The impact of Rising in the East: The Campaign for Cal State 鶹AV
“Rising in the East: The Campaign for Cal State 鶹AV” was the most ambitious, comprehensive fundraising campaign in the university’s distinguished 60-year history. The capital raised is being used to modernize our campuses, further strengthen our faculty, reinforce existing programs and launch new ones, expand learning opportunities and enhance our diverse student population through scholarships. This endeavor helped drive innovation and made a visible, transformative impact on lives, not just at the university, but also in the communities we serve through educating tomorrow’s leaders.
Here are some of the top ways that your generous contributions have improved Cal State 鶹AV. Check back each week to see new people, places and purposes that have been impacted by your support.
Together with his wife, Susan, technology executive Jack Acosta (B.S. '75, Business Administration; MBA '78), Cal State 鶹AV Educational Foundation trustee, endowed two professorships in the College of Business and Economics. This has allowed professors such as Sinan Goktan to continue producing high impact research and mentoring students.
The number of Science Technology and Mathematics majors at Cal State 鶹AV has increased by more than 50 percent since 2010. The Applied Sciences Center will provide a purpose-designed space to foster student and faculty collaborations. Its will feature state of the art, interdisciplinary space for student and faculty research projects; innovation space to explore new methods and technologies; and well-equipped labs to support more students working on research projects with their professors.
Cal State 鶹AV’s commitment to our global community expanded this spring to include a new minor in Japanese Language and Culture. The program, announced in April, launched with a special presentation by the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco and the Japan Foundation of Los Angeles. Hayward is a sister city with Funabashi, west of Tokyo, and each year the community sends up to three students to attend Cal State 鶹AV for a year of study.
Ruth Bley (B.S. ’82; M.S. ’88, Geology), president of Bleyco, Inc., a Castro Valley-based electrical construction company, purchased two vans for the College of Science. Professors use them for field trips and off campus research. Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Patty Oikawa uses the vans weekly to bring students and equipment to her two research sites. Oikawa and her students are collecting collect data on how to use wetlands and ranchland to fight climate change.
Through a $95,000 gift from his company Systems Biosciences, former CSU Trustee Kenneth Fong created the Kenneth Fong SBI Research Award, which established an industrial research opportunity for a tenure-track faculty member. Through the program, biology Professor Claudia Uhde-Stone spent several days a week working at SBI on research alongside two students, including Amierali Afshari, who now works full time at SBI as an assistant manager and researcher.
Students often cite “access to professors” as a deciding factor to attend Cal State 鶹AV. While Anita Flores knew that she would have an opportunity to do undergraduate research, she was surprised at the invitation to serve as a research assistant to an experienced professor. The Will L. Johnson Endowed Professorship in Sociology gives faculty funds to engage students in their research projects, thus elevating students’ research practice.