Women have less places to pee at Cal Poly

Author

Carly Heltzel
May 21, 2025

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about what to expect this Mosquito season on the Central Coast. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Women have less places to pee at Cal Poly. An assessment from Mustang News showed that older academic buildings often have half as many stalls for women as it does stalls and urinals for men’s bathrooms. In the Graphic Arts building, where both majors housed have a female majority, women have three stalls total while men have triple the amount of places to pee. Engineering East has six urinals and six stalls for men but just three stalls for women. Newer buildings don’t show the same inequity, but most academic buildings were constructed when Cal Poly was men-only. 

2.

Cal Poly Athletics is setting up a Players Trust for donors to sponsor individual sports, scholarships and awards. The goal is to stimulate financial incentives for players to stay at Cal Poly rather than signing or transferring to bigger schools with bigger budgets. Athletics has continued to adapt to the implications of the House vs. NCAA settlement and state budget cuts to the Cal States system, with this as the latest development.

3.

A transgender high schooler in Arroyo Grande gave an interview about what it has been like to be thrust into a nationwide debate on trans women in sports. Lily, a sophomore, said she has been “threatened and harassed” on a daily basis since coming out. She said she cheered on her teammate just hours before the girl went to testify at a school board meeting about her horror at Lily’s use of the women’s locker room, adding that she wishes the girl had talked to her first. “She’s not a predator,” her mom said. “She’s trying to find belonging and community.”

4.

California could lose up to 10% of its water supply if it doesn’t dig a 45-mile tunnel under Sacramento’s river delta, experts say. But lawmakers and environmentalists are pushing back against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to fast-track the project, saying the dig would decimate the area and costs too much money. Newsom is trying to short-cut the permitting process and limit opportunities for legal challenges. One state lawmaker said this attempt is a “direct attack on our region’s environmental integrity, economic stability and public trust.”

5.

A quite crafty prankster laid color-matched reflective stickers over two “Slow Street” signs in a San Francisco neighborhood known for being a hub for sex workers. One sticker covered up a sticker figure pushing a stroller with a woman in a similar style leaning up against a wall, smoking a cigarette and accepting cash from a man. The other replaced the stroller with two women leaning up against a small depiction of a “Slow Street” sign, one smoking a cigarette. Whoever it was put some serious effort into mimicking the style.