VALLEJO, Calif. — With a national push to rebuild the U.S. maritime workforce as a backdrop, the West Coast’s only state maritime academy opened its first fall term operating within Cal Poly this month, highlighting hands-on training and strong job placement as the integration moves from policy to practice.
During a media visit to the Cal Poly Solano Campus, students and faculty demonstrated technology central to the curriculum — including a navigational bridge simulator that lets cadets conn a vessel through changing seas and weather — and discussed how the academy’s “Learn by Doing” approach readies graduates for sea and shoreside careers from day one. “For all of our graduates, all of our cadets graduating into whatever industry they aspire to be in, they have jobs before they graduate,” said Tyler Venator, a senior mechanical engineering student and commander of the corps of cadets. “I’ve got an offer for a job that I was working last summer… Most of our cadets have return offers after their sophomore year.”
The California State University Board of Trustees voted in 2024 to fold the former CSU Maritime Academy into Cal Poly, a move aimed at stabilizing finances, reversing enrollment declines, and aligning two institutions known for immersive, applied learning. As of July 1, 2025, the maritime campus and Cal Poly are operating administratively as one university under President Jeffrey D. Armstrong; academic integration will continue through this school year, with the first cohort enrolling as Cal Poly students at the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in fall 2026.
“What the integration enables us to do is focus our resources directly on the student experience and on student outcomes, which is an extraordinary opportunity in higher education,” said Corey Cook, vice president and CEO of the Cal Poly Solano Campus, which includes the maritime academy. “If you take as a starting point two incredible institutions that are nationally known for having an impact on students, and say, ‘Let’s combine them in such a way that focuses all of our attention on student outcomes,’ I think the sky is the limit in terms of what we can achieve together.”
Leaders framed the merger as both a campus strategy and a national imperative. “The maritime industry is really the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Over 90 percent of our goods travel over the seas,” said Adm. Eric C. Jones, superintendent of the Cal Poly Maritime Academy. “Here on the West Coast and the Pacific region, I’m here to tell you, if you’re involved in any of the maritime industry, whether it’s out at sea or along the waterfront, you’re going to find Cal Poly Maritime Academy graduates.”
Cook said the academy will lean on Cal Poly’s recruitment reach to expand the pipeline of licensed officers, engineers, and logistics professionals. “We have a unique opportunity to partner with entities across the region to help regrow the maritime industry, as the only state maritime academy on the West Coast of the United States,” he said. “So, we’re focusing on impact — how do we increase impact for our students, how do we increase our impact in our communities. Impact, for me, is: How do we grow student pipelines?”
Alumni say the integration pairs two institutions with a shared ethos. Capt. Samar Bannister — an academy graduate now commanding the training ship Golden Bear — called the merger a natural fit. “Cal Poly Maritime Academy was pivotal in my career and my personal growth. Getting a degree and a license opened doors that I never thought were possible,” she said. “We are both academies of Learn by Doing, we always have been, so this fit is a natural fit. And we now have the opportunity to broaden our horizon in terms of reaching out to more students so that we can make other students’ dreams come true like mine came true many years ago.”
Administrators emphasized that the Solano Campus integration is designed to strengthen, not dilute, maritime programming — from simulators and labs to at-sea training — while connecting cadets with Cal Poly’s broader academic and research resources. The academy remains the only state maritime school on the West Coast, positioned to feed talent into ship operations, port logistics, offshore wind, and the wider blue economy at a time when public and private sectors are seeking mariners and maritime technologists.
Further details on academic alignment, admissions, and program requirements will roll out over the current school year as integration progresses. Information about the Cal Poly Maritime Academy and the Cal Poly Solano Campus is available at calpoly.edu/maritime; general information about Cal Poly can be found at calpoly.edu.
