The Campaign for UC San Diego

Top Philanthropic Impacts to Campus since FY 2012–2013

Achieving the $2 billion milestone through the Campaign for UC San Diego has transformed our community, strengthened our research and supported our ability to educate the underserved. Philanthropy has impacted our campus in so many ways—below is just a sampling of key areas that have benefitted from our university-wide comprehensive fundraising effort.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Ocean Science Outreach and Education

One of the largest gifts to Birch Aquarium was $6 million given by Price Philanthropies to help expand the aquarium’s outreach and education efforts. Nearly 47,000 students living in underserved communities have been served since the establishment of the Price Philanthropies Ocean Science Education Fund in 2015. With this support, Birch has been able to: Launch a new sixth grade “Beach Science” program; fund a Price Postdoctoral Fellow; and deliver the Aquarium Express Outreach programs directly to the schools in our community that need it the most.

UC San Diego Health: Eradicate Blindness

Andrew J. Viterbi

Andrew J. Viterbi, a renowned pioneer in the communications world, pledged $50 million to UC San Diego in support of ophthalmology. With this historic gift—the largest ever to the Department of Ophthalmology—UC San Diego has the potential to cure blindness to help millions of people worldwide. Viterbi’s gift will name The Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and The Viterbi Family Vision Research Center, and create six new endowed chairs for faculty. His generous support is dedicated to advancing research, education and eye care. The Viterbi Family Vision Research Center will house research for a number of different ophthalmological diseases and interdisciplinary ophthalmological research.

Students: Chancellor Associates Scholarships

The Chancellor’s Associates Scholars Program was launched by Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla in 2013 as a partnership with three local high schools and an inaugural cohort of 43 scholars. This year, the scholarship opportunity is expanding to eligible students from over 100 high schools, community colleges and community-based organizations across the state. There have been more than 1,000 Chancellor’s Associates Scholars since the program began. The scholarship provides freshmen with a four-year award up to $40,000, and transfer students with a two-year award up to $20,000. When combined with other university, state and federal aid, the award effectively provides a full scholarship for many students.

The program is funded in part by donations from Chancellor’s Associates, a loyal network of UC San Diego alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends, connected by their dedication to proactive philanthropy. These campus community champions include alumni Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom, whose support for students and their success includes $1 million to the Chancellor’s Associates Endowment Challenge, and Karen and Jeff Silberman, who made a $1 million gift to Chancellor’s Associates to provide a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $1 million, to help increase Chancellor’s Associates donors and grow its namesake scholarship program

UC San Diego Health: Jacobs Medical Center

Redefining the standard of specialized inpatient care in San Diego, the long-awaited Jacobs Medical Center opened its doors to patients in November 2016 after nearly a decade of planning and construction. Overnight, the facility, described previously by statistics—509,500 square feet, 10 stories and 245 beds—was alive with people caring for those requiring hospitalization, in the region’s most advanced medical center. Supported with a gift of more than $100 million from Joan and Irwin Jacobs, the medical center has gained a reputation for offering patients lifesaving treatments that cannot be found in other hospitals. From stem cell and immunotherapies to transplantation and complex surgeries, patients arrive at the hospital seeking cures, or at least longer leases on life.

Social Sciences/UC San Diego Health: Advancing College Mental Health

Joseph Edelman

Joseph Edelman, founder and CEO of life science-focused hedge fund Perceptive Advisors, feels that “people are more productive when they’re happier.” The 1978 UC San Diego alumnus has committed $470,000 to fund a two-year pilot program on campus called Advancing College Mental Health (ACMH). The program seeks to increase the depth of experience for undergraduates interested in mental health professions through a groundbreaking interdepartmental collaboration that will enhance clinical psychology education—the first of its kind within the University of California system. His gift has supported cohorts of 50 undergraduates to pursue careers in clinical mental health services.

UC San Diego Health: Cancer Vaccine

Iris and Matthew Strauss

Iris and Matthew Strauss hold a great deal of respect for the doctors at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. When their daughter’s cancer reappeared, it was the first place they turned for help. Because of their experience and trust in the medical and research staff, the couple donated $1 million to the University of California San Diego to support a clinical trial over the next year designed to develop personalized cancer vaccines—a breakthrough treatment that could help patients like their daughter fight the disease using their own immune system.

Students: Student Civility Program

Elaine Galinson

Community leader Elaine Galinson has committed to provide $5 million to continue the momentum of UC San Diego’s student civility program that trains 1,700 student leaders per year. The grant will endow in perpetuity the Galinson/Glickman Campus Civility Program at UC San Diego, a partnership between the National Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC) and UC San Diego. The student civility program at UC San Diego is the most comprehensive model that NCRC has worked on, and it has launched programming on college campuses across the Western United States.

