It’s hard to do things right if you’re Cal Poly.
In 2017, a student almost died due to problems with Campus Health and Wellness—problems like wait times and available medical staff. An overlooked case of bacterial meningitis ended up in a local emergency room in time, thankfully. But it wasn’t a good look for university health care.
So, university administrators decided to do something about it. They raised the student health fee, more than doubling it in the last seven years.
The answer is always more money, amirite?
Now, students are paying $270 per quarter instead of $105. And it all works great! Right? Right.
Wait times are down, that’s true. But medical staff aren’t happy. Instead of having more medical staff to handle what’s needed, they’re working overtime every day.
“We kind of got to a breaking point about a year ago,” one of the staffers told New Times. “They’re posting that, ‘Oh, there’s shorter wait times,’ … We’re all working through our lunch times. We’re all working after hours.”
That sucks!
At least things aren’t what they were. According to retired family medical physician Dr. Gregory Thomas, who worked at Campus Health for more than decade, they would “sometimes be turning patient students away who probably should have been seen” just because the wait times were so long.
“You want to make sure that you’re doing a good job,” he said. “The downside of not doing a good job is it can always be catastrophic.”
Let’s avoid those catastrophes, shall we! Unhappy care providers provide unhappy care.
Cal Poly said while there are 18 full-time medical providers and two per diem, for a total of 20, it’s trying to fill another three spots—so soon to be 23. With more than 22,000 students on campus, the number should be closer to 29 (if you’re looking at what the Centers for Disease Control recommends for a good nurse-to-student ratio for K-12 schools).
But Tina Hadaway-Mellis, assistant VP of Student Affairs Health and Wellbeing, told New Times that the fee increase wasn’t just for bringing in more staff.
The school is taking mental health care much more seriously. The recommended ratio on college campuses is one counselor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students. Cal Poly now has 25 on their counseling and phycological services team.
More than $12 million in health fees annually (and increasing every year) brings students 20ish medical care providers, 25 mental health providers, better access to sexual health care, and 30-minute wait times. But providers are paying the price.
“Some people are leaving because they’re not seeing it get better,” the medical staffer added. Cal Poly’s administration is “keeping their promise on our backs.”
Cal Poly doesn’t seem to be helping out the city of San Luis Obispo when it comes to keeping a promise about attacking the party culture of the university’s students, fraternities, and sororities.
The city, which worked in partnership with the university this year on St. Fratty’s Day, is now pointing fingers at Mustang administrators for not acquiescing to a request for Greek life addresses.
SLO Code Enforcement Supervisor John Mezzapesa said that Cal Poly is required to report the locations of recognized fraternities and sororities, as well as notify the city of any sanctioned events that are going to happen. But the university stopped doing that.
“They made up an interpretation to basically say, ‘We no longer have to list these actual locations; we’re just going to list the events that have occurred per fraternity or sorority,’” Mezzapesa said.
Having access to those addresses makes enforcement easier, but Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier said the university was concerned about student privacy.
“The university chose to withhold addresses going forward after determining that many other CSU campuses had made a similar decision to do so, also with student privacy in mind,” Lazier said. “ Cal Poly is strongly committed to continued work with the city of San Luis Obispo to address issues of concern in the neighborhoods. As an active member of the community in which Cal Poly students, staff and faculty live and learn, the university is committed to being a good neighbor.”
I guess whatever the law says doesn’t really matter. It’s all about interpretation, baby! I guess the city will be the judge about how neighborly the school is.
Publishing the addresses of Greek life houses does feel like an invasion of privacy. But a sanctioned party is something every neighbor has a right to know about prior to it happening.
Especially with this school’s history of students climbing up light posts, taking over city streets, and falling through rooftops. You know, the crux of this particular town-gown conundrum. The reason why neighbors are pushing the city to do more. The essence of that recent grand jury report spanking both the city and the university for not doing enough.
And the city is thinking about what needs to change. SLO Planning Commissioner Juan Munoz-Morris was talking serious changes on Sept. 4.
“This whole matter makes it clear in my mind the need for finding a Greek Row … to address this issue because I don’t think it’s going anywhere. There’s only so much we can proactively do,” Munoz-Morris said.
Then the addresses won’t need to be published. Everyone will know. Neighbors, law enforcement, the school, everyone.
And student privacy can kick rocks! ∆
The Shredder can’t handle rocks. Send paper to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Sept 4-14, 2025.