The Cal Poly Plan offers a model for how the State of California can meet future demand for public higher education from its citizens in a time of dramatic enrollment growth, rising public expectations for quality and efficiency, and limited public resources. The Plan supports new ways of educating and supporting students, including creative approaches to teaching and learning and their measurement, curriculum design and scheduling, and the application of information technology to instruction. These efforts require multi-year investments in human resources as well as in equipment. Cal Poly's campus academic fee is designed as one of several means to support these improvements while maintaining the University's distinct polytechnic mission.

The four goals of the Cal Poly Plan all contribute to the end of improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of higher education. The means for achieving these goals include innovative approaches (noted in italics) that complement more traditional means to increase the University's effectiveness and which are potentially transferable quality and productivity improvements:

1) Institutional Productivity

Greater efficiency in the use of physical resources and fixed costs: Expansion of summer quarter; scheduling efficiencies; and reconfiguring academic space to meet the needs of new teaching and learning models.

Greater productivity in support and administrative services: Re-engineering administrative processes, using information technology where appropriate; customer-orientation for administrative and support services.

2) Student Learning and Progress

Improvements in access to classes, academic advising, and other measures to assure timely progress to degree completion. Student progress can be improved in a variety of ways:

• Encourage optimal loads -- Curriculum streamlining;
• Improve scheduling -- Across day and week to meet student needs;
• Reduce bottlenecks -- Additional sections; advising; curriculum streamlining;
• Reduce unnecessary courses -- Advising; Articulation; Automated degree audit;
• Facilitate degree completion -- Senior evaluations; Senior project monitoring;
• Reduce time to degree -- Published mutual expectations;
• Make student learning less dependent on time, place, and seat time in a classroom.

Improvements in access to classes, academic advising, and other measures to assure academic success. Student learning can be enhanced by several means:

• Assure quality and currency --Clear learning outcomes;
• Improve quality and academic success -- Improved teaching effectiveness; Technology-mediated instruction, including World Wide Web applications;
• Increase academic success rates -- Shadow classes,, supplemental instruction, advising.

Moderate increase in enrollment during the academic year, to return to Master Plan capacity of 15,000 full-time equivalent students during the academic year.

In addition to summer expansion, an increase will enable Cal Poly to meet the needs of more students without over-extending its physical resources. In the future, Cal Poly will focus enrollment growth in high demand programs not generally available at other public universities in California.

3) Educational Quality

Preparation of graduates with state-of-the-art knowledge and competencies needed for life and work in the twenty-first century: New ways to reinforce its hallmark "learn by doing" approach to education emphasizing laboratory activities, projects, field experience, and service learning. Satisfaction of graduates, employers, graduate programs, and civic communities.

4) Accountability and Assessment

Development of measures of accountability and procedures for assessment that demonstrate the stewardship of the University to both internal and external constituents: Baseline data, performance expectations, and assessment plans that provide qualitative as well as numeric information. Statistical records and survey research. Sophisticated student cohort analysis to analyze retention and graduation rates as well as time to degree.

Three other principles of the Cal Poly Plan also make innovative contributions toward improving the quality and accessibility of higher education:

1) Partnership and Shared Responsibility

Finance and Investment: Early in the planning process Cal Poly identified the following partners in financing higher education:

• The CSU agreed to support the Cal Poly Plan by guaranteeing that State appropriations and State University Fees allocated for enrollment growth or quality enhancement would not fall below system-wide averages as a result of the Cal Poly Plan;
• The University has reallocated some State General Fund revenues and State University Fees, and developed operational efficiencies in support of the Plan. Specifically, during the first year, the University reallocated internal resources to expand Library services;
• Friends and patrons of Cal Poly have been asked to contribute to Cal Poly Plan purposes and goals, including support for need-based scholarships, and industry donations and discounts for instructional technology and equipment; and
• Students and their families support a campus academic fee for Cal Poly Plan projects and activities that directly benefit student learning and progress.

Affordability: The Plan recognizes the need to assure the affordability of higher education. Reducing the time to degree by one academic quarter will save a student more than the cumulative cost of the campus academic fee over four years because that student will not have to pay fees nor living expenses for that additional study time.

Financial Aid: The Plan recognizes the need to assure the affordability of higher education. Reducing the time to degree by one academic quarter will save a student more than the cumulative cost of the campus academic fee over four years because that student will not have to pay fees nor living expenses for that additional study time.

The Plan recognizes the need to assure the affordability of higher education. Reducing the time to degree by one academic quarter will save a student more than the cumulative cost of the campus academic fee over four years because that student will not have to pay fees nor living expenses for that additional study time.

2) Expenditure Plan for Investments

Direct, Visible Benefit to Students: A paramount principle of the Cal Poly Plan is that all projects and activities funded by the campus academic fee must make a demonstrable difference toward student progress and educational quality.

RFP: The University adopted a Request for Proposal process to allocate revenues.

3) Joint Governance and Constituency Consultation

Steering Committee: The Cal Poly Plan is based on a consensual process integrating campus consultation with the management structure of the University.

Planning Process: Further, the Cal Poly Plan follows a planning process that emphasizes extensive consultation with constituencies through focus groups, forums, and survey research.