An anonymous donor has gifted Cal State Long Beach (CSULB)’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics $2.3 million, the university announced today.
The gift will create an endowed dean position and a graduate fellowship.
This is the first endowed dean position at the local university and the third in the CSU system, as CSULB joins San Diego State (business) and San Jose State (engineering).
The endowed fellowship will provide funding for students to pursue graduate degrees.
“In an era of budget cuts and associated reductions in state funding, the philanthropy of the Beach Community is more important than ever,” said President Jane Close Conoley in a statement. “Through their generosity, donors become partners in fulfilling our mission of student success.”
The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is a leader in undergraduate and graduate student research with its six departments and 22 degree programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels and enrolling over 4,400 students.
CSULB is recruiting a new dean for the college to replace Laura Kingsford, who announced in September she would step down from the position to lead the university’s campus-wide program, Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD).
BUILD, funded by the largest National Institutes of Health grant in CSULB history, offers intensive research-training opportunities for undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers in health-related research.
“This endowment will help the university recruit and retain a truly visionary individual to be the next dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,” said Conoley in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful for such a transformational gift.”