Cal Poly plans to increase enrollment by 2,000 students over the next five years, according to Terrance Harris, Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Affairs.
Currently, Cal Poly has 22,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students enrolled, according to university data. The university is on track to enroll 25,000 students by 2030, according to Harris.
This increase is to support the Cal State system as enrollment at other universities is declining and to support the state by supplying more bachelor’s degree holders, according to Harris.
At a San Luis Obispo City Council meeting on Tuesday, Cal Poly administrators presented on changes coming to Cal Poly and how they are attempting to mitigate effects on the local community.
“As the campus grows, it’s not just housing,” said Mike McCormick, vice president for facilities management and development. “It’s event space. It’s places for students to gather. How do we feed them? Where do they park? All those things. So, it’s a very comprehensive approach we’re taking with this.”
Cal Poly plans add at least 3,500 beds, including converting doubles to triples
Cal Poly is currently in the process of building six or seven modular residence halls in the parking lots behind the Red Brick residence halls. The first new building, which is projected to be finished this summer, will be seven stories and have about 500 beds, according to McCormick.
READ MORE: Cal Poly’s new modular residence halls rise on campus
“My job is to build infrastructure so that the growth in enrollment does not affect the local community,” McCormick said. “The first place we are looking to do that is in student housing.”
This year, the university has 8,800 students living on campus, and the new residence halls are projected to have 3,500 to 4,000 new beds. Some 1,000 beds have been added in the past few years by converting double rooms into triple rooms, according to McCormick.
“[Red Bricks] were originally designed as doubles, but they’re big enough to satisfy modern day requirements of a triple,” McCormick said. “You can imagine it’s a mixed result. Some students love the fact there’s another roommate. Some reactions are positive, some are negative.”
Facilities had the fire department check the new triple rooms to ensure they are up to code and safe for students. The university is also planning on renovating Red Brick residence halls, though not until new residence halls have been built.
Beginning in fall 2026, all sophomores will be required to live on campus for two years. This will mean no underclassmen students will be living in the San Luis Obispo community unless they meet a special exemption.
“We’re trying to house the first and the second years,” McCormick said. “This will pull a lot of students out of the community and out of the neighborhoods. We think this will have a big effect on the behavior actually.”
The university is projected to be able to have enough housing for all first and second year students by 2029. Until then, McCormick said the university will mitigate the disparity by densifying some more of the campus’s current housing.
“We have less students living off campus now than we did 20 years ago,” Courtney Kienow, Director of Community Relations and Economic Development, said. “So significant growth over [the last ten years] in terms of housing more students than we have enrolled.”
Councilmember Michelle Shoresman acknowledged the promising data that show the number of beds will outpace the number of new students enrolled, she worries that the large growth in the number of students will still affect the community.
“If you continue to grow enrollment, there’s a healthy sense of cynicism that eventually the number of students on campus will grow enough that we won’t have made a dent in the housing issues in the community.”
Councilmember Emily Francis is looking forward to seeing the growth of on campus housing.
“Excited to see that beds are going to outstrip enrollment growth,” Francis said. “Two years ago, we didn’t see that on the graph. So, it was an awesome shift to see that reflected.”
Moving to year-round operations aims to decrease number of students on campus
Harris says year round operations will eventually help take strain off of the local community’s housing. The university will transition to year-round operations during the summer 2027 term after being delayed twice, according to previous Mustang News coverage.
READ MORE: Year-Round Operations delayed again to Summer 2027
“This is a way to maximize the use of our campus and continue to meet the needs of the state in terms of enrollment growth,” Harris said. “While also maintaining a healthy balance of how many students we have on campus at any given time.”
On a year-round system, students will enroll in courses for two of three semesters — fall, spring and summer. Faculty will not be required to teach during the summer semester, according to Harris.
“We’re not asking our faculty to suddenly teach in all three terms,” Harris said. “They will have the option to do so. In fact, some faculty have expressed how grateful they will be to have the opportunity to get that added income.”
Not every major or program will be required to participate in year-round operations, but “high demand” courses will be offered year-round, according to Harris. The year-round system will decrease the number of students on campus at any given time.
Harris imagines that 20 to 25% of students will attend in person courses at Cal Poly as a spring and summer student, and 20 to 25% of students will during the summer and fall. Which means 60% of students will be on the traditional fall and spring track.
With these estimates, at most 85% of students will be on campus at any given point and 40 to 50% of students will be on campus during the summer term.