To help save California State University’s maritime school from its financial and enrollment crisis, it’s officially merging with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to become Cal Poly Maritime Academy.
The California State University (CSU) board of trustees voted to adopt the merger on Nov. 21. The two universities will begin operating as a single institution on July 1, 2025, which Cal Poly President Jeffery Armstrong said he will continue to lead as president.
Over the past seven years, the maritime school’s enrollment has declined by 31 percent, and it currently has a little more than 700 students, according to a CSU board of trustees staff report.
As a result, the academy had to cut costs across the campus, such as reducing office and divisional budgets and expenditures, eliminating vacant positions and downgrading others, and instituting a hiring freeze on all nonessential positions. The school also eliminated two vice president positions and restructured two others with a salary reduction, according to the same staff report.
In previous reporting, CSU Executive Vice Chancellor Steve Relyna said that the school was pivotal as it provides 25 percent of the country’s maritime workforce, but it couldn’t continue to operate as a university in the face of decreased enrollment and financial crisis.
He said that this merger would help bring the university back up to operating levels.
“Do you look for a partner that would have compatible and synergistic academic programs and training programs that when integrated together would provide something much more powerful than either by themselves? So, we started to pursue that option,” he said in a previous interview.
Because Cal Poly SLO is a growing university with a strong reputation for excellence in engineering, agriculture, and architecture, the staff report states, the goal is for it to share high-quality facilities, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds with the Maritime Academy.
The CSU board of trustees want Cal Poly to share expertise in enrollment management, marketing, and brand-building to help drive up application demand and fundraising to bring philanthropic partners to the academy, according to the staff report.
Cal Poly Executive Communications Specialist Keegan Koberl said in previous reporting that Cal Poly Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey will move to a new position at the Maritime Academy following the merger.
He will focus on ensuring that the student experience for both campuses’ students remains strong.
Beginning in the fall 2026 semester, the full integration of academics between the two campuses will be complete, President Armstrong said in an email to the university.
“Students at the Solano campus will benefit from Cal Poly’s strong reputation as a comprehensive polytechnic institution and gain access to a broad range of academic facilities and student services,” Armstrong said. Δ
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.