Kayla Missman
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Chip Visci, director of communications in the Office of the President, will retire early next year.
Since joining Cal Poly nearly five years ago, Visci “led several important initiatives including a redesign of the Cal Poly web site, implementation of branding standards, a restructuring of the Alumni Association’s finances and a reorganization of the Association’s Board of Directors,” Chief of Staff Betsy Kinsley said in an email announcing Visci’s retirement.
Visci hopes he won’t have to miss Cal Poly too much, since he lives in the area.
“(Cal Poly) is a really special place,” Visci said. “I mean, one of the great things is we always say faculty and staff are devoted to success, but they really are … The students have been great. I would have liked to have a lot more interactions, but the ones that I’ve had have been very pleasant.”
His biggest challenge was unifying the university’s website, he said.
“All of the colleges had different websites, they had different colors. Some weren’t even green and gold,” he said. “I helped get all the college websites in the university to look and feel like the same place. We really value Learn By Doing and student success, and that’s the message they send now.”
After 30 years of reporting, editing and publishing in the newspaper industry, Visci served as Cal Poly’s associate vice president for strategic communications before becoming the director of communications in the Office of the President.
Post-retirement, Visci looks to add flexibility into his schedule — he will be traveling with his wife and choosing specific projects he’d like to work on, such as helping companies with crisis or internal communications.
Visci said Cal Poly hopes to hire his successor by February.