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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Cal Poly Culture and Institutional Excellence, College & University, 1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Official Department of Culture and Institutional Excellence (formerly known as the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion) Facebook for connecting with the Cal Poly campus community.

10/11/2026

📢 HSI Mini-Grants aren’t gone, they have a new name!

Our HSI Mini-Grants are now part of the Student Success Mini-Grant Program! Hear from our CIX Director of Programming and Education about where to find program details, application information, and eligibility requirements.

Staff & Faculty: Applications are due October 11!

Students: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis while funding remains available.

🔗 Visit our Student Success webpage to learn more and find application details.

Don’t miss your opportunity to support student success, belonging, and achievement at Cal Poly!

MiniGrants HigherEducation

10/02/2026

📍 Follow our BEACoN intern Ashley to the BEACoN Intern Mixer & Application Workshop!

Join us today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at La CASA in Building 15 to connect with fellow students, learn more about the BEACoN Research Scholars Program and get your application questions answered!

Interested in applying but not sure where to start? Stop by and let us help you take the next step! ✨

09/30/2026

¡Adelante! The 4th Annual HSI Symposium is officially underway at Cal Poly!

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Miguel Cardona, 12th U.S. Secretary of Education, who will deliver today’s keynote address and share insights on education, access and opportunity.

And a special moment for our CIX community! ✨ CIX HSI Intern Erandy Daniella Fernandez-Ortiz joins Secretary Cardona as we kick off a day centered on what it means to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution and how we can continue building a campus where every student can thrive.

🎤 Keynote: 9:45–11:15 a.m.
📍 Chumash Auditorium

Servingness HigherEducation

06/08/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined our last Diversity Partners Network (DPN) of the 2026 Academic Year!

A big shout-out to our on-campus and local community presenters:

Welcome and CIX Updates
Dr. Beya Makekau / Senior Diversity Officer & Assoc. VP for Culture and Institutional Excellence (CIX) and
Diana Ortiz Giron / Director of Programming and Education (CIX)

GALA Pride and Diversity Center
Linnea Valdivia / Program Manager

Open House Spanish-Speaking Track
Olivia Hayes / NSTP Lead Coordinator

Women's Engineering Program (WEP)
Helene Finger / Director of WEP, CENG Faculty and
Isabel Vargas / VP of Community Outreach for Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

SLO City DEI Update
Matt Pennon / DEI Manager and
Samantha Vethavanam / DEI Admin Specialist

If you or your department would like to take the spotlight at a future DPN, check out the form in our bio!

We look forward to seeing you at our next event as we work together to foster an inclusive community!

06/01/2026

These stories were collected as part of a giveaway for a copy of Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do leading up to her keynote at Cal Poly last week. In her graphic memoir, Bui reflects on her family’s immigration journey while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and resilience.

Today, in honor of National Immigrant Heritage Month, we’re sharing a few stories from Cal Poly students who entrusted us with their own immigration experiences.

We extend a special thank you to the students who shared their stories and perspectives with our community.

This effort is part of Cal Poly’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Initiatives.

05/21/2026

Culture and Institutional Excellence is excited to welcome Pulitzer Prize Winner and Bestselling Author Viet Thanh Nguyen as the Dream Center’s Migration Celebration Inaugural Keynote Speaker.

📅 Wednesday, June 3rd
🕓 4 - 6 PM
📍Chumash Auditorium
(University Union - Building 65)

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a Vietnamese-born American author, cultural commentator, and is considered one of the leading voices in the urgent conversation around the immigrant experience.

His memoir, A Man of Two Faces (2023), blends his personal narrative with history, cultural critique, and literary experimentation to explore his life as a Vietnamese refugee in America. The memoir was also finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award.

A powerful advocate for immigrants and refugees and a passionate believer in the principles of community, Nguyen helped to build the nonprofit Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network and serves on the Boards of the Pulitzer Prizes and the International Rescue Committee.

He studied at UC Berkeley, where he earned undergraduate degrees in English and Ethnic Studies and a doctorate in English, and taught for nearly three decades at the University of Southern California, where he serves as University Professor and Aerol Arnold Chair of English.

This is a free, open event and a special opportunity to hear from one of today's most compelling literary voices.

For more information on Viet Thanh Nguyen, please visit the AANHPI Events webpage.

This event is part of Cal Poly’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Initiatives and will be followed up by Dream Center’s annual Migration Celebration community, featuring free food, merch, games, performances, and opportunities to connect with campus resources.

Migration Celebrationn will take place on:

📅 Thursday, June 4th
🕓 4 - 7 PM
📍UU Plaza

05/18/2026

📣 🏆 Announcing the recipients of the 2026 Institutional Excellence Awards for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging! Congratulations to all of our award winners—your work at both Cal Poly campuses is greatly appreciated.

