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Cal Poly Poly Reps get paid for the first time in 40 years · Stories from Mustang News on KCPR

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  Speaker 1: If you're interested in anything that has to do with
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  Speaker 1: the outdoors, highly recommend coming here.
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  Speaker 2: For decades, poly reps have been the first faces future
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  Speaker 2: Mustangs meet, leading tours, answering questions, and sharing their col
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  Speaker 2: poly stories. But for the first time in forty years,
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  Speaker 2: those student ambassadors are getting paid for their work. Mandy
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  Speaker 2: Blackburn is an advisor for poly Reps and said the
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  Speaker 2: idea came directly from students themselves.
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  Speaker 3: Things that you know, our leadership at the time when
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  Speaker 3: I started in about twenty twenty two, some of the
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  Speaker 3: things that they had mentioned was compensation, and so that
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  Speaker 3: was a huge topic from our president, from our executive
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  Speaker 3: board at the time. We did a lot of research
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  Speaker 3: into what other universities were doing, both within the state
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  Speaker 3: of California in our geographic region, you know, across the country.
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  Speaker 3: You know, how can we advocate for this and you know,
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  Speaker 3: try to make this change happen.
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  Speaker 2: Blackburn said that the organization first tested a grant funded
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  Speaker 2: model before fully implementing hourly pay this year. The grant
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  Speaker 2: model gave every poly Rep five hundred dollars each quarter
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  Speaker 2: in financial aid, with executive members receiving six hundred dollars.
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  Speaker 2: Adeline Lilly is the president of poly Reps and as
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  Speaker 2: a fourth year math student. She said the shift is
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  Speaker 2: making the club more accessible to all students, regardless of
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  Speaker 2: financial background.
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  Speaker 1: Definitely think the paid model is going to open doors
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  Speaker 1: for anybody to join poly reps. Our poly reps are
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  Speaker 1: now eligible for work study, which is super exciting.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of people.
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  Speaker 1: Don't have that time to volunteer, and so now people
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  Speaker 1: can do the work that they want to do. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: people want to give tours, but you're also making money
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  Speaker 1: by doing it, which is awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Even with the new pay model, Blackburn said the size
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  Speaker 2: of the group will stay the same, with roughly forty
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  Speaker 2: members in the fall and growing to sixty in the spring,
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  Speaker 2: depending on how many tours col poly hosts each year.
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  Speaker 2: The new model will also not change what poly Reps
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  Speaker 2: can say on their tours.
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  Speaker 1: That is something that all of us value so much
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  Speaker 1: in our tours is being able to tell whatever stories
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  Speaker 1: we want, tell whatever facts we want, answer questions. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: our tours are completely unscripted and nothing about that has changed,
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  Speaker 1: which is very exciting.
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  Speaker 2: While many are celebrating the change. Austin Tinsley is a
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  Speaker 2: third year animal science student and said that some members
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  Speaker 2: were initially worried that getting paid would change the organization's
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  Speaker 2: close knit culture.
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  Speaker 4: But there were also the concerns about whether or not
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  Speaker 4: adding a monetary componenty monitoring component to it would remove
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  Speaker 4: some of the passion from the organization. Are we going
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  Speaker 4: to be less of a community and more of just coworkers?
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  Speaker 4: But honestly, I haven't felt too much of a difference.
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  Speaker 4: I still am dealing with the same people who I
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  Speaker 4: was with before the switch. We're also the same people.
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  Speaker 4: We're all still really passionate about this organization, about each other,
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  Speaker 4: and about cal Poly.
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  Speaker 2: The new pay model is funded through cal Poly's admissions department,
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  Speaker 2: which reorganized part of its existing budget to support student pay.
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  Speaker 2: For more information on poly Reps, visit their website at
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  Speaker 2: polyreps dot CalPoly dot edu or their instagram at poly reps.
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  Speaker 5: Thank you so much for coming along giving my why
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  Speaker 5: cal Polywhy I chose cal polyy cot to choose cal
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  Speaker 5: Poly so for me and truly is the people and
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  Speaker 5: all the opportunities that the people brave for cal Paul
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  Speaker 2: About for Mustang News on KCPR, I'm Lauren Keihano