Arts and Humanities: Institute for Practical Ethics

Designer babies, driverless cars and modified mosquitoes may be boundary-breaking, but moral quandaries these advances create can raise controversy. To help close the gap between the pace of innovation and society’s ability to deal with these advances responsibly, the University of California San Diego—one of the world’s greatest producers of technology, medical innovations and scientific knowledge—launched the Institute for Practical Ethics. Loyal campus donors Joel and Ann Reed provided $1 million to create an endowment for permanent support in the future.

UC San Diego Health: Geriatric Emergency Care Unit

Local philanthropists Gary and Mary West provided $11.8 million to UC San Diego Health to create the state-of-the-art Gary and Mary West Emergency Department at Jacobs Medical Center, where specialized geriatric care has been available since the hospital opened in 2016. In May 2018, the Gary and Mary West Emergency Department was the first to receive a Level 1 Gold accreditation west of the Mississippi—the highest and most comprehensive award given to a geriatric emergency department by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Seniors who arrive in the emergency department at Jacobs Medical Center are treated by a team of specialists in geriatric medicine who focus on senior-specific issues, such as fall risk, cognitive and memory problems and medication interactions. Additionally, the team tries to lower hospital admissions and re-admissions for seniors as well as working with patients and caretakers to ensure a smooth transition home.

Biological Sciences: Tata Institute for Genetics and Society

Tata Trusts committed $70 million to create the binational Tata Institute for Genetics and Society. The Tata Institute for Genetics and Society was established as a collaborative partnership between UC San Diego and research operations in India. The institute’s mission is the advancement of global science and technology through socially conscious means to develop solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from public health to agriculture. In 2017, the campus celebrated the dedication of a new building for the divisions of Biological and Physical Sciences by naming it Tata Hall for the Sciences.

Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute: Celebrating One Year

In 2017, alumnus Taner Halıcıoğlu ’96, Facebook’s first “real” employee outside of the founders, committed $75 million to open the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute and support data science initiatives. Serving as the university’s data science hub, the institute’s first year achievements include establishing itself as one of the largest academic data science programs in the nation; launching a full data science major and minor; creating a postdoctoral scholar program; building a core of more than 200 faculty members affiliated across more than 20 academic disciplines; and attracting more than a dozen industry partners contributing to enhancing educational programs, research opportunities and a job pipeline for students.

Rady School of Management/School of Global Policy and Strategy: Faculty Excellence

Marina and Rafael Pastor

A $1 million gift from business leader Rafael Pastor and his wife, Marina, will support the Rady School of Management and the School of Global Policy and Strategy with endowed fellowships. With this gift—matched dollar-for-dollar by the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Faculty Fellowship Challenge—two leading professional schools will enhance their capability to retain and attract world-class faculty to campus. The couple are active in the UC San Diego community, including Rafael’s service on the International Advisory Board at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Rady School.

Physical Sciences: Simons Observatory

In an effort to probe the first few moments of time after the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago, a consortium of researchers, including astrophysicists from the University of California San Diego, is planning a new observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert to measure the cosmic microwave background, or CMB. The Simons Foundation, together with the Heising-Simons Foundation, awarded a five-year, $40-million grant to establish the Simons Observatory, a new astronomy facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Currently in the preliminary design stage, the observatory will merge and expand existing efforts among international researchers to explore the evolution of the universe from its earliest moments to today.

Library: Geisel Library Revitalization Initiative

The late Audrey Geisel donated $3 million to UC San Diego to renovate Geisel Library to ensure that it remains as bold on the inside as it is iconic on the outside. The gift kicked off the Geisel Library Revitalization Initiative, a major initiative to transform the interior public spaces of Geisel Library to meet the evolving needs of students, faculty and other library users in the digital age. The major renovation plans include a reconfigured lobby entrance, a significant upgrade to the existing Teaching + Learning Commons, a new Research Commons, a café and lounge, the implementation of new technologies, and significant enhancements to furniture, carpeting and finishes. The Library opened a café named Audrey’s in honor of Mrs. Geisel.

UC San Diego Health: Shiley Eye Center Community Outreach

Patricia Shiley, granddaughter of Donald and Darlene Shiley, is continuing the family legacy of philanthropy with a $2 million gift to support the Shiley Eye Institute at UC San Diego. Shiley’s donation will support several areas of impact at the Shiley Eye Institute and establish the Patricia Shiley Low Vision Clinic, which helps those with eye disease that isn’t correctable with medical treatment and surgical procedures. The gift will also benefit the UC San Diego Shiley Eye Mobile for Children, which provides free eye screenings and glasses for underserved children in the local community. Honoring her grandfather, Shiley is also adding to the principal of the existing Stuart I. Brown Chair in Ophthalmology in Memory of Donald P. Shiley.