Cal Poly Pomona receives $42-million cash grant, largest in Cal State history

Cal Poly Pomona announced Monday that it has been awarded a $42-million cash gift -- the largest such donation in the history of California State University -- by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, whose cereal magnate founder established an Arabian horse ranch in the hills that now make up the northern edge of the campus.

The grant will be given over five years, including an initial $10 million in August, followed by yearly awards of $8 million, officials said. The money will be used to increase enrollment of first-generation college students, recently emancipated foster youth, military veterans and other underrepresented populations in Southern California.

“This is really going to be an extraordinary addition to the university,” Cal Poly Pomona President Michael Ortiz said. “The foundation has been impressed with the way the university has evolved and the direction in which we’ve been headed. There are a number of initiatives we’ve been working on all along, and we’ll be able to expand those and create new ones.”

The university was originally an extension of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and became an independent campus in 1966. It serves more than 20,000 students, 31% of whom are Latino, 26% Asian and Pacific Islander, 25% white and 3% black.

In a statement, Kellogg Foundation President and Chief Executive Sterling K. Speirn, said the gift was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the breakfast cereal pioneer, who was a strong believer in higher education and investing in vulnerable youth.

“As the 12th most ethnically diverse university in the United States, Cal Poly Pomona’s deep commitment to and track record of providing access to quality college education for students of color strongly aligns with the foundation’s work to support racial healing and to remove systemic barriers that hold some children back,” Speirn said.

Kellogg had a long history with the university, dating from the 1920s when he built a ranch in the rolling San Gabriel Mountains foothills as a winter retreat. The public was invited to performances of his prized Arabian horses, which were also used in many Hollywood films. In 1949, two years before his death, the foundation deeded the land to California’s state college system for use as a campus, and it has provided continuing support to the university.

The school still holds monthly Arabian horse exhibitions and the current gift sprang from a meeting of the Arabian Horse Advisory Committee, on which one of the foundation board members serves, Ortiz said.

Prior to the Kellogg Foundation donation, the largest cash gift to a Cal State campus was a $40-million pledge to Fresno State by PepsiCo in 2000. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo received a $60-million bequest in 2008 that included real estate, stock and other assets.

With the budget crisis shrinking state funding, Cal State campuses and other California universities are increasingly looking to private support to bolster programs.

The Kellogg gift “will make an extraordinary difference in the lives of countless students, and we are extremely grateful that they have chosen us for this unprecedented showing of generosity,” Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed said.

-- Carla Rivera

Comments

[JP]

As a black Cal Poly Grad, I hope more will be done to increase that 3% enrollment of African Americans. Congrats Cal Poly!

[ndirish]

That is awesome for anyone to invest in education. Students take advantage of it and try your best.

[Southoc]

I guess Caucasians don't count?

"The university was originally an extension of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and became an independent campus in 1966. It serves more than 20,000 students, 31% of whom are Latino, 26% Asian and Pacific Islander, 25% white and 3% black."

[3825You]

Beautiful...good job Cal Poly Pomona...
make us all proud someday with the
outstanding students to professionals
that will correct injustice and help stop
the public employee greed here in california.

[Guest]

Good for them! With the higher learning system under so much burden because of this economy, it's nice to hear that Cal Poly can get a little help and hopefully get back some of those summer classes and top notch professors that had to be cut.

I graduated right before all of the cuts happened (thankfully!) and feel for the students that had to be forced to change their education goals. Without summer classes, I wouldn't have been able to graduate with my two Bachelor's degrees on time!

[Anonymous]

I'm curious: How will this grant affect funding for grad students who wish to pursue studies at Pomona (particularly in the Urban Planning realm)?

[NorthernCA Teacher]

This is awesome!

Seems to be an example of "putting your money where your mouth is....."

[BillN]

Wow, great for Cal Poly Pomona.
what happened to Kellog and his relationship with the SDA church (and it's schools and hospitals). I think Kellog developed his cereal while at Battle Creek Sanitarium , an SDA institution.

[sally jesse rafael]

I don't understand why the money can't be distributed equally among all Cal Poly students. Since whites only make up 25% of CPP, it's not as if the school is short of diversity. As a white Cal Poly student, I feel the money is being misused. There are thousands of students of all races who need more classes, bigger class sizes, and less increase of tuition. CPP's tuition has been raised almost 40% in the last two years. Instead of seeking new ethnic students the school should help the students it's already taken on graduate in a timely manner.