Cal Poly Maritime Academy

Work on the integration process is currently underway. Planning and implementation will take place over the coming months. Effective July 1, 2025, the two institutions will operate as a single university, Cal Poly. The first Cal Poly Maritime Academy and Cal Poly, Solano Campus students enrolling as Cal Poly students will take place in fall of 2026.

The 92-acre maritime campus in Vallejo, in Solano County, Calif., will be known as “Cal Poly, Solano Campus” and will house the “Cal Poly Maritime Academy.”

Integration will result in one university (Cal Poly) under one president, President Jeffrey D. Armstrong. After July 2025, a vice president and chief executive officer will lead the Solano campus while a superintendent will be appointed to lead the Cal Poly Maritime Academy. The VP/CEO will report to the president of Cal Poly and serve on the president’s leadership cabinet. The superintendent will report to the VP/CEO. Until July 1, 2025, Michael Dumont will continue to serve as interim president of Cal Maritime.

Additionally, integration will result in a single administrative structure, one budget and one of each of the appropriate shared governance structures, including faculty/academic senates, one Associated Students, one alumni association and one philanthropic foundation.

Workgroups were formed comprising subject matter experts from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Cal Poly and Cal Maritime across the 23 operational areas identified as most critical to a seamless and timely integration. Those 23 groups have been consolidated into seven functional implementation teams (“FIT” teams) organized under thematic work areas: academics; enrollment; student affairs; advancement, communications and external relations; financial, administrative and human resources; technology; and legal, regulatory and accreditation matters.

Informed and guided by Baker Tilly — a firm with extensive national experience in this highly specialized area — the seven FIT teams are now mapping the previously identified critical issues to activities that will form the foundation of an implementation plan.

The CSU and Cal Poly are committed to identifying, accurately measuring and regularly reporting progress toward success metrics across this large and complex project.

The FIT teams will make recommendations for accountability measures to the Integration Steering Committee (comprised of both university presidents as well as several senior members of the chancellor’s leadership team). Assisted by outside experts where special expertise is required the Integration Steering Committee will carefully review, refine as necessary, and approve accountability measures once it is satisfied that the identified success metrics offer the chancellor and board the degree of specificity needed to appropriately assess the integration work as it advances. Baker Tilly will assist with the data collection and measurement of the success metrics according to the specifications and detail requested by the Integration Steering Committee.

A team of associated student leadership from both universities provided a thoughtful and robust analysis of the five most significant and impactful integration-related issues pertaining to student governance. This analysis — which identified issues such as how ASI student fees will be collected and distributed given potential variances in services across campuses and how an integrated ASI will be structured and governed — will help map future work. 

As a tenet of shared governance, faculty have purview over curricula (the courses and course content within academic programs) and faculty leadership. To honor this principle, eight faculty leaders — four from each of the campus faculty senate leadership groups at Cal Maritime and Cal Poly — were invited to begin work in these areas. Initial work focused on the structure, organization and governance of a single academic senate across the integrated institution. Those faculty members also were asked to begin the process of analyzing curricular and catalog data, course information and enrollment data for potential overlapping, adjacencies and duplication in academic programming and curricula.

All students who apply to Cal Poly apply to a specific major and compete against other students who have applied to the same program. This model will carry forward in the integration. Students will apply to specific programs at a specific location, and the applicant pool will set the level of competitiveness. Cal Poly will utilize its comprehensive review, known as Multi Criteria Admissions (MCA) process, to screen and evaluate students. Students will be required to meet CSU minimum standards.

Once integration is complete, there will be one integrated set of academic offerings, one academic senate and one set of curricular processes. Those processes to achieve integration will be administered by the combined Cal Poly faculty through their existing curricular and governance policies and processes. The faculty will ultimately determine the curriculum. Additionally, for the maritime licensure programs, there are federally articulated requirements, learning outcomes and sea time requirements that must also be considered in that process.

In addition, there will be a need to address the curricular graduation requirements of continuing Cal Maritime students who will be enrolled during the integration. Somewhat analogous to the process used when CSU campuses have converted from quarters to semesters, there may be a need for individual student curricular plans for continuing Cal Maritime students who are enrolled.

All students will be subject to the Cal Poly fee structure beginning fall 2026. Actual fees to be included are under review (e.g. uniforms at the maritime academy, local fees on a given campus, etc.).

The CSU/Cal Poly will ensure that continuing (resident California and nonresident enrolling before fall 2026) Cal Maritime students are provided scholarships to cover any difference in fees as they complete their degrees.

Cal Poly’s financial aid and scholarship plan has resulted in increased recruitment and enrollment yield of California students with financial need. Consequently, Cal Poly’s student body recently achieved 25% Hispanic / Latino with an incoming class of 29% for fall 2024. Financial aid and scholarships will be provided beginning fall 2025 to expand access for students from California and the western facing Pacific United States (Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii) and U.S. territories (Guam and Samoa). An emphasis will be placed on low-income and underserved students from these states and territories. Financial aid and scholarships will be funded by one-time funds from the CSU and Cal Poly campus-based fees. Over 50% of recent campus-based fees (Cal Poly Opportunity Fee and College Based Fee adjustment) will support financial aid and scholarships on an ongoing basis.

