By Victoria Mejicanos , March 28, 2025
Cal Poly Pomona’s Master of Science in Regenerative Studies, currently housed in the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, will be pausing its program to new applicants for an academic year to “revitalize” the program, according to College of Environmental Design Dean Mary Anne Akers and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Laura Massa.
The revitalizations include moving the master’s to a new home within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning as well as changing its name. The new name is still unknown, but Ackers said it will likely include the word “sustainability.” According to Massa, the pause to make these changes will not affect students who are currently in their first year of the program, and she explained the decision was a collaborative one.
“As I understand it, the dean of the college and the provost met and discussed this to make this decision to pause the program,” Massa said.
She said she has worked with them on a one-year timeline to make changes to the program and that this pause is standard procedure.
“It happens so regularly that I’m actually curious as to why this is a story because this is just a normal operations process,” Massa said.
Massa said if the program was proposed today, it would not be accepted because of the fact it’s in a center, so being able to directly hold classes in a specific academic department is important. This was a sentiment echoed by Provost for Academic Affairs S. Terri Gomez in an email statement to The Poly Post.
“I am told by Dean Akers that it is the only degree program in the entire CSU not in an academic department,” Gomez said. “It is not a best practice. The Lyle Center has no permanent faculty director and has not had one for several years. This causes confusion and a lack of resources and support for students.”
The program is the only program in the California State University system that teaches regenerative studies as well as the only program directly connected to a center. The John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies is currently under construction and is expected to reopen during Earth Week from April 16-22.
The Facilities Planning and Management team will soon spend $9 million on the restoration of the center with various funding sources, according to a presentation given in a March 19 Academic Senate meeting. Approximately $5.4 million of the funds came from the CSU deferred maintenance project list, which took several years to receive the Chancellor’s Office’s approval.
Projects like the Lyle Center make the deferred maintenance list when there is an apparent and clear need for repair, according to CPP’s Director of Media Relations Cynthia Peters.
“The renovations were necessary to bring the facility up to current building and safety standards and optimize the ways the center can best serve instructional, public events, residential and research purposes,” Peters said.
Gomez said although low enrollment is always a concern, it was not the only reason for the pause in the program. While there is not a specific policy for pauses in academic programs, there is a policy for academic program discontinuance, which requires Academic Senate approval.
According to the policy, “Budgetary concerns do not in and of themselves comprise sufficient reason to discontinue a program.”
The policy also states a proposal to discontinue an academic program must be reviewed by the Academic Senate. Furthermore, it prohibits any action leading to the discontinuance of an academic program before the Chancellor has commented on the proposal.
However, Gomez did not comment on whether this policy applies to pauses.
Other campuses, like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, have policies on pauses like this one. Cal Poly SLO’s policy prohibits suspension of an academic program for more than two academic years.
“Program suspension is not acceptable when the aim is program discontinuance,” according to the policy.
Jillian Munoz, a regenerative studies student, said she was informed by graduate coordinator Teresa Lloro, abruptly this spring, which was confusing for her as she was speaking to potential applicants as early as last fall.
“As recently as December, I was talking with prospective students,” Munoz said. “People who wanted to apply but wanted to talk to a current student. So I’m assuming the decision came up in 2025.”
Munoz has started a petition to stop the pause.
Addie Hasson, a student minoring in regenerative studies and president of the Lyle Center club, was notified while on a Zoom call for one of her regenerative studies courses.
Hasson said it has been disheartening to hear about the program pause because the center is integral to campus sustainability and has served as a space for important research projects and programs like Farm to Pantry, which takes produce from the Lyle Center and gives it directly to the Poly Pantry. It is also where classes for the master’s program are held and where students work.
“That’s part of what makes this whole situation so devastating is that the center’s been under construction for the past year at least, and they are finally getting it open again,” Hasson said. “They just released their three-year plans for the center and for the curriculum, how the students can get involved in the program, and then they get this news.”
Akers explained why students were not told about the pause sooner.
“Before we sent out the message, we wanted to make sure that what we offer the current students is adequate for them to be able to graduate with a degree,” Akers said. “So we had to do a lot. Particularly, Dr. Lloro had to look at other courses here in the campus in order to make sure that the plan to move forward for students was intact. That doesn’t happen overnight.”
Lloro was not available for comment. The Poly Post was also unable to reach professors or lecturers who work at the Lyle Center or teach in the program.
Hasson is particularly upset about the pause because of the impact it has had on both current and past students.
“Sustainability is applicable to every generation,” Hasson said. “It’s in every single field and should be applicable to every single field, and we lose a lot of expertise if we lose this program. We also lose a lot of the Lyle Center’s connections to campus and talented organizations. The master students do a lot.”
Feature image courtesy of Bryan Doan
