HomeMy WebLinkAbout20260727_Exhibit ECourtney Leigh Kienow <ckienow@calpoly.edu> Jun 16, 2025,
9:37 AM
to McDonald, Whitney, Stewart, Erica A, Jennifer L. Haft
Hi Whitney and Erica,
I'm sharing with you what I sent to the Grand Jury this morning. Please let me know if you have any
questions or would like to talk through any pieces of this. There was much I wanted to correct on your
behalf as well but I know that's not my place.
please let me know.
Grateful for your sincere partnership,
Courtney
s►
Anything we can do to assist on your front,
From: Courtney Leigh Kienow <ckienow@calpoly.edu>
Date: Monday, June 16, 2025 at 9:35 AM
To: Grand Jury <grandiury@co.slo.ca.us>, Reggie Rini <rrini@co.slo.ca.us>
Cc: Jennifer L. Haft <ihaft@calpoly.edu>
Subject: Corrections: Cal Poly - City of SLO Grand Jury Report
Good morning members of the SLO County Grand Jury,
Thank you to you and the entire Grand Jury for your diligent work to put together the report regarding
Cal Poly and the City of SLO's efforts to support student's making the best choices possible and ensuring
the City's neighborhoods are places where all residents can thrive.
There are a few corrections we would like to submit for your consideration,
1. The report states that: "However, the expansion of the university has led to significant
challenges in housing availability, both on and off campus."
Correction: Over the past two decades, Cal Poly has more than accommodated its enrollment increases
by investing nearly a billion dollars in constructing new student beds on campus. In fact, using the year
identified in the report (2005), Cal Poly has about 700 LESS students living off campus/in the
community today than we did in 2005. I've attached a spreadsheet that includes greater detail and
sources for this information.
There were 14,855 students living off campus in 2005 (the year the Grand Jury used for Cal Poly's
enrollment numbers).
As of Fall 2024, the most current academic year, there were 14,132 students living off campus.
Another important component worth noting is that many students live outside city limits, commute,
study abroad, or are part-time distance learners. In fact, a few years ago Cal Poly launched the Local
Address Project; a survey asking students to identify where they reside in our local communities. At the
time, seventy percent of all students updated their local physical addresses through this effort. From the
data collected, we were able to identify that approximately 11% of students were living outside of the
City of San Luis Obispo.
In recent years, Cal Poly has housed more students than ever before and the highest percentage
of students in its history (37-40%). Cal Poly has the largest housing program in the CSU. In addition, Cal
Poly is actively planning to increase on campus student and workforce housing capacity.
Cal Poly's 10-year, $1.2 billion Housing Future Plan is actively in motion. This includes replacing North
Mountain halls, building on the adjacent parking lots, and adding from 3,300-3,800 new beds — with
the first building expected to open its doors for fall 2026. For
details: http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/future-housing
Another important consideration in this discussion is that we have significantly increased the percentage
of our students who are from the local area. In 2015, students from our local service area made up 6%
of our total new student population. In fall of 2024, local students made up 12% of our new student
population. So. while the percentage of students to the enrollment at Cal Poly has grown by 4%, local
students make up a significant amount of that enrollment growth. A major factor in our growth strategy
has been to provide additional opportunities for our local students (who are twice as likely to be
admitted than non -local students) to earn a Cal Poly degree.
There is also a comment about the negative impact that Cal Poly's growth is having on the City's
infrastructure. Cal Poly is currently constructing a Water Reclamation Facility project ($40 million
investment) that will dramatically reduce Cal Poly's impact on the City's sewer system and treatment
facility - reducing it to minimum required flows. It will also reduce our water usage to levels significantly
lower than 2005. Once construction is complete, we'll be using less water, less sewer capacity, and less
energy.
2. This statement: "Due to the lack of on -campus student housing, some students must live off -
campus" implies that there is an expectation that Cal Poly house all of its students. I don't
believe that is a realistic expectation and ask that it be reframed or removed from the report.
3. "However, due to changes in policies, Cal Poly stopped assisting the city, stating privacy
concerns, and revised their AB 524 report to remove some of the addresses that were
previously provided in the document." p. 10
Clarification: While it is true that addresses are no longer available due to privacy complaints from
students and in alignment with many other CSUs, Cal Poly continues work with the City of SLO on these
issues through regular meetings and communication with Community Development, Code Enforcement,
and SLOPD as recently as this week. Several outcomes have come from these meetings including:
Coordination of City officials to speak directly with students and groups about a variety
of topics including noise, neighbor relations, understanding their CUPs, and an overview
of how to engage with City government.
Preparation of students who are seeking new CUPS or responding to reviews of their
CUPS by both the Planning Commission and City Council.
Cal Poly now has a copy of existing CUPs and is able to assist with the onboarding
process for new student leadership for each organization.
The City of SLO now sends noise violation information to Cal Poly for review and we
have engaged the Interfraternity Council in a process for peer accountability.
Cal Poly has also offered to consult on language for new CUPs as appropriate and
provide a review of existing [UPsfor accuracy (several are attributed to the wrong
organization, the wrong address, non-existent organizations, and unrecognized
organizations).
Again, thank you for the time and effort put into this report, We look forward to hearing your thoughts
nnour suggested changes tothe report.
Courtney
Courtney Kienow
pronounsshe/heo (why is this important?)
Director ofCommunity Relations and Economic Development