Cal Poly names two new Cal Maritime leaders

Author

Carly Heltzel
May 22, 2025

Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about how to get tickets for the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary concert in Golden Gate Park. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Cal Poly named two new leaders for Cal Maritime’s operation when the two merge beginning on July 1. Corey Cook, the former vice president and provost at St. Mary’s College of California, will serve as the vice president and CEO of the Cal Poly, Solano Campus (the current Cal Maritime campus in Vallejo). Eric C. Jones, who was in the U.S. Coast Guard for 35 years, will serve as the superintendent of the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in which he oversees merchant mariner license-track programs, training vessels, the Corps of Cadets and the port facility.

2.

SLO County has a budget crisis. Facing “drastic” state and federal cuts, the county has proposed cutting 168 jobs and excising $38 million in usual budgetary obligations. The gap is over double what the county faced last year, and if nothing changes, it would grow to an over $67 million deficit by 2029. This isn’t another DOGE on-size-fits-all sweep, though, as the county is carefully evaluating where resources are needed the most; plus, only 48 of the 168 jobs cut are filled positions. Nonetheless, many tough decisions are “going to hurt,” one supervisor said. 

3.

Santa Barbara is the least affordable place in the U.S. to buy a house, according to a WalletHub analysis. Prices are rapidly outpacing the median income, gaining by nearly a percent in the last year, meaning it’s far cheaper to rent than buy, even considering the long term gains of home ownership. The sample compared 300 cities across the U.S., and the highest ranking affordable city in California is Victorville at No. 69. California, in all its glory, snatched nine of the top 10 spots for least affordable cities.

4.

The House passed a bill this morning that could impact 3.4 million Californian’s access to Medicaid, a federal low-income health insurance program. Some 18% of the state’s workforce benefits from the program, more than any other state. The bill seeks to create barriers to getting access by requiring individuals to input their work hours monthly, a number that no other government entity asks people for. Conservatives are walking the line between saving federal dollars without getting rid of the assistance program that a large portion of their voting base relies on.

5.

A former Apple designer and an AI revolutionary walk into a cafe. That’s where they announce OpenAI is acquiring the designer’s device startup in a $6.5 billion deal. The designer’s firm has been rumored to be developing a mysterious device that takes advantage of the progress in AI from the last few years. But that’s really all we know. Current AI-centered devices have flopped pretty hard and the pair have provided no details. But Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, teased: “I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”