2025 Raising for `Runners Giving Day

Dear Friends,

On behalf of a grateful CSUB community, I want to thank you for supporting research, innovation and the quest for answers in a region built on bold thinking.

A university that is fortunate enough to have a robust research program attracts the brightest students, builds partnerships with a diverse array of collaborators and energizes the entire community around the idea that no answer is beyond our grasp and no problem beyond our understanding if we work together in the search for solutions. 

In 1970, when our first students arrived at their brand-new college on the edge of town, the smell of fresh paint still in the air, research must have seemed an impossible dream. But Cal State Bakersfield’s first supporters had the vision to join together and form the President’s Associates. Over their decades of tireless work and support, they have given us a foundation for excellence that we build upon every year, student by student. I hope those early President’s Associates appreciated the profound impact they have had on this university.

And I hope that you know how humbled we are by your faith in us now. 

I encourage you to take the time to get to know our student research scholars and their brilliant faculty mentors. Ask them about their research and what they hope to accomplish on behalf of our community and the world beyond. Your questions will sharpen their communication skills, and your feedback is invaluable.

President’s Associates: Thank you for giving our students hope and encouragement to explore the scientific process and envision their lives of service and merit beyond this university. Your support is nurturing a generation of visionaries and leaders and making CSUB the university our region needs and deserves.

 Dr. Vernon B. Harper Jr. 
 Interim President
 California State University, Bakersfield