Batey Family Invests in Innovation, Science with Visionary Gift

Generous gift to go towards Energy and Engineering Innovation Building

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 19^th, 2019

Bakersfield community advocate and retired educator Gayle Batey has committed a generous gift to the construction of the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building at CSU Bakersfield, which will become the nexus of discovery and ingenuity in our region, shaping the next generation of Valley visionaries, inventors and problem-solvers.

“With this gift, my family and I honor my late husband, Ben, in his life’s passion. Ben was a biology and chemistry major at Vanderbilt University and taught biology for seven years in the Kern High School District,” said Mrs. Batey, who, like her husband, started a teaching career in the Kern High School District in 1960. “Throughout his life, Ben always remained open to supporting the sciences and education.”

The gift will go toward construction of the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building at CSUB, a major leap forward in the university’s mission to answer the demand for qualified science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates in our region.

“The Energy and Engineering Innovation Building is essential because it will allow CSU Bakersfield to continue to expand our engineering and science majors,” said Dr. Lynnette Zelezny, president of CSU Bakersfield. “But it represents so much more than a physical space. We see the building as the epicenter for research and invention in our region, a place where no idea is off limits, no problem too daunting to solve. This will be a game-changer for our Valley.”

Ben and Gayle Batey have been steadfast in their support for education, even after Mr. Batey left teaching to go into business for himself. As a developer, Mr. Batey built nearly 1,000 homes in Bakersfield over the course of a distinguished career that allowed the Bateys to share their success and reciprocate the loyalty that local home-buyers had shown the family over the decades.

In addition to their generous contributions to CSUB, the Bateys have supported Alzheimer’s research in Southern California and throughout the country.

“My family believes in the power of education to lift our region and people,” Mrs. Batey said. “By expanding opportunities for science and engineering majors at our local university, we increase the chances that our best and brightest students will remain in Bakersfield to study and work after graduation.”

As envisioned, the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building would be a tri-level space of about 60,000 square feet, housing CSUB’s California Energy Research Center, a student project incubator space, teaching and computer laboratories, the Angelo and Mary Mazzei Auditorium, a courtyard and the atrium, which will be named for the Batey family.

Since the inception of CSUB’s engineering program a few short years ago, the university has witnessed tremendous interest among students, pushing the limits of the program, even as the demand for a STEM-educated workforce grows. The best way to close the region’s STEM gap is for CSUB to develop its own engineers and scientists, said Dr. Kathleen Madden, Dean of School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering.

“Employers have told us that after a few years investing in training of young engineers from outside our region, they take the experience they have gained and move on. That’s a problem we’re addressing. Employers want home-grown engineers.”

Victor Martin, Vice President for University Advancement, praised Mrs. Batey as a visionary for her belief in future scientists and engineers.

“Gayle’s transformative gift will make a positive and lasting impact on STEM education for our entire region and it will create a cascading effect where other philanthropists will be inspired to follow her support of the CSUB Foundation.”

About the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building: A hub for ideas and the best and brightest students in the region, the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building will offer a space for research, collaboration and experimentation, right here in the South San Joaquin Valley. CSU Bakersfield students and faculty will work together, often in partnership with industry collaborators, to move our region and the nation forward through innovation and solution-based research. The complex will feature the California Energy Research Center, student project incubator space, teaching and computer laboratories and several public spaces, like an auditorium and courtyard.

For more on the initiative to build the Energy and Engineering Innovation Building, please contact the CSU Bakersfield University Advancement team: (661) 654-2136.