Fees will be clearly communicated by spring 2026, prior to the fall 2026 admission process.

Cal Maritime faces fiscal challenges of a magnitude that undermine its viability as a standalone institution. This financial unsustainability also threatens the offering of key academic programs leading to a Merchant Marine license issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the continued employment of numerous faculty and staff. The integration will preserve these programs, which provide a vital economic and security resource to our state and nation.

The primary factors are declining enrollment, increased compensation costs and rising operating expenses. Over the past seven years, enrollment at Cal Maritime has declined by 31%, from a headcount of 1,107 students in 2016-17 to a headcount of 761 in 2023-24. For the fall 2024 semester, enrollment is at 804. Meanwhile, projections indicate that a growing budget deficit through 2026-27 is inevitable, even if enrollment growth targets are met.

Many options were considered to preserve Cal Maritime’s unique programs while ensuring financial feasibility and sustainability. It was determined that Cal Poly was clearly the best aligned with Cal Maritime for a successful integration. 

Cal Poly and Cal Maritime are similar institutions in many fundamental ways, primarily in their academic missions and learning ethos. Both institutions rely upon a hands-on approach. Both offer degree programs within high return-on-investment program areas. Clear synergistic opportunities exist in multiple academic programs, perhaps most obviously within the engineering and marine science fields. Both institutions are involved in national and economic security issues that impact the western U.S., the Pacific Rim and beyond. There is also untapped potential in the ability of the two institutions, if combined, to compete for increased federal, philanthropic and other sources of funding for national security, renewable energy and other programs. 

This is intended as a permanent solution. The success of this integration will rely on the strengths that Cal Poly can bring to Cal Maritime, such as national recognition, strong academic programs, student advising and coursework and marketing and branding for strategic enrollment growth.

The CSU is providing $35 million in one-time funds to support the integration that will be distributed over seven years.

Unique to the western U.S, Cal Maritime is one of only six degree-granting state maritime academies in the nation that produce U.S. Coast Guard-licensed mariners. Graduates are prepared for high-impact careers in the fields of engineering, oceanography, transportation, global logistics, marine sciences and international relations. The academy is a critically important resource — vital to economic and national security — for the state and nation.

As the primary goal is to preserve critical degree programs and safeguard their crucial contributions to national and economic security initiatives, rather than to reduce costs, cost-saving isn’t the relevant measure here. The transition can be accomplished without requiring additional ongoing funding beyond the standard incremental support typically provided to the universities. It is anticipated that there will be some cost savings over time associated with administrative structures, but the short-term costs to position both campuses’ success are projected to be approximately $5 million a year for seven years to include substantial support for financial aid and scholarships. Those one-time resources will come from systemwide designated balances and reserves that are held for important university initiatives and other one-time purposes. Financial aid and scholarships will be funded by one-time funds from the CSU and Cal Poly campus-based fees. Over 50% of recent campus-based fees (Cal Poly Opportunity Fee and College Based Fee adjustment) will support financial aid and scholarships on an ongoing basis.

It is premature to begin analyzing the impact on the Cal Maritime workforce. Analysis will be needed to determine existing capabilities and future requirements. Much of the analysis will depend upon future enrollment numbers.

The CSU is required to “meet and confer” with bargaining units about possible impacts of the proposed integration on the terms and conditions of employment for CSU’s represented employees. That process is under way. The CSU believes the integration will have many positive effects, and the university will continue to work with its labor partners to further identify all possible employee impacts.

It should be noted that Cal Maritime has taken significant steps in recent years to contain costs and reduce expenses by assessing all operating expenses, increasing operational efficiencies, eliminating vacant positions, imposing a hiring freeze, pursuing shared-service agreements with other CSU campuses and aligning the university’s administrative structure to a size more appropriate to its current enrollment circumstances. As part of that reorganization, Cal Maritime has eliminated two vice president positions and redesigned two other vice president positions with a corresponding reduction in salary. Cal Maritime continues to assess the need for further workforce reductions as part of its reorganization efforts. The university is also examining additional reductions that will likely impact service levels and programmatic offerings in the immediate while work on the integration proceeds.

The proposed integration will not affect the new ship’s arrival schedule or planned waterfront upgrades. The Cal Poly Maritime Academy will receive a new, purpose-built training ship in late 2026 or early 2027, depending upon the production schedule. In accordance with federal regulations, the new vessel requires a much larger wharf and associated infrastructure. The associated waterfront construction will begin in late 2024.

The U.S. Maritime Administration has been informed of the integration plans, and the university is collaborating closely with the CSU Chancellor’s Office to ensure a seamless implementation of the waterfront upgrades supporting the new ship’s arrival. The new ship is being fully funded by the federal government. The estimated cost of the waterfront upgrades is $120 million; it is anticipated that federal funding will cover at least 80% of the required construction cost and CSU has planned to fund the remaining 20% from the capital budget.

Support from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) is projected to remain consistent as long as the Maritime Academy remains in operation. This includes funding for the pier and future funding associated with the new training ship.