campaign priority
Transform Our
Campus Home
Goal
$30 Million +
Goal: $30 million+
Boldly designed, creative and open learning spaces for our students and faculty, and thoughtful stewardship of our campus, these are keys to our current success. And they will be to our future.
To realize our dynamic strategic vision and current and future school goals—we must provide cutting-edge/world-leading workspaces, classrooms and laboratories for students and faculty in which to live, learn and collaborate, while stewarding our campus natural and built beauty.
We know a great boarding school needs a sense of place, a campus that supports and fosters its mission. Inspired by the vision of Thompson Webb, we are committed to thoughtfully improving and enhancing the place Webb students, faculty, staff and alumni call home.
As part of this work and through the foresight of Webb’s leadership, and a handful of visionary donors, Webb purchased 80 acres of land contiguous to campus in 2017. This purchase doubled the size of Webb’s property to 150 acres; it preserved Webb’s California culture and “feel,” and it provided for the future possibility of relocation of facilities and fields or even expansion. It’s an historic start to Webb’s next 100 years and can be proudly labeled one of the early achievements of this campaign.
Start Something at Webb: A Leadership Gift to a Building Project, or a Special Fund for Sustainability
The Webb campus is special. It lingers in our memory as a place where we made our home—a place that is home for students, families, faculty and staff today. It must be stewarded and renewed. With the addition of 80 acres of adjacent land, the campus now reaches some 150 acres. We live here. We learn here. We play here.
150
ACRES
Start something at Webb and make a difference. Provide a leadership gift of $100,000 to $3 million or more to a special capital project, or establish an endowed fund for sustainability and campus beautification efforts.
The Centennial Campaign Philanthropic Goal
Our goal is to secure and invest an additional $30 million or more in the following additions, enhancements and improvements to teaching and living spaces on the Webb campus.
The New Centennial Plaza & Hooper Community Center
With this project completed, we can truly celebrate its impact on campus life. This project included a sweeping and dramatic new entrance to campus for current students and families, as well as prospective students and families. Also, it includes an all-school, natural, outdoor seating amphitheater south of Hooper, and formal and informal student/faculty/community learning and recreational spaces. The project includes beautifully landscaped pathways, landscaping and benches throughout the plaza. It is the perfect venue for hosting Alumni Weekend, Family Weekend, All-School Convocations /Assemblies and more.
The Center for Scientific Discovery and Innovation
Webb students and faculty are on the forefront of scientific knowledge and inquiry. As we prepare for our next century, we must remain committed to providing the very best teaching and lab facilities to support Webb’s evolving and innovative curriculum. By renovating existing spaces and creating new ones, Webb will design and build additional learning environments to support the sciences, including computer science and artificial intelligence and more.
The W. Russell Fawcett Library
The Fawcett Library is the primary academic resource and gathering space on Webb’s campus. Like all academic libraries, Fawcett requires continual upgrading to remain vital and current—equipped with the latest technology of research resources. Following an in-depth study of best practices and technologies in academic libraries, we will upgrade Fawcett Library, beginning with technology and design configurations, mechanical and electrical needs and fixtures and furnishings—making Fawcett Library truly ready to serve Webb’s second century.
Student Dormitories
We must ensure that the space for our boarding students is equitable and remains safe, clean, attractive and conducive to the academic mission and boarding experience. Every dorm room common space must be updated and refreshed over the next decade. Our ongoing review of each dormitory will guide the process of refurbishment and improvement in the years ahead as we fulfill our commitment to providing a residential life experience that is so integral to our boarding students.
Faculty Housing
With the completion of four new faculty homes in 2017, we are well on our way to meeting an important strategic goal: to build or acquire faculty housing and renovate existing housing to fully support our strong boarding program. The women and men of Webb’s faculty teach in the classroom, provide coaching and advising, run afternoon activities and clubs, share meals with students—much more than teaching alone. Their proximity to students is essential for a strong boarding community. In the years ahead, our commitment is to meet the ever-growing needs for quality faculty housing to further strengthen our residential community.
The Vivian Webb Chapel
The Chapel program is a defining element of the Webb experience. The Vivian Webb Chapel, familiar to all Webb alumni, and the site of so many memories of Chapel Talks, weddings, funerals and other gatherings, has stood the test of time, but it is now our obligation to ensure that it survives and serves the schools for the next 100 years. While structurally sound, thanks to Thompson’s creativity, ingenuity, and forethought to place the bricks around a reinforced foundation of rebar, the Chapel roof and interior require significant attention. Replacing the roof to make the Chapel watertight will enable us to refinish the interior walls while carefully preserving Thompson Webb’s work. We will also update the lighting and electrical systems.
