Swim and Dive gets a new goalpost

Author

Carly Heltzel
April 28, 2025

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m reading about Humphrey, the so-called “dumbest” whale in Bay Area history. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Cal Poly Swim and Dive got a revised fundraising timeline from the university: $20 million by June 4. This is down from the initial $25 million benchmark. As of Saturday, the team has raised $7.5 million, falling short of their April 15 ‘checkpoint’ of $10 million. If they successfully raise the money, it will be used to create an endowment that can permanently fund the team. “The team really believes we can do it,” one swimmer said.

2.

One international student and one recent alum had their visas reinstated — they were two of the four Cal Poly students or alums to get their visas revoked in the Trump administration’s nationwide sweep. Across the Cal State, 15 student’s visas were reinstate of the 70 reported to be taken away. And at universities across the nation, 1,800 visas were revoked, with an unknown amount reinstated. Cal Poly has 202 international students total.

3.

Around 80 farmworkers rallied for wage increases and better working conditions at the Santa Maria Valley Strawberry Festival this weekend. Workers currently receive minimum wage, which is $16.50 per hour, and are calling for their pay to be raised to a “living wage” of $26 per hour. Beyond that, workers often do not get benefits or sick days and are forced to work through rain, heat and injuries. “Every year, they celebrate the fruit, but unfortunately neglect their very own farmworkers,” one farmworker said.

4.

After SLO’s school district almost cut Transitional Kindergarten, or TK, to make up a budget deficit, local officials have been looking for ways to fund the program across the state. SLO’s assemblymember is about to introduce a bill that would require public schools to provide a TK program and pay for it it through state funding. “It is a bill that creates equity for every single one of California's 4-year-olds by providing early learning,” the assemblymember said.

5.

If you’re hiking around the Bay Area, there’s a chance you’ll come across a decades-old abandoned car that has become one with the landscape. There are several. Some of these motor vehicle relics are a glimpse of a past where roads used to be in place of trails, and people dumped their maybe stolen, maybe crashed blue Rambler that’s been there since the 1960s. “Those things happen,” president of a historical society said. “I would compare it to old street signs. People used to shoot them up. It was a very different culture back then.”