Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
Gayle D. Beebe became ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµâ€™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.
What do you dream of doing in the next decade? How far will you go? At ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ, we’re excited about the future, and we’re building on many accomplishments and momentum from the past 10 years highlighted below.
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²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ celebrates the completion of the ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Observatory, which houses the powerful Keck Telescope; Thorrington Field, home of the men’s and women’s soccer teams; the state-of-the-art ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Track and Field Complex; and the renovated Russ Carr Field for the baseball team. |
A provides greatly improved study spaces for students. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ inaugurates the and installs Jeff Schloss, distinguished professor of biology at ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ, as the first recipient. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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 ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Music Department moves into the specially renovated Music Building. |
Adams Center for the Visual Arts, which includes the ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and many well-designed art studios, provides a new home for the Art Department.
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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 ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Observatory and renovated athletic fields. The beautifully remodeled ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ Dining Commons opens its doors to students. |
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. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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. ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ opens its own chapter of and enrolls one or two Rwandan students each year as part of the Augustinian Scholars program. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ adds a new data analytics major that includes professors from mathematics, computer science, and economics and business departments working together in an interdisciplinary program. |
Thanks to a $2 million gift, ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ begins establishing a Center for Student Success to help all students succeed. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ launches a new Summer Session in Singapore that features study of international trade and finance, an internship and travel in Asia. |
The first ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ in Cairo semester immerses students in a developing world megalopolis. |
²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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. New Warrior teams, men’s and women’s golf and women’s swimming, begin competing. ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ 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 ²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ around the world. Happy New Year! Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D. |