Save Cal Poly, SLO Farmland
The Issue
We have one clear demand for the Cal Poly SLO administration: Withdraw the current West Campus development proposal and honor your previous commitment from the 2020 Master Plan to exclude the ~250 acres of Prime farmland (Class I soils) on the campus from any future development.
Our response if the administration ignores this demand and continues to push forward with their proposal: 1. directed, specific actions by the community, alumni and industry partners to hold the Cal Poly SLO administration led by University President Jeffrey Armstrong accountable; 2. call on the faculty leadership to implement a vote of no confidence for President Jeffrey Armstrong for disregarding the previous commitment to protect the on-campus Prime farmland that is critical to our Learn by Doing teaching program; 3. engage local and state regulatory and environmental agencies to conduct a review of policies and agreements and pursue appropriate legal action; 4. Local agricultural leaders will commit to stopping the unnecessary encroachment onto a vital natural resource required for future agricultural teaching and research; 5. and call on state and local representatives to review the university’s actions and inform their constituency regarding the university’s current proposal; among others.
Why it matters: Beyond protecting a non-renewable, threatened public resource - Prime farmland – Cal Poly SLO needs to preserve its unique teaching infrastructure for its students. There is no other university that gives students the opportunity to Learn by Doing in productive fields and orchards right on campus. These lands are educational infrastructure as much as a chemistry lab or a lecture hall. In these fields, Cal Poly SLO trains students to be stewards of natural resources and leaders in food production. These students go on to become the skilled professionals who sustainably feed the nation and the world.
By signing this petition, the undersigned are telling Jeffrey Armstrong and the Cal Poly SLO administration that they want the Prime farmland on campus exempt from building and maintained as living laboratories for agricultural education because once farmland has been developed, it can never be restored.
1,276
The Issue
We have one clear demand for the Cal Poly SLO administration: Withdraw the current West Campus development proposal and honor your previous commitment from the 2020 Master Plan to exclude the ~250 acres of Prime farmland (Class I soils) on the campus from any future development.
Our response if the administration ignores this demand and continues to push forward with their proposal: 1. directed, specific actions by the community, alumni and industry partners to hold the Cal Poly SLO administration led by University President Jeffrey Armstrong accountable; 2. call on the faculty leadership to implement a vote of no confidence for President Jeffrey Armstrong for disregarding the previous commitment to protect the on-campus Prime farmland that is critical to our Learn by Doing teaching program; 3. engage local and state regulatory and environmental agencies to conduct a review of policies and agreements and pursue appropriate legal action; 4. Local agricultural leaders will commit to stopping the unnecessary encroachment onto a vital natural resource required for future agricultural teaching and research; 5. and call on state and local representatives to review the university’s actions and inform their constituency regarding the university’s current proposal; among others.
Why it matters: Beyond protecting a non-renewable, threatened public resource - Prime farmland – Cal Poly SLO needs to preserve its unique teaching infrastructure for its students. There is no other university that gives students the opportunity to Learn by Doing in productive fields and orchards right on campus. These lands are educational infrastructure as much as a chemistry lab or a lecture hall. In these fields, Cal Poly SLO trains students to be stewards of natural resources and leaders in food production. These students go on to become the skilled professionals who sustainably feed the nation and the world.
By signing this petition, the undersigned are telling Jeffrey Armstrong and the Cal Poly SLO administration that they want the Prime farmland on campus exempt from building and maintained as living laboratories for agricultural education because once farmland has been developed, it can never be restored.
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Petition created on August 16, 2026