Brian D. Bates Memorial Scholarship

The SJSU Alumni Association has established a memorial scholarship in honor of our friend Brian Bates.

Brian served as the Associate Vice President for Alumni and Community Engagement for fifteen years. During his tenure, he made a tremendous impact on the university and the greater San Jose community through his leadership. He led efforts to establish a campus-wide commencement ceremony and raised scholarship giving from 30K to more than 80K annually. 

Brian enjoyed many hobbies and activities such as photography, travel, and trail walking but his favorite pastime was baseball. You could find him with his stats book in the stands, or listening intently to the feed of a game while relaxing at home. Often when visiting a friend in a different part of the country if it was baseball season he'd make sure to squeeze a game into his schedule.

Brian was a leader on our campus and within the alumni relations community. As a colleague and friend Brian was thorough, patient and kind. He was smart and strategic and lifted others around him up. He was also highly principled and never deviated from doing the right thing even in the toughest of circumstances.  He was committed  to integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into the core of alumni and community engagement.

SJSU Alumni Association has established an endowed scholarship that captures the spirit of justice that Brian advocated in everything he did. The award will be given to a student that is an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion by demonstrating an above and beyond commitment to social justice within their academic projects, their profession or community.

You can help make this scholarship a reality by contributing to it today! Help us raise $25,000 to receive the full match from the Alumni Association by making your gift today or sharing it with others in your network.