McMillin Park
Once the home of The Stone Hut, McMillin Park hosts a small grove of mature live oaks and plenty of shade. The space is named for beloved former Webb teacher Larry McMillin, and centrally located at The Crossroads on Webb’s campus. The park is ideally suited to become a more useful gathering space for students, faculty and visitors. With the addition of a permanent stage and permanent seating to take advantage of the natural contours, we will create an inviting amphitheater and park for student meetings, outdoor classes and student performances. We will also include an art installation celebrating former faculty. And in addition to the infrastructure upgrades, we will improve the landscaping and grading of McMillin Park so that additional seating maybe added, when needed, for larger gatherings, adding to the flexibility of this historic area of campus.
The Les Perry Gymnasium
Webb’s athletic program is core to its mission. The schools athletic facilities include the McCarthy Fitness Center, Chandler Field, Brown Family Tennis Courts, Mary Stuart Rogers Sports Center and Faculty Field, Barbara Mott McCarthy Aquatics Center and the Les Perry Gymnasium. As we approach The Centennial, it is important that we honor the spirit of athletic competition and fair play by bringing these facilities to their best possible condition. Initial projects will include significant work on the Les Perry Gymnasium and its facilities.
Support Environmental Sustainability
Being good stewards is in our DNA—stewards of our mission and school, our communities, and the environment. Webb is currently initiating an expansive solar project that, when completed, will supply as much as 80 percent of our campus electricity. As we continue to build and renovate our campus, Webb is committed to reducing its carbon footprint, increasing its use of renewable clean energies like solar power, and conserving water and other natural resources. With additional funds, we can build and renovate toward the highest levels of sustainability, including the install of a menu of energy meters, monitors and controls throughout the campus.
Open Webb to the World
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Foster Academic Innovation
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the
impact
OF GIVING
Academic Innovation and Unbounded Thinking
One great example of academic innovation and unbounded thinking at Webb is the growth and success of its Humanities Program. Unique among boarding and independent schools, the program is deeply admired as a model among the most selective colleges and universities.
“We stand out in our unwavering commitment to interdisciplinary work, and in our persistence to grow the breadth and depth of our academic offerings,” Humanities Co-Chair Jess Fisher explained.
While skills development is central to this work, so is creating curriculum tethered to the passions of students, as well as teachers. Webb teachers have developed courses such as The Cold War Era and Economic Thought in the Modern Age. And Fisher offered other examples. “Our Humanities faculty have developed dozens of electives on myriad topics, including environmental sustainability, religious sites, gothic literature, LGBT history, and the politics of the US-Mexico border, just to name a few. In the coming years, we hope to expand our offerings in Film Studies and Music History. We are fortunate to be able to collaborate closely with the Webb Fine Arts department to support our interdisciplinary work.”
Even while the Humanities faculty integrates digital media skills into their classes, they are also share a commitment to developing foundational skills like writing, too.
“Our approach to teaching writing aligns with the work being done at Bard College. In fact, through the use of faculty development funds at Webb, we’ve been able to send four teachers to Bard’s Summer Writing Workshops. Fundamentally, this approach allows us to create space for students to write more frequently and informally, and not just as performance and assessment. Instead, writing becomes a way of thinking, an approach that opens students up and allows them to develop their voice, and gather and refine their ideas.”
While the Humanities Program at Webb is now eight years old, it continues to mature and grow. The goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion remain central to their innovations. Teachers are always thinking about how to include and elevate more voices and narratives. Teachers are also looking at not only what they teach and at the courses offered, but also how they design lessons and assessments, and how they measure student success as it relates to issues of equity.
The success of The Centennial Campaign is vital to the quality of our instruction in the years ahead. Fisher added, “We need to increase our investment in academic spaces, with state-of-the-art classrooms and resources. We also need to continue to invest in more faculty housing for current and future faculty, if we want to continue to attract and retain the best talent. These two investments are vitality important to Webb’s success today and in the future. And as we concentrate deliberately on diversity, equity and inclusion here, we must focus on offering highly competitive teaching salaries. These are expensive undertakings, I know, but Webb’s success in its next century depends upon these investments.”
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