Dr. Henry Suzzallo, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, made a study of the California Polytechnic and issued the Suzzallo Report in 1932. This report recommended that in the interests of economy and avoidance of wasteful duplication, that the California Polytechnic be abolished as an educational institution.
The California Polytechnic found itself in the depth of the "Great Depression" in 1922. The legislature was taking the Suzzallo Report seriously. The mood was to abolish the school. One proposal seriously considered was to incorporate the property into the prison system. An investigating party of legislators noted that the many freight trains passing in either direction through the property traveled at a snail's pace. They were either slowing for station approach or pulling heavily following station departure. In their mind's eyes, they saw prisoners hopping on the slowly passing freight trains in unacceptable escape numbers.