President’s Briefing January 2020

What do you dream of doing in the next decade? How far will you go? At Westmont, 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

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

A renovation of Voskuyl Library provides greatly improved study spaces for students. 

Westmont inaugurates the T.B. Walker Chair in the Natural and Behavioral Sciences and installs Jeff Schloss, distinguished professor of biology at Westmont, as the first recipient. 

Westmont 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 Westmont Music Department moves into the specially renovated Music Building.

Adams Center for the Visual Arts, which includes the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and many well-designed art studios, provides a new home for the Art Department. 

Westmont 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. 

Westmont 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 Westmont Observatory and renovated athletic fields.

The beautifully remodeled Westmont 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.

Westmont 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.

Westmont completes the $153 million Strength for Today capital campaign, 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.

Westmont offers scholarships worth 85 percent of tuition to the first class of Augustinian Scholars.

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

Westmont opens its own chapter of Bridge2Rwanda and enrolls one or two Rwandan students each year as part of the Augustinian Scholars program.

Westmont 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, Westmont begins establishing a Center for Student Success to help all students succeed.

Westmont launches a new Summer Session in Singapore that features study of international trade and finance, an internship and travel in Asia.

The first Westmont in Cairo semester immerses students in a developing world megalopolis.

Westmont 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.

Westmont 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:

• Center for Applied Technology
• Center for Social Entrepreneurship
• Decision Lab
• WestHUB
• Westmont Initiative for Public Dialogue and Deliberation

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 Forbes article 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 Westmont around the world. 

Happy New Year!

Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
President