Development: Supporting the College

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Quest for Excellence

The California State University San Bernardino - College of Natural Sciences, "Quest for Excellence" campaign, has been established to

  1. Raise private support for scholarships (to assist those in need, and to bring the best and brightest to campus)
  2. Professorships (to help recruit and retain the best faculty)
  3. Endowed chairs (to recruit and retain top scholars)
  4. Research initiatives (to help create new knowledge to help our students and the world around us)
  5. Facilities and equipment (to provide the best environment for learning)

Benefits to You

Often, the pure satisfaction of having an impact on someone else's life is sufficient reason for giving. Occasionally, you need other reasons to part with your hard-earned funds. Here are a few ways that giving can actually have an important impact on YOUR life.

  1. Save Taxes! This is one of the more obvious benefits derived through careful planning in charitable giving. While you know that your gift is tax deductible, you may not realize that it can be spread over multiple years (up to six), if needed.
  2. Avoid Capital Gains Taxes! Because of the tremendous appreciation in the value of stocks and other property, you can take advantage of giving opportunities which help you completely avoid the burden of taxes on appreciated property.
  3. Receive Income for Life! You can convert low-income producing property to a variety of charitable gift instruments which not only help you save on income and capital gains taxes, but also give you a higher rate of income for the rest of your life.
  4. Reduce the Cost of Passing Wealth on to Family Members! The significant appreciation of estates has created likely possibility of high estate taxes. There are charitable gift arrangements which can help you and family members save considerable amounts of money in the transfer of wealth.

Overview of College

The College of Natural Sciences encompasses nine departments: Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Computer Science and Engineering, Geological Sciences, Health Science and Human Ecology, Kinesiology, Mathematics, Nursing and Physics. The Dean oversees the College as a whole and each department consists of its own chair, faculty, clerical and technical staff. Though distinct and in some cases physically separate, all departments interact closely in support of students, collaborative research, shared facilities and common interests.

Although private and public support continues to be essential, the College has made great strides in recent years in acquiring state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. For example, Nursing and Kinesiology are housed in the outstanding Health and Physical Education complex. All laboratories for the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology, Geology, Physics, and Health Science and Human Ecology are new. A new laboratory has just opened for the Computer Engineering program. A new Electron Microscope and Image Analysis Center has been established for use in Biology, Geological Sciences and other departments. Regular courses now are offered for hands-on training in both scanning and transmission electron microscopy.

In addition, the Biology Department has acquired a new Raytech digital data collection system for comprehensive metabolic analysis of cells, organs, whole plants and animals. The Chemistry Department boasts brand new JOEL Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Mattson Galaxy Infrared (IR) and Beckman UV-visible Spectromers, in support of existing and new upper-division courses. The Computer Science Department operates a multi-million dollar computer facility of more than 120 engineering workstations on the world-wide Internet and also houses two supercomputers and fileservers supporting more than 50 gigabytes of secondary storage for application software and user directories. Finally, the Physics Department has opened a new computer-based Rendition of observatory buildinglaboratory for teaching introductory and advanced electronics, and data acquisition and control.

Much of this equipment and support facilities were obtained not only through the University and as gifts, but also as major grants from the National Science Foundation and other external agencies, awarded to many of our outstanding faculty. We look forward to continuing our quest to update major equipment and facilities in support of both our teaching mission and to promote student and faculty research efforts in an increasingly technology-dependent society.

The fund-raising effort includes raising private funds to build a strong endowment to support future generations of scholars and students. Increased private support will enhance the already high quality student body and help recruit faculty members whose teaching and research abilities dintinguish them as world-class scholars. This support will build state-of-the-art facilities and renovate or refurbish current facilities to ensure that CNS students and faculty learn and work with cutting-edge technology and resources. The campaign will help the College of Natural Sciences achieve its strategic priorities and secure its status as a preeminent institution, recognized nationally and internationally for excellence in education, research and public service.

For more information call the College of Natural Sciences, Development Office at (909) 537-7638.