A Roller Coaster Ride Worth Celebrating: Honoring Dr. Andrew Schaffner for His Seven Years of Service as Chair

June 2026 / NEWS STORY
by Jimmy Doi

On May 20, 2026, we held our annual Department Banquet at Ventana Grill in Pismo Beach. At the event, we presented a framed poster to Dr. Andrew Schaffner to commemorate his seven years of service as chair. I had the honor of presenting this poster to him. As I mentioned during the presentation, the past seven years have surely been the most tumultuous, challenging, eventful, and momentous years in the history of our department. Instead of making a boring spreadsheet listing these events and milestones, I thought it would be fun to put this into an image of a roller coaster time series, as there were many wild ups/downs during this period. So, I asked ChatGPT to make an image using this roller coaster theme and supplied events/milestones with corresponding quarters and years. Multiple iterations were needed to get to the final image.

Several people assisted with this project as they were able to fill in details about events and milestones (I could not remember them all). Many thanks to those who contributed. Although these individuals were able to see Version 1 of the image, no one (aside from chair-elect Dr. Karen McGaughey and myself) had seen the final version. Thankfully, Dr. Schaffner seemed pleased with the outcome.

As I explained during the presentation, the image is not perfect. LLMs do not always get things right when generating images, and at some points you'll see Dr. Schaffner's character with more than 2 hands (e.g., see FL 2019). Although the SM 2022-FL 2022 event box properly has him wearing two different hats (one with “CHAIR,” the other with “ASC” – Administrative Support Coordinator), the SM 2020 event box incorrectly has both hats with “ASC.”  When I tried to have ChatGPT fix those issues, this would lead to major problems elsewhere (such as Dr. Schaffner having 2 heads)! The final image is the best I could get in the limited timeframe I had (less than a week). 

Another point I mentioned that not everyone may be aware of is that Dr. Schaffner originally planned for only two 3-year terms as chair. He had not planned to serve as chair during this current academic year. However, knowing that this would be the last year under the quarter system, he graciously offered to serve as chair for an additional year so that the incoming chair would only need to focus on the semester system. This is just one example of Dr. Schaffner’s selfless nature.

I know I speak on behalf of all the faculty in expressing sincere appreciation for Dr. Schaffner serving this extra year as chair as we transition to the semester system. I am, of course, very grateful for his service across all seven years — a unique period mixed with unprecedented challenges, unimaginable chaos, and unbelievable growth.

Let me repeat something I mentioned at the end of the presentation. I am proud to be part of an incredibly strong department filled with outstanding faculty. Had Dr. Schaffner not become chair back in Fall 2019, somebody else would have stepped in, and I am confident that that person would have done a fine job. Our department would have survived and we would, more or less, be where we are today. And I believe it’s possible that someone could have achieved the same level of success as chair that Dr. Schaffner accomplished … maybe. But, I am thoroughly convinced that no one in our department could have done a better job than him.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Schaffner during my entire career as faculty in our department. I will miss the many hallway conversations we’ve had over the years. He has been a great role model and an inspiration to many. I hope you all will join me in congratulating Dr. Schaffner on a job well done.

Andrew – thank you for everything. It’s been a sincere joy having you as part of our journey. And best wishes to you as you transition to your new role as associate dean in CAFES!

Poster Timeline Table

Quarter/Year	Events/Milestones
FL 2019	Begins service as Department Chair
WT 2020	COVID-19 pandemic begins
SP 2020	Fully remote instruction begins
SM 2020	Andrew also serves as Administrative Support Coordinator (ASC)
FL 2020	Fully remote instruction continues
WT 2021	Fully remote instruction continues
SP 2021	Final quarter of full remote instruction
FL 2021	M.S. Statistics program planning begins; Return to in-person instruction
WT 2022	M.S. program planning continues
SP 2022	M.S. program planning continues; Noyce School planning begins
SM to FL 2022	Andrew also serves as Administrative Support Coordinator (ASC)
FL 2022	Noyce School planning continues; Semester conversion planning continues
WT 2023	Semester conversion planning continues; AI/LLM Revolution
SP 2023	Semester conversion planning continues
FL 2023	Department program review; M.S. Statistics launches
WT 2024	New Stat Studio planning begins; CSU systemwide strike
SP 2024	First M.S. cohort graduates; First in-person DataFest at Cal Poly
FL 2024	B.S. Data Science planning begins; New Stat Studio opens
WT 2025	B.S. Data Science planning continues
SP 2025	B.S. Data Science planning continues; CSU ChatGPT Edu adoption
FL 2025	Cal Maritime integration planning
WT 2026	Department office break-ins
SP 2026	Department ready for semester conversion; Concludes service as Department Chair