June 3, 1999
Contact: Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495

UC Santa Cruz names engineering building in honor of Jack Baskin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jack Baskin

Photo: Willis Preston Campbell

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SANTA CRUZ, CA--At the dedication today of the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood announced the renaming of the building that houses the engineering school, formerly the Applied Sciences Building and now the Jack Baskin Engineering Building. The building is being renamed in honor of engineer and retired developer Jack Baskin, whose gifts to the School of Engineering since 1983 total nearly $7 million.

"By naming this building in honor of Jack Baskin, we wish to recognize his extraordinary generosity to the campus and his remarkable role in the growth and development of the engineering program," Greenwood said.

The Jack Baskin Engineering Building houses all the laboratories, lecture rooms, faculty offices, and student offices for the School of Engineering. Other campus programs and offices also occupy parts of the building. By 2003, however, the engineering school is expected to occupy the entire building.

Baskin is a trustee and former president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation and has been involved with the campus for more than 25 years. He has supported numerous campus programs and activities in addition to the School of Engineering, including the Institute of Marine Sciences, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, an endowed chair in psychology, a scholarship in literature, and instruction in the arts.

In 1983, Baskin donated $1 million to help launch the computer engineering program at UCSC. The funds helped establish a computer center and endowed a chair in computer engineering. In 1997, he gave $5 million, the largest single donation in the history of the campus, to help launch the School of Engineering. This year alone Baskin gave the school an additional $400,000.

"Jack Baskin has been a driving force in the establishment of the engineering school and the rapid expansion of our programs," said Patrick Mantey, dean of the School of Engineering.

Baskin is well known for his philanthropic involvement in local nonprofit institutions. He and his distinguished wife, Peggy Downes Baskin, a UCSC senior lecturer in women's studies, live in Santa Cruz and Carmel.

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