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FactsSlang
- AACF - “Double-A C F,” Asian American Christian Fellowship.
- AG - Arroyo Grande, a neighboring town.
- Bishop’s - Bishop’s peak, the highest mountain in the area, is good for a hike.
- CAPTURE - Phone registration system.
- CCAT - “See-cat,” bus system for the county.
- Chumash - Auditorium in the UU used for movies, concerts, and other events.
- CPReg - Online registration Web site.
- Dexter - Dexter lawn by the library.
- Hella - “That’s hella cool.”
- Kegger - A party, you guess which kind.
- PCF - Poly Christian Fellowship, the campus chapter of Intervarsity.
- Poly Ratings - Professor evaluation Web site.
- Red Bricks - Freshman dorms specific to major.
- SLO - San Luis Obispo, about a million variations on this acronym, pronounced “slow;” (the SLO life, SLO town, SLO Transit).
- The 101 - Expression used by southern Californians for freeways. Use if you want to be identified among them.
- The Mustang - Daily student newspaper that’s free in bins all around campus.
- The P - The large concrete “P” located on the hill above campus.
- The PAC - Pronounced “pack,” the performing arts center looks like an enormous piano from the air and is impossible to miss.
- The Silo - Room 213 of the business building, or the largest lecture hall on campus.
- The Structure - The parking facilities next to the PAC.
- The UU - University Union, encompasses the building itself, as well as the large courtyard downstairs.
- WOW - Week of Welcome, a week of orientation for all freshmen before the start of fall quarter.
Tips to Succeed
- Don’t bring loads of stuff. Bring only what you need. Moving in and out every year is a pain, so try to keep it light and portable. Bring pictures of family and friends, as well as a favorite stuffed animal or pillow. Don’t bring loads of “toys,” like stereo systems or boogie boards. Wait until you see the size of your room and before you start cramming things in. Plenty of equipment can be checked out or rented on campus. Besides, you’ll be too busy with classes and social life during your first quarter to worry about most of that stuff you thought was necessary to life.
- If your parents live nearby, don’t go home every weekend. Most people relax and have fun on weekends, and that’s the time to hang out with friends.
- Make a point to try out a new campus club at least once a quarter. There are so many opportunities to experience different things that it would be a shame to pick one club and devote yourself to it throughout your college career. Trying different things will broaden your horizons and introduce you to new people.
- Talk to people in class. Everyone’s new, and if they’re not, they won’t mind chatting about annoying professors anyway. Most Poly students are incredibly friendly and consider social life just as important as their academic success.
- Use the academic assistance at your disposal. Join study groups, use the writing lab (where you can get your papers read and critiqued for free), or have a chat with a librarian before you start researching that term paper.
Urban Legends
- Another strange phenomenon of inanimate objects deals with the cafeteria trays from VG’s. Although, taking the trays out of the late-night dining facility is prohibited, signs begging for their return appear on move-out weeks in December and June. Piles of plastic blue trays materialize on top of garbage cans and retaining walls. It seems that many freshmen are in the habit of hoarding these trays for purposes that to this day remain unknown.
- Around June, couches start appearing around SLO on front lawns, sidewalks, occasionally in the middle of the street. What is this phenomenon? It’s not an alien conspiracy—it’s a surplus of thoroughly trashed couches that departing students are unable to foist off on new residents. Nobody seems to know where the dump is, so couches usually get a final night of serious trashing by celebrating graduates before the garbage man decides to haul them away. Other students get a little more creative; flaming couches in the middle of the street are not entirely unheard of.
- Cal Poly doesn’t seem to have a lot of urban legends. Most stories are variable, usually about “my friend’s friend” who took one of the campus golf carts for a joy ride. In fact, where CP is concerned, truth is stranger than fiction. Here are some things that actually go on around campus.
- You’ll find milk cartons hanging from trees, ceramic heads staring at you as you climb stairs, plaster people-pods appear ominously in a garden, mattresses outfitted with sheets, pillows, and stuffed animals in the courtyard of the business building, a knitted afghan carefully spread along a busy sidewalk, amorphous structures of wood and string in the middle of Dexter Lawn. Are these things the result of student pranks? Hardly. Cal Poly prides itself on being a hands-on community. Class projects are often very tactile. Whether a product of an architecture assignment, an experiment in modern art, or a political statement from a cultural pluralism course, sights like these appear and disappear frequently. Most of us have no idea what they mean. But it certainly provides an entertaining antidote to the boredom of seeing the same place day after day.
Traditions
- Egg Drop - A yearly competition held at the Thursday night market where students compete to build the best “egg cushioner” from a selection of odd items (chewing gum, rubber bands). Entries are then dropped at successively higher altitudes until only the champion egg basket remains.
- Mardi Gras - In the past, SLO has had one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations outside of New Orleans. Recently, it was cancelled since the affair had become too wild and unruly for police to control. Nevertheless, SLO Mardi Gras continues to push for a comeback, and this year a smaller, more “family oriented” celebration was permitted. Will it return again? Probably, though its glory days are gone.
- Open House - This is a yearly tradition that happens around spring break. On the specified weekend, clubs and colleges open up food and game booths, and various activities are offered for visiting parents, students, and friends. Hands-on science demonstrations, á la Bill Nye, are offered for younger siblings, while parents can take a look at various creative and technical endeavors around campus, such as the solar racing car or architectural models. Prospective students can scout out clubs they’d like to join.
- The P - If you’re a member of a campus group, especially a Greek organization, you may have the opportunity to “dress up” the P. Clubs use large white sheets to transform the P into Greek letters or an abbreviation. (Sheets could be used to add a foot to the P, making it an R.) At times, the P, which is usually white, has also been painted rainbow, red/white/blue, or black. This is obviously a more...challenging endeavor.
School Spirit
Cal Poly has a healthy sense of school spirit. We have no intense rivalries to match the likes of Stanford and Berkeley, but students (especially those in technical majors) are proud of the Cal Poly name. Most have some sort of CP paraphernalia, whether it is a bumper sticker, a T-shirt, or the increasingly popular gym shorts with “CPSU” written conspicuously across the back.
However, students aren’t afraid to complain, either. If something is wrong, you can bet complaints will be heard until something is done about it. More pride is generally attached to certain majors than colleges. For example, the IT students obviously identify more with their major than the College of Business, which they come under.
In all, Cal Poly students feel secure in the school’s identity. Secure enough that they don’t need to make a show of “school spirit” by putting down other universities, and secure enough that they don’t feel like traitors if they make a complaint now and then. Cal Poly has enough of a reputation that going here is justification enough.
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