A Central Coast university may be getting a new campus in the Bay Area, one which even comes with its own ship.
There’s a proposal to integrate Cal Maritime with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, because the small Northern California college is struggling with financial challenges and dropping enrollment.
Cal Maritime is an almost unknown part of the Cal State University, but it has a long history and important role in the maritime industry.
"We often refer to ourselves as the hidden gem of California,' said Graham Benton, who is the Acting Provost at Cal Maritime. "Not a whole lot of people understand what we do, even though we have been around for nearly a hundred years."
It has a more than 90 acre campus on the waterfront in Vallejo.
"We began with two majors, our license track majors," said Benton. "We have a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Education, and we have a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering. What these mean is in addition to acquiring a degree from the California State University, they also get a U.S. Coast Guard license as a deck officer, or a ship engineer which allows them to work on U.S. flagged vessels around the world."
But, Cal Maritime has run into rough seas in the last decade. CSU officials say a nearly one-third drop in enrollment has forced it to use most of its financial reserves.
"There's been a lot of downward pressure on enrollments across the country. The situation at Cal Maritime is more severe," said Steve Relyea, who's Executive Vice Chancellor, and Chief Financial Officer for the Cal State University system
"If you go back about seven years, they were at around 1100 students, which is very small. Over that seven years, that enrollment has declined more than 30%, so now they're down a little above 700 students," said Relyea.
He said the situation has created a couple of problems.
"One is just not having the revenue coming in to support a university," said the CSU official. "And the other is just critical mass. I don't think there's any university in the country that can survive at that size to stand up all of the different functions you need to have it."
Cal Maritime has taken a number of cost saving steps, ranging from cutting administrative positions to imposing a hiring freeze. But it’s not enough.
So, the idea being looked at is integrating Cal Maritime into Cal Poly. The Vallejo campus would continue to operate, but many of the behind the scenes functions like financial aid services and human resources would be handled by Cal Poly.
Why Cal Poly? Officials said there are a number of potential synergies between the campuses, like the fact they both have strong engineering and marine science programs.
Cal Poly would also end up with a 500-foot long ship. It’s used for hands-on training, but it could also potentially be used for marine research.
Cal Maritime and Cal State officials say keeping the campus, and its programs operating is critical. It’s one of only six maritime academies in the nation, and the only one on the West Coast.
If it happens, Cal Maritime students would also become a part of the Cal Poly student body. The proposal is still being studied, with informational meetings set for July and September. CSU officials said there would be a number of one time costs related to the integration, but there would ultimately be major cost savings.
Cal State Trustees could vote on the plan in November. If approved, the change would take place in the 2026-2027 academic year.
