Cuesta College

The first community college in the San Luis Obispo area was founded in 1916 as a San Luis Obispo High School division. It lasted until 1919 with the United States involved in World War I. Cal Poly had a junior college division from 1927 to 1932. Miramonte College of Atascadero filled the void as a private institution from 1933 to 1936. The county's second public junior college was formed in 1936 as a part of San Luis Obispo High School District but ceased operation in June 1959.

Cuesta College's on-campus Cougar Park is pictured in November 2022.

On April 16, 1963, voters in SLO County agreed to form a community college district, forming the San Luis Obispo County Junior College District.[3]

In 1964, a limited evening division began at Camp San Luis Obispo, a California National Guard facility located between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.

On October 4, 1965, the college was officially named Cuesta College.[4]

Five years later, following the approval of a $5 million bond,[5] Cuesta broke ground on its current campus west of Camp San Luis Obispo to establish a 127-acre site including frontage property deeded to the college by the National Guard.[6]

Located on State Route 1, the Cuesta campus is six miles (9.7 km) from the beaches of the Pacific Ocean and six miles (9.7 km) from San Luis Obispo. Cuesta College also has a satellite campus, 'North County Campus', in Paso Robles, which is twenty-nine miles (47 km) to the northeast of the main campus near San Luis Obispo. Limited course offerings are also available at two other sites within the county operated by Cuesta College, one at Arroyo Grande High School in Arroyo Grande and the other at Nipomo High School in Nipomo.

The Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center, featuring two theaters at Cuesta College's San Luis Obispo campus, is shown in October 2022.

Cuesta College's Associated Students Auditorium, shown in 2022, hosts a variety of speaking engagements, musical performances and other events at the center of campus.

The campus features a science forum including an observatory for astronomy courses, now named Bowen Celestial Observatory.[7] With a 14-inch telescope including a special narrow wavelength-band filter, the observatory has been used since the 1970s, occasionally open to the public for viewing of events such as visible comets[8] and solar eclipses.[9]

In 2018, the college's San Luis Obispo campus received a $1.5 million gift from the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust; the donation toward Cuesta's Cultural and Performing Arts Center was the second-largest in the institution's then-55-year history.[10] The center, featuring a 450-seat main theater as well as a 100-seat experimental theater, plus teaching facilities, was thereafter renamed as the Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center.

In 2019, the college's aquatics center, including a 50-meter competition pool along with a 25-yard training pool,[11] was expanded following Measure L funding.[12] The complex hosted the silver medal-winning U.S. men's national water polo team and the gold medalist synchronized swimming duo of Tracie Ruiz and Candy Costie during training sessions for the 1984 Summer Olympics.[13][14]

Cuesta College is the only college in the San Luis Obispo County Community College District (or SLOCCCD, part of the California Community College system) and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The district is governed by an elected five-member board of trustees.

Jill Stearns, the current president, began her presidency in July 2018 after Gilbert H. Stork retired. The gymnasium was renamed Gilbert H. Stork Gymnasium in his honor in August 2018.

Since the mid-1970s, Cuesta College's Bowen Celestial Observatory has observed events such as passing comets and solar eclipses.

The college offers 76 Associate's degree programs and 96 certificate programs. A number of Cuesta students transfer to the public California State University and University of California systems, including the nearby Cal Poly SLO campus, as well as private colleges and universities.

In 2012, Cuesta College's regional accreditor Western Association of Schools and Colleges placed the college on "show cause" status, warning the college that its accreditation might not be renewed. A year later, the college's accreditation was renewed and its status upgraded to "on warning." The Tribune, the local newspaper of San Luis Obispo, described this as the result of a "years-long struggle to fix several deficiencies identified by the commission [that] came at a cost: lower enrollment, difficulty recruiting applicants and damaged morale."[15] In February 2014, Cuesta's "on warning" status was removed and the accreditor certified that the college meets all of its standards.[16]

The college's athletic teams are known as the Cougars and the school colors are green and white.[17] The college currently fields seven men's and nine women's varsity teams. It competes as a member of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) in the Western State Conference (WSC) for all sports except wrestling, which competes in the Southern California Wrestling Association (SCWA).[18]

Originally constructed in 1978, Cuesta College's Dr. Stork Gym in San Luis Obispo, California, seats approximately 2,000 people, and hosts community events in addition to Cougars games and matches.

Several of the Cougars' programs compete in Dr. Stork Gym, which in the mid-1980s to early 1990s garnered local attention for hosting the SLO County Basketball Camp, which on multiple occasions featured clinics including instructor Bill Walton.[19][20] Since the early 2010s, the arena space has also hosted Special Olympics annual Spring Regional Games.[21][22]

Men's basketball

In the history of the Western State Conference, Cuesta accumulated 10 WSC North Division championships from 1981 through 2016, the second-most in the league; only Ventura College (with 13 such titles) won more in that time span.[23] In 2019, Cougars head coach Rusty Blair won his 500th career victory with the college, becoming the 13th coach in state history to total at least a half-thousand wins.[24]

The 1996–97 academic year saw Cuesta set a program record for wins in a season (32), soon due to a CCCAA revision increased to 33 wins for an overall record of 33–5.[25] The season included a February 12 victory over then-defending state champion Ventura, 98–87, with roughly 1,300 fans in attendance.[26] On the Central Coast, at any level of college basketball, the 33-win total is tied as the second-most victories in a year, trailing only the 34–1 season of Allan Hancock College exactly four decades earlier in 1956–57.

Cuesta College's Founders Grove

Jon Moscot

• Dave Anthony, comedian[31]
• Jay Asher, writer
• Josimar Ayarza, professional basketball player
• Doug Bernier, professional baseball player
• Sam Blakeslee (born 1955), founding director of the Institute for Advanced Technology & Public Policy at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
• Sean Chambers, professional basketball player[32]
• Mangkubumi (born 1972), Crown Princess of the Yogyakarta Sultanate[33]
• Ian McCall, retired mixed martial artist[34]
• Mike Miller, professional baseball player
• Jon Moscot (born 1991), professional baseball player[35]
• Kristof Ongenaet, professional basketball player
• Logan Schafer, professional baseball player
• Jake Shields, mixed martial artist
• Robert Van Scoyoc, professional baseball coach
• Paula Zima, artist known for her sculptures, paintings and etchings

• Official website