As UC Riverside celebrates the successful completion of the Living the Promise campaign with a weekend of events this month, faculty members say its impacts will continue to be felt on the campus for years to come.

Launched in October 2016, the campaign came to a successful close on Dec. 31 with the university surpassing the $300 million goal. The total amount raised will be announced at a live virtual event on Feb. 20. See the schedule of weekend events, which include a conversation with actor LeVar Burton, and register at celebrate.ucr.edu.

Over the course of the campaign, the campus received donations from more than 66,000 donors, with funds going to student support, faculty research, and infrastructure along with focused efforts within the seven colleges and schools, the library system, and intercollegiate athletics. Donors supported the teaching and research mission of the campus with the creation of new endowed chairs among the programs that benefited.

Some of those researchers shared how the campaign has made an impact to their work.

Tom Durbin, a research engineer at UCR’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology, or CE-CERT, said support for the campaign has enabled him and Kent Johnson, an associate research engineer, to tackle important energy and environmental issues that will help the state move to a more sustainable future. 

In January 2020, AVL Test Systems Inc. Partners helped CE-CERT establish a laboratory to measure exhaust emissions that is now used to evaluate the performance of low emission, hybrid, and electric vehicles. 

The lab, in which students are heavily involved in research, has allowed for collaborations with government, other researchers, and industry. They also expect to work with the new California Air Resources Board facility that will open on the UCR campus soon.

“The first project in the laboratory is part of a large effort to look at the possibility of expanding the use of ethanol in California gasoline from 10% to 15%, which help towards reaching California goals of reducing greenhouse gases and moving towards a more renewable and sustainable transportation future,” Durbin said.

Gerald Clarke, an assistant professor of ethnic studies, is one of three Teresa and Byron Pollitt Endowed Chairs in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The chairs were created to support interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences.

In his role as Pollitt chair, Clarke is co-leading a five-year project engaging students, faculty members and community members in researching and creating campus installations that increase the visibility and awareness of local Indigenous peoples and histories. The project will include creating walking tours, Indigenous language signage, and an Indigenous gathering space on campus.

“The project has allowed me to engage with other faculty and students outside of course lectures and has strengthened our campus community in the recognition of the Indigenous peoples contribution to this country, this state and city, as well as to this campus,” Clarke said.

Chow-Yang Lee, a professor and endowed presidential chair in urban entomology, said support for the position has helped to establish and expand the urban pest management research program in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

“With the availability of the research fund, we were able to use them to investigate and understand important behavioral and physiological adaptations of urban and industrial insect pests,” he said. “We then used this information to develop novel and innovative pest management strategies in the urban and industrial environments such as houses, apartments, commercial and public buildings, warehouses, etc.”

Ana Bajželj, an associate professor of religious studies and the Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies, said philanthropic support is vital for fields such as hers and has helped create “an exciting new wave in Jain studies.”

“These new academic spaces created through the efforts of the Jain community and the institutions of higher education give voice to the Jain tradition in all of its complexities and allow for a deeper engagement with its ethical principle of nonviolence,” she said.

Jean Helwege, a professor of finance and the Anderson Chair in Finance at the School of Business, has researched subjects such as the subprime crisis and the role of the Federal Reserve Bank with its troubled asset relief program. 

“Understanding their impact is particularly relevant for future recessions when the programs might be used again,” Helwege said. “The generous donation to the School of Business from the Andersons has allowed me to do further research on these important policy questions and I am very grateful for the support.”

The campaign also includes many benefactors, including some on campus, who shared why they contributed to research and university programs.

Jeff Girod, director of CHASS marketing and communications and vice-president of the Staff Assembly, has contributed for several years to R’Pantry as well as Staff Assembly and several CHASS research and student support funds. Food insecurity is an issue of particular importance to him, going back to when he witnessed malnutrition in rural India when his father was a medical missionary.

“R'Pantry does some of the most important work on campus for our students and its impact is immediate,” he said. “Taking college classes is hard enough without having to worry about when and where your next meal will be.”

Clyde Derrick, assistant dean for development in CHASS, has set up a living trust to provide gifts to the CHASS English department and Special Collections at University Library. 

Derrick noted he was an English major in college and has been impressed by the department at UCR. He’s also long valued libraries and was struck by the work done at Special Collections.

“I know from working with them how precious unrestricted funds are and wanted to be sure Special Collections had such funding to continue to grow,” he said. “Making two planned gifts to UCR has meant so much to me and I hope they will mean just as much to the university one day.”

UCR will celebrate Living the Promise with a full weekend of free, virtual events Feb. 18-20 for faculty, staff, students, and alumni to enjoy. See the event program and register at https://giving.ucr.edu/celebrate-event-program.