President Jeffrey Armstrong announced Thursday afternoon the Year-Round Operations (YRO) are delayed to Summer 2027.
YRO aims to increase enrollment and expand resources like the availability of beds, labs, classrooms and student opportunities. This would allow students to take part in various educational opportunities that are “critical elements” of Learn by Doing.
How it works:
- Incoming students can volunteer to start at Cal Poly the summer after high school graduation.
- They spend a second summer on campus later in their academic career.
- Ultimately, students live off-campus for two years, according to a campus-wide release from Armstrong in September 2023.
Within the operation, up to 600 students are expected to be part of a cohort, with one-third of the cohort being scheduled to live off-campus during every term of the academic year.
Initially scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year, Armstrong delayed the operations to summer 2025. Now, the initiative will begin in the 2027 summer term.
Three main factors influenced the delay in the implementation of YRO, Armstrong said in the email.
First, offering more sections of high-demand courses has contributed to students enrolling in more courses. As a result, Cal Poly has surpassed their enrollment goals for the 2024-2025 academic year, measured in Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES).
Additionally, many community members have shared concerns about a significant amount of change happening simultaneously, according to Armstrong.
“I appreciate and am sensitive to those concerns, and we have listened and thought hard about how to balance the various considerations while maintaining an unwavering focus on enhancing student success, inclusive excellence and growth,” he wrote.
Armstrong also shared that the new CSU proposal for integrating Cal Poly and Cal Maritime has influenced the decision. The “positive and good step” has also brought complexity and changes if the CSU Board of Trustees approves the integration.
The program achieves an increased enrollment with a concentrated projection of enrollment in the summer term and fewer enrollments of on-campus attendance during the year.
“It also creates new opportunities to expand the number and range of students who are able to participate in high-impact educational practices like study abroad, internships and student research – all of which are critical elements of Learn by Doing,” Armstrong wrote.
According to the email, moving the implementation to summer 2027 “gives us a longer runway for planning a robust launch of YRO, while also allowing the completion of the Quarter-to-Semester (Q2S) conversion and integration of Cal Maritime and Cal Poly (pending board approval).”
Armstrong concluded the email by saying the decision to move YRO to summer 2027 was a decision made with careful and thorough review.
With the various changes to Cal Poly’s academic structure, Armstrong added they will continue to discuss calendar adjustments required by the quarter-to-semester (Q2S) transition, YRO and the potential merger with Cal Maritime.
