Cal Poly’s Role in Globalization

This paper discusses the effects of an uneasy position for America in the 1980s business markets on the university’s decision to internationalize the curriculum, specifically the responses of Cal Poly’s administration and its student body. The rhetoric used for the proposal of an International Education Office in 1988 by the Academic Senate, revealed an unexpected motivation behind its creation that intrigued me to look further. It seemed that the education system was rapidly globalizing in schools across the nation. A dramatic increase of studies on programs abroad support this claim, however, research failed to show the same international action at Cal Poly. Instead a long process ensued to reach the level of proposed globalization laid out in earlier years