A New Heart of Campus

The student population of Cal State East Bay is among the most diverse in the nation and our graduates contribute to the rich cultural, creative and prepared workforce of the Bay Area. Many students come from low-income families and are the first in their family to attend college. Our students, true to our mascot's name, are Pioneers.

These students come to Cal State East Bay looking to earn a university degree and broaden possibilities for themselves and their families, with more than 80 percent of them remaining in the Bay Area to begin careers. They enter the university to develop the skills and experiences necessary to help them achieve their goals, and our task is to align the resources, expertise and assistance available to help them accomplish those goals.

The forthcoming CORE building, which includes the Hub for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will be a destination for “high impact” learning that connects our students’ aptitudes and abilities with the needs of employers and California. A place where students will have access to the tools and facilities to look outward and engage in significant opportunities, problems and issues that cannot be solved by any one discipline or individual student. The space will also include traditional library services, including the Student Center for Academic Achievement (SCAA) and learning support. 

Here, students will explore problems in multidisciplinary teams, develop ideas and discover solutions. Students, working with faculty members, will network with content experts and other thought leaders to find answers to complex issues.

The Hub will help students engage in learning in a different way. They are here, motivated and we support them in developing their tools, but now they can explore multiple ways in which they can use them. The possibilities are limitless.

When students come to Cal State East Bay, they have already been challenged and proven to be resilient, driven and smart.

Our students succeed at adapting to make what we have work for what they need. However, the Hub is our opportunity to design around and for our students and what our community and regional employers need.

We want our students to be successful and competitive in becoming the next generation’s workforce. This Hub helps even the odds for students who have not had access or experience with cutting edge tools and facilities.

We will provide the space, the technology, the tools and expertise, and they provide the ideas, drive the innovation and coordinate the project to ensure outcomes. Within the Hub there will be technical support, tools and supplies the students will need. The Hub will include printing and scanning machines as well as modeling and prototyping technology. Milling equipment can be used to create custom circuit boards and craft precision parts or tools for projects; and virtual and augmented reality tools will help students imagine beyond the boundaries of what their experience makes them believe.

This is much more than just a place for studying or making or building things:  It requires a fresh mindset of sharing, creativity, problem solving and free enterprise; it embraces the idea of a community engaged in solving problems together for the benefit of our students, communities and the world. It is CORE.