Dolores Huerta “Sí Se Puede” Award for Transformational Leadership: Meagan Nance | Director of Inclusion Initiatives—Student Affairs, Cal Poly Maritime Academy

SLO Student Club Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)

Solano Student Club Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: Maritime Canoe Club

Campus Program Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: Women’s Engineering Program (WEP)

Student Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: Dayana Limon Santiago | Honors Agricultural Science (‘26)—CAFES, Cal Poly Scholar, BEACoN Scholar

Faculty Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: Dr. Nishanta “Nishi” Rajakaruna | Professor—Biological Sciences, Coordinator—NIFS

Staff Award for Advancing Culture, Equity and Belonging: Dr. Zoë Wood | Associate Dean for Diversity and Student Success—CENG, Professor—Computer Science

🔗 To learn more about this year’s recipients, visit diversity.calpoly.edu/2026-institutional-excellence-awards

05/15/2026

Join us for our APIDA Heritage Month Keynote Speaker Event with best selling artist and writer, Thi Bui.

📅 Wednesday, May 27
🕓 5 - 7 PM
📍Chumash Auditorium
(UU 216)

Thi Bui is a Vietnamese-born American cartoonist and graphic novelist who came to the US in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees at the end of the Vietnam War. She is currently working on a work of graphic nonfiction about immigrant detention and deportation, which will come out through One World, Random House

Her best-selling debut 2017 memoir, The Best We Could Do, follows Thi Bui’s parents’ life before and during the Vietnam War, their escape during the war, and their migration to the US as refugees. It won the American Book Award and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography and the Eisner Award for reality-based comics. It was also selected as a Big Read title by the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been featured as a Community Read by multiple colleges, universities, and communities, including UCLA, the city of Seattle, and San Francisco public libraries.

Thi has been an illustrator on many books, including A Different Pond, written by poet Bao Phi, and Finding Papa, by Angela Pham Krans. Along with her son, Hien, Thi co-illustrated a children’s book, Chicken of the Sea, alongside Viet Thanh Nguyen and his son, Ellison.

05/14/2026

May is APIDA Heritage Month, and Cal Poly is launching our new Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Initiatives. These initiatives are part of a larger CSU program called "CSU ASAP" surrounding AANHPI Student Achievement which comes with annual funding for our campus to focus on needs and issues related to this population. I'm reaching out today, as the campus lead for these initiatives, to let you know of some happenings on on campus, some of which are specifically centered around the Japanese American community on the Central Coast.

May 11th – June 28th: “Through the Diamond: Celebrating the Legacy of Japanese American Baseball.” This exhibit is being shown in the Robert E. Kennedy Library on Cal Poly’s Campus in the first floor gallery and has photos, video, and artifacts from both local and national groups. A partnership with the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), your players may be interested in seeing information about the role baseball played in the Japanese American Internment Campus during World War II, and the legacy this left for Japanese American participation in the game at large. Special photos of players with Babe Ruth, a catchers mitt and mask belonging to the Ikeda family from the 1940s, and Arroyo Grande High School baseball jerseys, also from the 1940s, are some of the items on display.

May 15th, 6:05pm: Cal Poly Men's Baseball Team is playing Long Beach State at home for a three-game series. We hope you will join us on Friday for a special game that will begin with a first pitch thrown out by one of our local Japanese American baseball alumni, and will include educational information throughout the game on the Japanese American Incarceration and the role that baseball played in the camps. Free t-shirt give away while they last! Local Cal Poly alumnus, Stan Ikeda, will be throwing out the first pitch.

05/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined our first Diversity Partners Network (DPN) of the 2026 Spring Quarter!

A big shout-out to our on-campus and local community presenters:

Welcome and CIX Updates
Dr. Beya Makekau / Senior Diversity Officer & Associate Vice President, Culture & Institutional Excellence (CIX)

De Pilar Leadership Academy Presentation
Dr. Gregory Gillett / Litigation Attorney | Del Pilar Leadership Academy Advisor

Cal Fire Cultural Burn Project
Becca Lucas Thomas / Executive Director for ytt Northern Chumash Nonprofit

Data Intersections: APIDA & Latine Communities
Dr. Jennifer Pedrotti and Dr. Jess Lee/ Assoc. Vice President for Culture & Faculty Success; Asst. Professor of Sociology

If you or your department would like to take the spotlight at a future DPN, check out the form in our bio!

We look forward to seeing you at our next event as we work together to foster an inclusive community!

Address

1 Grand Avenue
San Luis Obispo, CA
93405

Telephone

+18057562250

Website

https://diversity.calpoly.edu/

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