On alternate years, beginning in 1951, three EE students served as student body president. They became ambassadors for the college, traveling up and down California, making many public appearances. One of them Verner Mize (distinguished engineering alumnus), succeeded in bringing Governor Earl Warren to the campus as his personal guest for Poly Royal in 1952. President McPhee never succeeded in doing this.
The branches of IRE and AIEE were very active. They would bring to campus a prominent speaker each month. Student attendance at these meetings approached one hundred percent for the majors, Their year end awards banquets were equally well and enthusiastically attended. For well over a decade the president of the Western Electronic Manufacturers' Association was the speaker for the IRE banquet. These strong ties and student interaction with men from industry led to a high demand for the graduates of these two majors.
The students in both majors quickly saw how they could adapt their senior project to develop a paper for entry in the student paper contests sponsored by the IRE and AIEE. Each year campus contests were held to choose the best paper for entry at the next level (Los Angeles section of IRE and AIEE). Several times an EL student would participate in the Western Region Contest (13 western states) representing the students of the colleges and universities of Southern California). The story is the same for the EE students and the AIEE. In 1958 two EE students won the western regional contest held at the University of Arizona. From there they went to the national meeting of the AIEE in Buffalo, New York. In these paper contests, they competed against the major universities.
The societal changes that evolved in the 1960's and the continuing attitudinal shifts in values that followed have obviously been reflected in the extra curricular interests and participation not only by the students, but also the faculty.
In the 1980's, a ten percent participation in IEEE, for instance, by students and faculty would be considered an achievement whereas in the 1950's that percentage of non-participation was cause for serious concern.