Why Giving Matters

The Baruch College Fund is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Since the BCF came into being, our core mission has never wavered. That goal, as our founders declared, has been "helping [students] at a time when help is urgently needed." Back in 1969, help came in the form of a textbook fund, a handful of scholarships, and an endowed chair. And year after year, thanks to leadership supporters like you, we have built amazing opportunities upon that foundation, and have helped transform the lives of countless students. Throughout our anniversary year, we will be sharing stories about the impact of your giving at Baruch has had for the past 50 years.

Your Support: 50 Years of Powering Our Intellectual Capital

Encouraging academic excellence in our students begins when our faculty is equally encouraged, supported, and strengthened. It’s a principle that the Baruch College Fund (BCF) has made a core priority since its inception in 1969.

Fifty years ago, the founding trustees of the BCF recognized that a great college needs an outstanding faculty, and to attract and retain renowned scholars, an institution needs resources. So the BCF launched its first fundraising endeavor to raise $100,000 to create the Emanuel Saxe Distinguished Professorship. This endowed professorship was named in honor of alumnus, longtime professor, and dean emeritus of the Business School, Emanuel Saxe, an influential scholar in the field of accountancy. The fundraising campaign exceeded its goal because donors like you contributed to make the Saxe Professorship—Baruch's first endowed chair.

Today, 50 years later, our generous donors have funded a total of 23 endowed faculty positions in academic departments across the campus. It is through these valuable positions that you have given Baruch the means to attract and retain the best teachers and scholars, advancing the academic excellence and mission of the College. Your support for our faculty also encompasses salary supplements; research grants; opportunities for student/faculty research; and faculty development funds to explore new approaches to teaching and curriculum development.

At Baruch, we are committed to fueling the academic enterprise by building a world-class faculty and providing them the resources they need to reach their full potential. Because of your generosity, we have bolstered our faculty, our departments, our presence in the world of research, and our ability to provide a world-class educational experience for its students. Thank you for elevating our extraordinary faculty and, with it, our students.

Meet two dedicated professors who have been impacted by philanthropy at Baruch.

Professor Scott Newbert, Lawrence N. Field Chair in Entrepreneurship

Professor Scott Newbert, Lawrence N. Field Chair in Entrepreneurship

The New Spirit (and Ethics) of Entrepreneurship

Joining Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business in 2017, as the BCF-supported Lawrence N. Field Chair in Entrepreneurship, as well as Academic Director of the Lawrence N. Field Programs in Entrepreneurship, Dr. Scott L. Newbert is taking this area of study beyond the concept of start-ups, he says, to “the idea of entrepreneurial creativity in any type of organization.” Toward that end, Dr. Newbert has collaborated with colleagues from the Marxe School of Public Affairs and the Weissman School of Arts & Sciences to develop a three-course sequence for both entrepreneurship majors and minors (in social innovation) to synthesize why problems occur, for example, in the sciences and the environment, what the attempts to solve these problems have been, and, through social entrepreneurship, what solutions and opportunities present themselves now.

The support of the endowed Field Chair, says Newbert, has, in addition to offering the opportunity to expand the curriculum, provided resources for professional conferences, traveling to present papers and work with coauthors, and time to do high-level research. In 2018 he was awarded the Abraham J. Briloff Prize in Ethics for his article Achieving Social and Economic Equality by Unifying Business and Ethics: Adam Smith as the Cause of and Cure for the Separation Thesis. Currently he’s exploring and writing about decision-making in the world of social-impact accelerators.

Associate Professor Els de Graauw

Associate Professor Els de Graauw

Immigration Policy and the City

Dr. Els de Graauw is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, with teaching responsibilities also in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. She is an expert on immigration and immigrant integration in the context of the United States, with research analyzing how contemporary governmental and nongovernmental organizations build institutional capacity for immigrant integration and representation.

As a Eugene M. Lang Junior Faculty Research Fellow, Professor de Graauw was able to do a deep dive into how municipal immigrant-affairs offices in in New York City, Houston, and San Francisco foster immigrant integration. “The Lang Fellowship was important in encouraging me to think about ways to expand the project,” de Graauw says, “from one or two journal articles to a book project that looks at both state and city immigrant affairs offices.

It is also because of Lang support for this project that I’ve been able to develop a valuable collaboration with several immigration scholars at the University of Southern California.” Her previous book, Making Immigrant Rights Real: Nonprofits and the Politics of Integration in San Francisco won the American Political Science Association award in 2017 for Best Book/Section on Migration and Citizenship.