Blog Assignment #5

Story ideas surround you. All you have to do is observe your surroundings and you will find news stories to write about. A walk through your campus is a start. Answer the following questions about a couple buildings on campus (in a new blog entry). 1A. For whom were the buildings named? 1B. Are there plaques on benches, walls, doorways named for people who meant something to your university? 1C. Who were they? 1D. What did they do? 1E. When did they live, die or contribute something to your school? 2A. Are there signs around campus about construction? 2B. What is being built or renovated?


The Orfalea College of Business:

1a. The building was named after Paul Orfalea, even though the plaque is dedicated to Al and Virginia Orfalea, which are most likely his parents.

1b. In terms of his research and commitment to the business, Orfalea did not mean anything to Cal Poly because he graduated from USC. However, Orfalea was a huge fan of Cal Poly's "Learn by doing" philosophy. He donated a lot of money to the business department because of his support for Cal Poly's educational system. This money was put into their very nice business building.

1c and 1D. Paul Orfalea is the founder of Kinkos, which is a very successful copying and printing company. A large reason for his companies success was due to his unique philosophy about running a business that allowed creative imput from everybody involved. Orfalea is a guest lecturer at UCSB.

1e. Orfalea is still alive today, and relatively young. He contributed money to the school around April 20th, 2001, because that is the date on the plaque.

Graphic Communication Department:

1a. The department named an endowment in honor of Terry Bell.

1b. The plaque is named after somebody who meant a lot to Cal Poly. the plaque states its dedication to Terry Bell because of his dedicated service to the GRC program, support assisting in the development of laboratories, and his support for Cal Poly's "learn by doing" philosophy.

1C and 1D. Terry Bell was an important professor at Cal Poly who helped develop the department significantly. He also founded a company called ColorGraphics inc. This company is very important to Cal Poly, and some of the endowment goes to support ColorGraphics inc.

1E. Terry Bell contributed greatly to Cal Poly during his time as a teacher, and a founder of ColorGraphics inc. He died before the endowment was created, but the plaque doesn't state when that was. The Cal Poly website doesn't offer much information about when he was a part of the faculty.


Engineering and Architecture buildings:
2a and b: There is a sign very near the business about some construction that is in progress right now. Cal Poly is renovating and replacing some Engineering and architecture buildings. According to the sign, the school is in phase two of the project. The General contractor is Straub Construction inc, and the architect for the project is Austin Veum Robbins Partners.

Poly Canyon Village Housing:
2a and 2b: The Poly Canyon Village housing project is massive in scale. Cal Poly is using thirty acres of land to build three neighborhoods of apartments. It will be done within the next few years, and will house students who are second year and above.