Westmont Completes $153 Million Campaign

Westmont joyfully announces completion of Strength for Today, a comprehensive drive that funds initiatives and facilities advancing leadership, affordability and innovation. Originally set at $75 million, the campaign has raised more than $153 million. President Gayle D. Beebe led the drive, the largest in college history. As he begins his 10th year at Westmont, Beebe has achieved significant success in fundraising, strategic planning, building a strong board and effective executive team, creating new off-campus study opportunities and establishing innovative programs that expand Westmont’s reach and influence.

“We’re so blessed by the overwhelming support and enthusiasm for our efforts to strengthen leadership programs, become more affordable and approach the future with innovative ideas and programs,” Beebe says. “Strength for Today has created tremendous momentum for us, and we will build on it as we continue to advance our mission of rigorous academics and deep love of God.”

Beebe seeks to establish a center for each of Westmont’s five core commitments: liberal arts, Christian, global, residential and undergraduate. The college founded the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts in 2000, and Beebe helped create the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Center for Spiritual Formation in 2011.

The Global Leadership Center celebrates the college’s global emphasis and impact and includes two residential buildings and the multidimensional Leadership Center. During the school year, 140 juniors and seniors—many of them Augustinian Scholars, student leaders or those who’ve studied abroad—will live together in the two new halls, form valuable relationships and mentor younger students. During the summer, executives participating in Westmont conferences and seminars will stay in the comfortable rooms. The multidimensional Leadership Center will host a variety of activities and programs year-round.

The Global Leadership Center also features five new innovative centers.

• Mosher Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership
  • Lead gift by the Mosher Foundation led by Ed and Sue Birch
  • Sponsors national conversations on the critical significance of moral and ethical leadership
  • Provides regional executive education
  • Supports undergraduate leadership development
• Eaton Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Lead gift by David and Carol Eaton
  • Teaches capital entrepreneurship and new business start-ups
  • Promotes social entrepreneurship to harness innovative solutions to solve enduring social problems
• Hughes Center for Neuroscience and Leadership
  • Lead gift by Linda and Bill Hughes
  • Applies cutting-edge technologies in applied neuroscience to leadership studies
  • Explores emotional intelligence to better equip leaders to make good judgments
  • Nurtures empathy, human rapport and complex executive functioning
• Goble Center for Global Learning
  • Lead gift by Westmont alums Roy and D’Aun Goble
  • Encourages all students to study abroad
  • Offers a unique approach to global education: the Cycle of Global Learning
  • Develops intercultural competencies
• Montecito Institute for Executive Education
  • Trains mid-level and senior executives and their teams
  • Hosts conferences and seminars throughout the summer
  • Promotes biblically-based, values-driven leadership

To make Westmont more affordable and accessible to all students who wish to attend, the campaign raised significant resources for both endowed and annual scholarships. The new Augustinian Scholarship that provides at least $35,000 each year in tuition assistance to 30 entering first-year students. During their four years at Westmont, Augustinians receive at least $140,000 in financial aid.

Strength for Today supports innovation with an increased emphasis on internships and preparation for careers that make a difference. The renamed, restructured Career Development and Calling office has stepped up efforts to place all students in internships during their college years. Westmont Downtown, a new semester-long program, brings students into the Santa Barbara community for 20-hour-per-week internships and engagement with local businesses and organizations.

A $750,000 Fletcher Jones Foundation grant funded a significant renovation of Westmont’s biology and chemistry teaching labs in Whittier Hall to support STEM education. The college has built a strong science program with significant opportunities for student research and a high acceptance rate to top medical and graduate schools.

An Innovation Fund supports creative initiatives by professors and staff members that strengthen our academic program, increase efficiency in our operation and establish new ventures that benefit the college.

Funds received for Strength for Today include:

• $34.1 million for new facilities
• $6.7 million for programs, including the five new centers
• $62 million for the endowment
• $19.6 million for the Westmont Fund and annual scholarships
• $30.6 million for gifts-in-kind such as artwork
• $153 million total

Strength for Today follows Bright Hope for Tomorrow, an earlier capital campaign that raised more than $82 million for major new academic facilities and athletic fields.