In his first video update of the fall quarter, President Ortiz welcomed students and faculty back to campus, talked about an incident last week that required activating the Safety Alert system, and touched on efforts to improve the student experience.
Last Wednesday, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pursued three burglary suspects to a mobile home community near Valley Boulevard and Temple Avenue. Two suspects were immediately apprehended, Ortiz said, but the third was believed to be in or around University Village.
Safety Alerts were sent out to the campus community via phone calls, email, text messages and desktop alerts on university-owned computers, advising those in the area to shelter in place, he said. By Wednesday evening, police gave the all clear.
The university provided several Safety Alert updates during the incident to provide faculty, staff and students information so they could make good decisions about their personal safety, Ortiz said.
The university is also engaged in initiatives to make students’ experience at Cal Poly Pomona a positive one, the president added. These include the Graduation Initiative and the Student Success Fee. The former is an effort to increase graduation rates and help underrepresented students complete college. The fee pays for services and programs that help students succeed, including expanding academic advising, updating technology, and increasing library hours.
In other news:
- “Tales From Our Archives” takes place at noon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the Library Special Collections Room 4434
- Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media, will talk about the business trends for 2014 at the Executive Speaker Series, Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Kellogg West Conference Center.
- The W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center will hold a reunion and celebration of the university’s 75th anniversary, this weekend, Oct. 5-6.
To read the entire video message, download a PDF of the transcript.