ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº

President’s Briefing January 2020

Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.

The president welcomes guests at the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Women's Leadership Luncheon. We held the fifth annual event on January 28.

Gayle D. Beebe became ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôºâ€™s eighth president in 2007 after serving as president of Spring Arbor University in Michigan for seven years. His inauguration in 2008 featured speeches by Steve Forbes, chief executive officer of Forbes, and Steve Sample, former president of the University of Southern California. Read more about the President.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Celebrates a Decade of Faithfulness—and the Best Is Yet to Come!

What do you dream of doing in the next decade? How far will you go? At ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº, we’re excited about the future, and we’re building on many accomplishments and momentum from the past 10 years highlighted below.

  • Four major new buildings and significant renovations to four others

  • More than $250 million raised to support the college over the decade

  • More than $15 million received for programs, scholarships, capital projects and faculty research through grants and foundations

  • Three new majors and four new minors

  • Three new off-campus programs

  • Tens of thousands of hours of service by our students, faculty and staff in the local community and throughout the world

  • Warrior teams capture an NAIA national championship, three were NAIA national runners-up, and two finished as NAIA national semifinalists with 86 appearances in NAIA national tournaments and 35 GSAC championships

2010: A new observatory, athletic fields and a renovated library open

 ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº celebrates the completion of the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Observatory, which houses the powerful Keck Telescope; Thorrington Field, home of the men’s and women’s soccer teams; the state-of-the-art ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Track and Field Complex; and the renovated Russ Carr Field for the baseball team.

A provides greatly improved study spaces for students. 

Jeff Schloss 2010

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº inaugurates the and installs Jeff Schloss, distinguished professor of biology at ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº, as the first recipient. 

2011: Winter Hall and Adams Center transform campus

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº opens and dedicates the impressive Winter Hall, which provides offices and labs for the engineering, mathematics, psychology and physics departments and classrooms for many academic departments.   

 The ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Music Department moves into the specially renovated Music Building.

Adams Center at ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº

Adams Center for the Visual Arts, which includes the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and many well-designed art studios, provides a new home for the Art Department. 

 

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº launches the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture to promote spiritual formation and the Dallas Willard Center to provide access to the books and papers of the late Christian philosopher. 

2012: The college completes an $85 million capital campaign

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº raises $85 million through the Bright Hope for Today capital campaign, which funded Winter Hall for Mathematics and Science, Adams Center for the Visual Arts, the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Observatory and renovated athletic fields.

The beautifully remodeled ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Dining Commons opens its doors to students.

2015: ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº launches a leadership conference and a new program in downtown Santa Barbara

The first annual Lead Where You Stand Leadership Conference features a wide range of speakers providing key insights about leading businesses, organizations and government agencies.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Downtown, a new, semester-long academic program focusing on capital and social entrepreneurship, enrolls its first students in downtown Santa Barbara in the Hutton Parker Foundation Building.

2016: A capital campaign raises $153 million, making it the college’s biggest ever

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº completes the $153 million , the largest in college history. It raised funds for the Global Leadership Center and  five new innovative centers: Mosher Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership; Eaton Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Hughes Center for Neuroscience and Leadership; Goble Center for Global Learning; and the Montecito Institute for Executive Education.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº offers scholarships worth 85 percent of tuition to the first class of Augustinian Scholars.

The new  provides two full-ride scholarships each year for two graduates of Michaelhouse, a Christian boarding school for boys in KwaZulu-Natal.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº opens its own chapter of and enrolls one or two Rwandan students each year as part of the Augustinian Scholars program.

2017: The new data analytics major offers additional opportunities for students

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº adds a new data analytics major that includes professors from mathematics, computer science, and economics and business departments working together in an interdisciplinary program.

2018: New center seeks to help students succeed

Thanks to a $2 million gift, ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº begins establishing a Center for Student Success to help all students succeed.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº launches a new Summer Session in Singapore that features study of international trade and finance, an internship and travel in Asia.

Hannah Martin Cairo Boats

The first ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº in Cairo semester immerses students in a developing world megalopolis.

2019: New majors and athletic programs help recruit the largest new class ever

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº welcomes its first engineering majors, who will earn a Bachelor of Science in engineering with an emphasis on mechanical engineering.Other new programs include a new Bachelor of Music (BM) degree in performance with a concentration in voice, orchestral instruments and piano, plus new minors in writing, film and environmental studies.

 

 

We made college history with our largest, most diverse incoming new class for fall 2019.

Swimming

New Warrior teams, men’s and women’s golf and women’s swimming, begin competing.

ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Downtown expands to a second floor and dedicates the latest of its five centers and initiatives: the Center for Applied Technology. These innovative programs contribute to the Santa Barbara community and help prepare our students for rewarding careers. Learn more about our centers and initiatives:

We celebrate these accomplishments and the momentum they provide as we plan for the future. We continue to embrace the value of the liberal arts, which prepare students for a life worth living– and provide them with a significant return on investment, as this recent  describes. In the coming months, we’ll share some of the exciting things we’re doing to deepen the mission of the college while expanding the impact of ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº around the world. 

Happy New Year!

President Beebe's Signature

Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
President