A car wreck led Tom Jones to discover Cal Poly.

It was 1968, and Jones -- then an architecture student at New York's Cornell University -- had taken the family Buick on a summer road trip. Just outside Cambria, he was broadsided.

Jones wasn't hurt, but his trip was delayed, giving him time to explore the Poly campus and the eclectic architecture of Poly Canyon.

Today, 36 years later, Jones is finishing up his first year as dean of Cal Poly's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

In between, he's designed award-winning buildings, shaped public policy, headed up nonprofits and become nationally recognized as an expert in affordable housing.

Most recently, he was executive director of the California Futures Network, a coalition of 91 organizations dealing with issues such as affordable housing, open space preservation and public transportation.

A deanship was the last thing on his mind, he said, but when the position at Poly was brought to his attention, he found it "an extraordinary fit."

"I already knew that the five departments of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design are preparing the next generations to do what I was out there trying to do myself," he said.

The 57-year-old was chosen from a field of 30 candidates.

"He was the most interdisciplinary of all the candidates," said Margot McDonald, an architecture professor who led the search committee for a new dean. "In his words, he's worn the boots of all five departments -- architecture, architectural engineering, city and regional planning, construction management and landscape architecture."

As dean, Jones oversees a college that includes one of the best-known and most prestigious architecture departments in the nation. This year, the undergraduate program ranked third, behind University of Cincinnati and Cornell, in a national poll of practicing architects.

Even before his academic appointment, Jones was known to many in San Luis Obispo County for his work on affordable housing.

He was a keynote speaker at the ground-breaking "smart growth" conference held last year in San Luis Obispo -- one of the first local efforts to address the problem of skyrocketing housing costs.

In a slide-show presentation, Jones presented examples of attractive, higher-density projects that have provided lower-cost housing in other communities, and he gave advice on how to get more developments like that in San Luis Obispo County.

He suggested, for example, forming a YIMBY group -- an acronym for "yes in my backyard" -- to lobby for higher-density projects.

"If you don't have advocates," he warned then, "you're going to lose."

While the message was well received by many -- a "YIMBY" group had already been forming even before his presentation -- some in the packed ball room at Embassy Suites worried that smart growth would not be a good fit for the county's more rural communities.

"Everyone groaned," said Michael Winn, an elected official in Nipomo, recalling the reaction in his part of the room.

Winn worries that smart growth advocates won't look kindly on "transitional" neighborhoods like those of the Nipomo Mesa, where homes are built on large lots and the public services are minimal.

"What they want is a very simple view of the world: Hong Kong or open space," Winn said of smart growthers.

Jones understands those concerns. And rather than force high-density projects on unwilling neighborhoods, he strongly believes in including neighbors in the planning process from the beginning.

"What you have to do," Jones said, "is listen."

Colleagues say Jones is good at that. They describe him as a hands-on dean, accessible to faculty and students alike.

"He's made quite an effort to talk to department faculty and to students," said D. Gregg Doyle, an assistant professor of city and regional planning.

For instance, Jones called town hall meetings in every department, where he walked students through the upcoming budget.

Like the rest of the university, the college is facing the challenge of a substantial state revenue loss.

"Over a two-year period, our budget will have been reduced by over $1 million, at a time when we actually continued to add students," the dean said. "This is a cut of about 14 percent."

The college has come up with a five-pronged response plan:

• Improve efficiency. The college is eliminating under-enrolled classes, faculty members are taking on more students, and internships and other programs offered by volunteers in the field are being expanded;

• Generate more outside contributions;

• Undertake special projects to attract more outside support;

• Pursue research grants and contract work; and

• Work with students to decide how to best use the $1 million in instructional fees approved in 2002 in a student vote.

Jones is making it his mission to let everyone know about the work under way in all five departments.

"I'm trying to tell the story -- the great story -- of our college," he said.

He also plans to get involved in the community's effort to address escalating housing costs, which have risen to more than $400,000 for a median-priced home.

"I have given myself a year to first become a good dean," Jones said, "and without compromising my role in that, I hope to then become involved in housing issues as a good citizen."