Cal Poly is considering converting approximately 50 acres of prime farmland on the west side of its campus into a mixed-use development that could include a hotel, senior housing, and an events center.
The land is currently home to orchards and crop fields growing in "class one soil," which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed the highest tier of agricultural land quality.
"You can't really put a price on this type of land," said Carson Sanzone, a Cal Poly Agriculture student.
Beyond the loss of valuable soil, students say the project would also undermine Cal Poly's core educational philosophy of "Learn By Doing."
"This is the land that educates the next generation of agricultural farmworkers and agricultural voices in the industry," Sanzone said.
Sawyer Claussen, a Cal Poly Plant Protection Sciences student, said the development would cost students critical learning opportunities.
"They would lose all that opportunity to work hands-on with those crops and learn from them," Claussen said.
A Cal Poly official said that protecting and strengthening the educational experience of the university's agriculture students is a guiding principle in its considerations, and that the new site would offer both educational opportunities and more housing options for students of all disciplines.
In a statement, the university also said, "If any proposal were to move forward, there would be no net loss of agricultural land available for student learning."
However, some critics of the plan are concerned that any potential replacement farmland would be located in a less convenient location with lower-quality soil.
"This land is accessible to the campus, so you can walk from class to lab," said Arielle Tarr, a Cal Poly Plant Science student.
A petition urging Cal Poly to abandon the proposal has gained more than 1,000 signatures since launching on Sunday.
"It doesn't benefit the students; it doesn't benefit the future students. I know all of the faculty I've spoken to aren't exactly pleased about this either, so I don't really know who it's benefiting," said Adrian Guerra, a Cal Poly Plant Sciences and Microbiology student.
Cal Poly officials say no final decisions have been made and that additional conversations are planned over the coming weeks and months.
The university says the earliest a decision may come would be sometime this fall.
"Our students are uniquely privileged to learn amongst these lands, and I hope Cal Poly prioritizes student learning over profits," Claussen said.
