 "Photo: Thomas Schaper/Poly Post")
The Department of Computer Information Systems celebrated its 40th anniversary at a dinner held Saturday evening.
About 200 students attended the event, which was held in the Ursa Major suite of the Bronco Student Center.
On hand were alumni, current and former faculty, President Michael Ortiz and three student organizations associated with the department.
Department Chair Ruth Guthrie said that the dinner was intended to be both a celebration of their accomplishments and a place for students and alumni to network.
“I hope [the alumni] meet the current students,” she said. “There are student clubs here that would love to meet them.”
One alumnus who attended was Steven Desen, who graduated from Cal Poly in 1976.
After graduation he went to work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the 1989 flyby of Neptune by the Voyager II space probe.
Desen said he came out to the event because he is unemployed and hoped to do some networking that could lead him to new opportunities.
Peter Krystofiak came for the chance to connect with other alumni. He graduated from Cal Poly in 2002, a time he called the “dot-bomb.” He said that when he graduated things were a bit rough, but he has now found a job as a programmer for a debt settlement company in Irvine.
Another attendee was David Dear, who completed his undergraduate studies in 2001 and got his Master’s degree from Cal Poly in 2005.
He is now a professor in the department and was eager to come to the dinner.
“It’s a good opportunity to see some past friends I graduated with and support the department,” he said.
The highlight of the evening was the keynote speeches, which were delivered by Guthrie, President Ortiz, Dean of Business Lynn Turner and Gerald Wagner, founding chair of the department.
In his speech, Ortiz committed the faux pas of referring to the department as “computer science,” which was promptly met by loud grumbling from the audience.
He quickly recovered though and congratulated the department for being a “special area” of the school that should serve as an example for all other departments, with regard to having quality faculty and motivated students.
The rest of the speeches focused on the history of the department and how their technology has changed over the last forty years, with sprinklings of anecdotes and the usual talk about budget issues.
Turner said the College of Business is “very proud” of CIS, and said the department has “constantly set the bar high for quality.”
Wagner stressed the need for donations to the department.
He announced that he and his wife would match, dollar-for-dollar, all donations made to CIS up to $5,000.
Later in the evening were presentations by “decade groups,” representing those who graduated in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
A raffle was held, which offered a variety of prizes, including a Nintendo Wii and two tickets to the U2 360º tour.
The buffet dinner was catered by the Kellogg West Conference Center.
Reach Justin Velasco at news@thepolypost.com
2 comments
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