Campaign Priorities

 
CSUB students posing for group photo

Campaign Priority One: Support Future Leaders

Our campaign focuses on the priorities that are centrally important to CSUB - our students!

The priorities align with CSUB's strategic plan and vision. Our commitment is clear: we are investing in programs that develop our students into leaders who will shape the future - bold thinkers and problem solvers who are able to adapt to rapid change and address the complex issues facing our community and our world.

Student access and support

CSUB serves a diverse region, and we recognize there is talent in every household, across all income levels. CSUB offers access and opportunity for students who otherwise would not be able to further their education. Many of CSUB's students are the first members of their families to attend college, changing the trajectory of their families' futures forever.

But we need your support to grow and continue providing educational opportunities to students in our region and help them succeed while in college.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Grow the CSUB Fund, which allows university leadership the flexibility to quickly address unforeseen and immediate needs
  • Ensure CSUB meets students' basic needs during unexpected catastrophic events, like homelessness or food insecurity
  • Invest additional resources into services for underrepresented students, continuing to close the achievement gap
  • Strengthen programs and activities that provide students with the support and resources they need to successfully navigate their path to graduation
  • Engage students through wrap-around support services, meeting each student's unique needs

Scholar-Athlete Success, On and Off the Field

Both on the field and in the classroom, CSUB scholar-athletes are champions. These Roadrunners represent the university in our community and on the national stage. They tackle the rigors of practice, travel, competition and NCAA academic requirements while in school.

We are proud to have over 300 scholar-athletes representing 16 NCAA Division I sports. They have been recognized both athletically and academically. `Runner scholar-athletes have won seven conference championships, donated over 3,000 community service hours in one year, and achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher in 10 consecutive semesters.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Increase scholarships for scholar-athletes through the Roadrunner Scholarship Fund
  • Grow the Athletics Excellence Fund, which allocates resources for unfunded team projects and operations
Doctor with patient on exercise bike

Campaign Priority Two: Foster Academic Excellence

CSUB is committed to ensuring every student - regardless of socioeconomic background - receives a world-class education. The second priority for the campaign is academic excellence, which ensures that CSUB students receive the highest quality instruction across several majors and disciplines.

Student and faculty research

CSUB's vibrant, multi-disciplinary research program is a magnet for brilliant students and faculty who collaborate with local industry partners to find innovative solutions for our region, nation and world. These partnerships create a supportive campus culture and can often be tied to higher graduation rates.

With support from donors like you, student researchers and faculty work to advance engineering, cancer research, education, energy, agriculture and earth science discoveries.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Expand research opportunities for students by providing seed funding for innovative and collaborative research projects
  • Invest in research technology and computing resources to ensure students are able work on cutting-edge projects that positively impact the community now and in the future
  • Support faculty as they sponsor and mentor student-led research projects, including rewarding researcher-student partnerships through a campus-wide recognition program
  • Ensure underrepresented students have equitable hands-on educational opportunities

Advance faculty and staff success

Nearly 650 CSUB faculty members provide exceptional education and instruction in the classroom, through research and through the publication of important literature. They are recognized as expert sources of information in the media and community.

But even faculty and staff as exceptional as ours need ongoing professional development.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Increase student-centered tools and trainings for faculty and staff members, ensuring they are providing a world-class education to students
  • Focus efforts on recruiting and retaining the best, brightest and most diverse faculty in the world
  • Increase endowed professorships, which are permanently-named positions dedicated for faculty with specific expertise

STEM initiatives

Supporters like you ensure that CSUB continues to be an engine of social mobility for all graduates to become innovative scientists, engineers, teachers and researchers that directly transform our region and beyond.

CSUB has a vision to close the achievement gap of all learners and focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Research shows that there is a shortage of STEM graduates in the nation. CSUB's culture of access and providing opportunity for underrepresented populations has led to over 2,100 diverse students majoring in STEM fields, making these academic programs among the most popular on campus.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Ensure students benefit from mentorship and support programs linked to STEM careers
  • Increase high-tech experiences and undergraduate research opportunities for students studying STEM fields
  • Invest in a world-class master's in nursing program filling a critical need in our community's workforce
  • Create a science building with state-of-the-art classroom space and laboratories that will enhance the student experience
  • Provide funding for CSUB summer camps to focus on STEM education for interested high school students representing diverse life experiences
  • Increase funding for the Fab Lab, a community center with tools and technology that serves as both a learning and demonstration laboratory and is the first of its kind in the California State University system
  • Enhance innovative centers where faculty and students engage with the community to solve regional problems with applied, high-impact research
CSUB students gathering near tables on campus

Campaign Priority Three: Build the Community

CSUB is at the crossroads of Kern County and the surrounding community. Its students are the lifeblood of that community both now and for the future. The third priority of this campaign focuses on meeting the needs of students by meeting the needs of our community.

Advancing CSUB centers of excellence

Centers and institutes at CSUB provide education, research and training to those beyond our campus community. They are the ultimate resource to both students and community members, providing advanced knowledge and experiential learning in the areas of agricultural business, entrepreneurship, ethics education, social justice and more.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Establish the Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business, which will provide critical solutions for farmers in the richest agricultural region on the planet
  • Create the Center for Entrepreneurship to enhance educational opportunities through startup and accelerator programs for innovative students with bold visions
  • Advance the Kegley Institute of Ethics, the nationally-acclaimed center that teaches ethics education to students, faculty, staff, K-12 schools and the community

Investing in CSUB-AV

Antelope Valley has been a world leader in aerospace since the 1950s. The CSUB Antelope Valley (CSUB-AV) campus is a satellite campus approximately 90 miles south of the main campus. CSUB's proximity provides opportunities for students to partner with paramount companies and industry leaders.

These collaborations increase the region's overall educational attainment, enhance residents' quality of life and support economic development. CSUB-AV offers critical higher education opportunities in the region, allowing students to pursue bachelor's degrees, master's degrees or teaching credentials where they live and work.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Increase academic program offerings for students
  • Enhance state-of-the-art facilities and campus infrastructure to create a world-class learning environment
  • Provide additional resources and support services to elevate student success

Building infrastructure

Where students learn impacts how they learn and what they learn. With 50 years of storied history, it is critical that CSUB enters its next half century with state-of-the-art facilities that rival its peer institutions, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, increase students' sense of belonging and foster innovation.

CSUB is growing. Your investment builds the infrastructure that our expanding student body needs to succeed.

Your support of the campaign will:

  • Ensure buildings, amenities and facilities remain world-class environments for students and faculty
  • Attract the best, brightest and most diverse minds to CSUB through the Energy and Innovation Building, a hub focused on engineering programming and STEM-related majors
  • Create the state-of-the-art Innovation Building's four teaching labs, student project space, computer lab, lecture rooms and community areas for events
  • Introduce critical athletic facilities, such as new areas for sports medicine and strength and conditioning, to offer the best care possible for scholar-athletes
  • Renovate the university's track and field complex, which will support our hard-working `Runners and promote public health