EMS declares St. Fratty's a "mass casualty incident"

Author

Carly Heltzel
March 13, 2025

Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m looking at Cal Poly’s acceptance rate for every high school in California — ranging from 5 to 76%. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

SLO’s emergency services agency just declared St. Fratty’s a “mass casualty incident” due to anticipation of increased 911 calls and demand for emergency responders. While the wording sounds fairly dramatic, in effect this allows agencies to better prepare and dedicate more resources — for instance, Morro Bay’s Ironman race also received the “mass casualty” declaration. Essentially, this allows ambulances and fire teams to position themselves as a triage site before sending people to the hospital. 

2.

Olympic swimmers have now joined Cal Poly students in decrying the university’s decision to cut its swim and dive teams. Missy Franklin, Ryan Murphy and Abbey Weitzeil are among those who have voiced their support for the programs on Instagram although none of them attended Cal Poly. Other community members took to a GoFundMe that has raised $32,000 with the goal of keeping the team, but its unlikely that any amount of funding will make an impact; media outlets have reported that Cal Poly rejected a $10 million donation to save the program. 

3.

SLO is one of the worst cities for college basketball, according to a new ranking. The site that ranked SLO 278th out of 296 cities determined scores through how many D1 teams there are, the stadium capacity, audience engagement and more. Cal Poly, being the only college basketball team in the city, is presumably at fault for its low score on entertainment value and social media engagement. Los Angeles ranked at No. 1, while the only California city in the worst 10 was Sacramento. 

4.

Mr. Turtle started as an entrepreneurial project at Cal Poly. Now, the sustainability-based startup has a soap and detergent dispenser in the PCV market, aiming to eliminate single-use plastic from laundry pods and soap containers. You simply select the option you want, fill a reusable container at the station, then pay for the amount of liquid that came out of the machine. Mr. Turtle’s alumni founders hope to soon take dining dollars to encourage more student use. 

5.

Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists are taking CEO intros to a whole new level. Rather than going out for coffee, prospective business partners are sky diving, boar hunting, sitting courtside, staying at beachside retreats and getting flown on private jets to music festivals. These activities not only last longer, but get the tech founders into a more “vulnerable” state out from behind their computers. The idea is that frontloading the bonding will pay off in the long run. “Taking capital from a venture fund, it’s like getting into a marriage,” one venture capitalist said.