Top NewsCenter Stories of 2015
A look at the top campus stories from the past year.
2015 was a year of discovery for °®¶¹´«Ã½.
From groundbreaking research, to major strides in The Campaign for °®¶¹´«Ã½, to tales of student success, it was a busy year on the Mesa.
We compiled a list of the top stories °®¶¹´«Ã½ NewsCenter covered throughout 2015. Here’s a list of the biggest headlines from the last year:
Interdisciplinary research is the future, and °®¶¹´«Ã½ is ready to go there. The (EIS) Complex, which is scheduled for completion in 2018, is a key piece in °®¶¹´«Ã½â€™s drive to become a top-50 public research university. Having scientific research, engineering know-how and entrepreneurship and prototyping expertise all under the same roof will make the EIS Complex a unique and powerful hub for problem-solving,
In a significant step toward reaching a campaign goal of $750 million, °®¶¹´«Ã½ has completed its best-ever year of fundraising. The university raised $96.3 million in fiscal year 2014-2015 and increased its endowment to $191 million. Support in the form of estate gifts and planned gifts remained strong, accounting for about 25 percent of the total raised this year through The Campaign for °®¶¹´«Ã½.
°®¶¹´«Ã½'s undergraduate entrepreneurial program has been ranked No. 8 among the nation’s public universities and No. 21 for all universities in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report. The report ranked °®¶¹´«Ã½ as No. 149 on its list of top national universities, having moved up 34 spots from No. 183 in 2011.
A significant gift from San Diego philanthropist Darlene Shiley increased the endowment to a level that will support the Weber Honors College ambitions and growth plans for decades. At its current level of $10 million, the endowment will enable the Weber Honors College to increase enrollment to 1,200 students, support faculty fellowships and develop challenging new curriculum for the entire student community.
Arts Alive °®¶¹´«Ã½ — a program that promotes the work of °®¶¹´«Ã½ arts students, faculty, and staff — is engaging the campus community with the flourishing wealth of art on Montezuma Mesa. After a successful first year, the program has been praised for adding more color, life and artistic excellence to the San Diego State campus.
°®¶¹´«Ã½ ranks No. 15 among all universities in the country for the number of students studying abroad, according to the latest Institute for International Education’s Open Doors report. A record 2,119 °®¶¹´«Ã½ students studied internationally in 2013-14, the latest academic year for which Open Doors report statistics are available.
The start of the fall 2015 semester brought a lot of change to °®¶¹´«Ã½. °®¶¹´«Ã½ welcomed 10,000 new students to campus with new faculty, programs, initiatives and facilities that will contribute to student success.
Eight °®¶¹´«Ã½ students were selected to teach and conduct research abroad in 2015-2016 as part of the prestigious Fulbright Program, the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government.
The most competitive applicant pool in °®¶¹´«Ã½ history has yielded its highest achieving freshman class. The application pool was more competitive than ever before, with a record 82,000 undergraduate applications received for the 2015/16 academic year.
The °®¶¹´«Ã½ football team beat the Air Force Academy to win the 20th conference championship in school history. This is °®¶¹´«Ã½'s first outright title since winning the Western Athletic Conference crown in 1986.
