I3@USD-Fall 2025

A transformative gift from philanthropist Darlene Marcos Shiley is funding a new future-forward building on the University of San Diego (USD) campus: one that will promote collaboration between the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences in a way that its designers and university leaders hope will supercharge creativity and innovation in a rapidly changing world. Historic Gift Fuels a New Era of STEM at USD every aspect of the building’s design and function.

“I think the way students learn and faculty teach to be successful in the coming years has to change,” says Chell Roberts, dean of the Shiley Marcos School of Engineering. “And the building promises to create space where that can happen.” Donald and Darlene Shiley have been avid and generous supporters of USD for decades. But this $75 million dollar contribution — announced in honor of the school’s 75th anniversary at the 2024 Founders Gala — is the largest in its history, and among the largest ever given to a Catholic university. Much of it is being used to establish the Shiley STEM Initiative, including state-of the-art facilities. Donald Shiley was a biomedical engineer who invented the Bjork-Shiley tilting disc heart valve. Mrs. Shiley

wants to honor his legacy in a truly impactful way. “I was thinking big because if you're going to do this, do it right,” she said. “I’d love to see another Donald come out of USD. And I think Donald would be pleased because it was always his idea that we’d give away all our money.” Creating a space that encourages innovative collaboration while still meeting the needs of faculty and students is its own unique challenge, says Roberts. “The tension in this whole design is that we still exist today in silos, and we’re only peeking into the future where we’re supposing we can change that.” As a way to address that concern, a stakeholder committee led by associate deans from each school formed five focus groups to look at

The building itself will be used as a teaching tool, not just as a space where students learn inside of its walls. Rooftop solar panels may serve as hands-on models for students from both faculties, showing them in real time how electricity is produced, how it's utilized and how the panels contribute to the ecosystem of a sustainable building. There are also ideas to include spaces where students will learn about sustainable food production and areas where scientists and engineers can learn about sustainable water usage as well as sediments, soil and pollution. The building will be a place for learning, experimenting and creating — designed specifically for the benefit of undergraduate students, as a space where they can interact and overlap, sharing classes and rooms and ideas and inspiration. “We hope that will lead to what some people call happy collisions or serendipitous interactions,” says Ron Kaufmann, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Noelle Norton, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, describes the goal as generating synergies that can ideally ignite sparks. “It’s just talking in the hallways that will likely lead to a creative idea, that will lead to a course, that will lead to a curriculum requirement checked off for the