I recently read an article that SLO is having racism problems on campus after a blackface incident minority students don’t feel safe. Should I be worried/concerned ? My daughter is Hispanic and Cal Poly is her first choice. Any feedback would be great.
You shouldn’t worry. Cal Poly, like a pretty significant swath of our country, has bad actors and culturally obtuse people, but they are rare there. CP does a good job at promoting diversity, both ethnically and socioeconomically. They are still pretty white, but it isn’t from lack of trying. About every other year, something like that happens. It’s always been associated with fraternities and sororities. I think most would say Cal Poly is as safe and welcoming as any other school. Whether that is enough, is a matter of perspective. Google any school and the word “racism” and you will find a recent incident. Suffice it to say, being non-white, female, or both, is unfortunately harder everywhere in the US. Hopefully we’ll transcend that some day.
Hi There, I have to say, I’m a little worried about this too. My daughter went to a very white, homogeneous high school, and has specifically said that she would like to be at a school with more diversity and international students for college. She applied as Hispanic, but looks very Caucasian and does not come from a socioeconomic disadvantaged zip code.
I do understand and clearly see that SLO is making efforts towards diversity. And, I fully comprehend that one or two bad apples in social scenes can catch the media attention and ruin it for others. But the kind of stats in this article make me a bit concerned:
https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/education/article209195019.html
Am worried D will struggle to get the global experience she wants there. She is planning multiple study abroad experiences, and her major like Anthropology/Geography with specialization in Global Politics, she will have to travel in order to get a broader experience.
Can anyone speak to their experience at SLO that included international study, global exposure, and/or diversity inclusion?
All of that being said, SLO is in our top two choices right now. And, there are SO MANY great things about the campus and education there that we still both love it!!
Thank you to all who reply. 
@sdscoutmom & @Zevia I would not worry beyond what you have to worry at any other school or place. I have a SLO graduate and a SLO Freshman. They both applied Hispanic, but look white. They have never encountered or personally witnessed any issues. Like @eyemgh stated, bad people are everywhere, they seem to be very rare at Cal Poly, and they make the news. None of those incidence (as horrible as they were) were violent or condoned by anyone.
Here are official government stats for Cal Poly:
https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?110422-California-Polytechnic-State-University-San-Luis-Obispo
Compare that with the racial diversity of US:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Racial_categories
It comes down to everyone’s definition and comfort, but Cal Poly is mostly representative to what one would encounter in real world out there - with a very notable absence of African Americans. This is very common unfortunately at all California public schools. It has nothing to do with school policies, there was a great post by an Asian student a couple of years back on the reasons, it had to do with the fact that Poly can’t legally use race for admissions and the fact they can’t legally provide merit aid to OOS students that big private schools do.
Diversity is a vague concept and definitions vary with different people. To some is related to having a reasonable match to what you see in US or in CA, to others is to have as diverse of a mix as possible. Frankly, I don’t think any of those definitions is wrong.
So the question to you is if you feel that a school that is 54.8% white (as stated in the article) is not diverse or it would make you or your kids uncomfortable.
As to global perspectives I can say this: my older daughter took two quarters off here junior year to study for a semester in Korea. There are many study abroad programs all over the world, and the schools makes it easy for students to do so. https://abroad.calpoly.edu/
Good luck!
My son is half Asian and half White , and he looks very Asian.
He has not experienced any racsim.
He said he has made a lot of friends from different ethnic groups.
He has no experience of studying abroad yet, but he has been to
talk to a counselor.
It seems like they have a well-run program. At least that is
his impression.
Thank you everyone for your comments. I appreciate the perspectives! We’ll have to wait and see what D decides to do. 