CSU faculty have an extraordinary commitment to excellence in teaching, academic scholarship and service to community. Donors are passionate about supporting the faculty leaders who have so positively influenced their lives and who continue to promote the success of the next generation of students.
Faculty leaders themselves are also among the CSU’s most generous contributors, providing endowments to advance their field of study, promote experiential learning and expand student opportunity.
Professor Emerita and Founding Faculty Member Supports CSUMB With Charitable Gift Annuity
Christine Sleeter, a founding faculty member at California State University, Monterey Bay and professor emerita in the College of Professional Studies, has long supported the university financially. Her generosity has earned her recognition as a member of the Legacy Society and the Lifetime Giving Society.
Dr. Sleeter continues to donate royalties from textbooks she’s written to CSUMB’s Ron Cisneros Vision Scholarship Fund, and she recently created a charitable gift annuity to benefit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center.
With its Largest-Ever Faculty Gift, CSUDH Will Endow its First Chair
California State University, Dominguez Hills has received a $1.725 million legacy bequest from Professor Emeritus of Political Science Lyman Chaffee, who passed away in April 2018. The gift, the largest given to CSUDH by a faculty member, will be used to establish the L.G. Chaffee Endowed Chair of Global and Comparative Politics, the first endowed chair position in the university’s history, and to fund several scholarships.
Fresno State Building Named For Viticulture Pioneer
California State University, Fresno has named the Vincent E. Petrucci Viticulture Building in honor of the late, esteemed professor emeritus. Petrucci began his academic career in 1948 as Fresno State’s first viticulture professor and taught there until 1993, helping to establish the university’s renowned viticulture and enology program. He also helped raised more than $1.5 million for the viticulture building, which houses state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories, a discipline-specific library to serve students and industry and the Viticulture and Enology Research Center.
Dr. W. Benson Harer Continues His Generous Support of Egyptian Studies at CSUSB
Dr. W. Benson Harer, a former president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who maintained a medical practice in San Bernardino for more than 30 years, has been extraordinarily generous in sharing his lifelong fascination with Egypt with California State University, San Bernardino and its Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA).
Most recently, Dr. Harer pledged $900,000 to establish a visiting faculty position that will focus on the teaching of Egyptology and early Egyptian art history. This gift follows other considerable awards, including the establishment in 2014 of the Pamela and Dr. Benson Harer Fellowship, specializing in Egyptology. Named for Dr. Harer and his late wife, it was CSUSB’s first-ever fully endowed faculty fellowship.
The Harer Family Trust has also provided a substantial collection of Egyptian antiquities as gifts on permanent loan to RAFFMA. The collection has become the centerpiece for several educational programs, including the “Kids Discover Egypt” annual summer program for local children.
In 2001, Dr. Harer, who was an adjunct professor of Egyptian art, received the first honorary doctorate ever bestowed by CSUSB.
The Center For Iranian Diaspora Studies Offers Interdisciplinary Research, Teaching and Outreach
Funded by a $5 million gift from Iranian-American alumna and philanthropist Neda Nobari, the San Francisco State University Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies was launched. It’s the first and only center of its kind in an academic center, dedicated to research and teaching about the historical and cultural experiences of the global Iranian diaspora.
Now Persis Karim, Ph.D., the Neda Nobari Distinguished Chair and director of the Center, is engaging the campus and community with an ambitious calendar of programming, including lectures, film screenings, readings, art exhibits, music, open houses and more. In March 2019, the Center will host “Forty Years & More,” an international conference to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution with presentations of new scholarship and research about the Iranian diaspora from a variety of perspectives and national contexts.
Faculty and Staff Donations Key to Tackling Food Insecurity at Cal Maritime
With more than one-third of students at the nation’s colleges facing food insecurity, California State University Maritime Academy has been at the forefront in addressing this need. The academy started its Food Security Project three years ago. Since then, more than $10,000 has been raised to support Cal Maritime students in need through a food cupboard and meal vouchers; 80 percent of the donors are faculty and staff.