around downtown SLO in support of feminist, anti-racist, and queer futures.
2017 (Sept): Community members rally against Trump's repeal of DACA, and in support of all undocumented people.
2017 (Sept.): The new Queer Studies minor begins.
2018 (April): The Drylongso Collective releases a list of demands to improve campus climate in response to racism on campus and after Kyler Watkins, a Cal Poly frat student, wears blackface.
2018 (April): Cal Poly cultural clubs and organizations pull out of Open House in protest of campus climate and President Armstrong's inadequate response to Kyler Watkins, a Cal Poly frat student, wearing blackface. Hundreds of students protested on campus.
2018 (April): Students with the SLO Peace Coalition protest Raytheon at the Cal Poly Career Fair, calling for Cal Poly to divest from defense contractors and stop allowing companies who make a killing off of killing on campus. The student activists were later investigated and threatened with sanctions, including expulsion. The investigation was dropped due to a "drop the investigation" campaign and national news coverage.
2018 (June): Hundreds of Cal Poly students wear red "IX" tape at Commencement and refuse to shake President Armstrong's hand in protest of the University failing to protest survivors of sexual assault.