Senior Staff Writer 

Dr. Jacquelyn Kegley donated $200,000 to go toward building the Jacquelyn Kegley Center for Student Success is slated to open Thursday, April 18 at California State University Bakersfield with an opening ceremony and reception at 11:15 a.m.

The center will supplement CSUB students learning experience by offering tutoring, seminars, workshops and areas for group study sessions according to Collen Dillaway, director of public relations at CSUB. 

Dillaway said that the center will be housed in Modular West and does not require the construction of any new buildings or additions to existing facilities.

“It’s very impressive that she would go out of her way to help the campus. She will definitely make a difference in someone’s life,” said Edgar Maldonado, a freshman in the pre-engineering program.

A professor at CSUB for 44 years, Jacquelyn Kegley, has a history of philanthropy.

“I’ve made many other donations, but this was a major one to focus on student success. As a teacher, and as a university, I think one of our major goals, if not our only goal, is making sure students succeed,” said Kegley who donated the $200,000 in December 2012.

“It’s all based on the gift Dr. Kegley gave to the university. This center wouldn’t, of course, be possible without a gift like that. This is not a center that is paid for by the state or students’ fees. This is a center made possible by the largest gift the university has ever gotten from a faculty member; And that gift is allowing us to create this center which we have called the Jacquelyn Kegley Center for Student Success,” Dillaway said.