UCSB Engineering

Mark ('66) and Susan Aas ('67) Bertelsen recently made a generous gift to the College of Engineering, where a conference room and adjoining terrace in the new Engineering Science Building has been named in their honor.

The Bertelsens are Lancaster Society Members and Life Members of the UCSB Alumni Association. Mark became a Trustee of The UCSB Foundation in 1994.

What got you interested in making a gift to UCSB?

Mark: UCSB has been a fabulous place for a long time, and it gave me a wonderful educational foundation, essentially for free. As a public university, the tuition was virtually nothing, and I could earn the money for room and board through summer jobs.

Why a gift to the Engineering School?

Mark: I was a political science major when I was at UCSB and I've also made a gift to them. But my whole professional work life has been dealing with technology companies so there's a connection there. The School of Engineering has distinguished itself and continues to do so. For example, the new Technology Management program is very valuable. I don't know that the world needs another business school, but it's important for our economy that we foster entrepreneurialism, and the whole School of Engineering here does that.

Is philanthropy fun?

Mark: Yes, it's rewarding. And it's important. Susan and I together have had almost 40 years of education in public institutions. We want to give back to public education. The fun part is to see how are gifts are put to work.

Do you have a philosophy of philanthropy?

Mark: There are two principle components. There's the gut level, which are things you believe in. And the second component is the concept of stewardship. When you have benefited from something, you want to give back.

Did you learn to be philanthropic from your parents?

Mark: My parents taught me that I had an obligation to give back. We never thought that we'd be in a position to do this, especially when we were young.

Susan: In my family we were taught to help other people, to use our time and talents.

Was it difficult to decide to what project or purpose your gift to UCSB should go?

Mark: At UCSB, you can be a wise philanthropist and put your money where it can do a tremendous amount of good.

Other than money, what do you think great universities need?

Mark: Great leadership, which UCSB has. And they need the support of the people. My understanding about my parents' generation is that they didn't have any debate about having great public universities, and it strikes me as odd that we have to work to influence the public today to maintain their support.

Susan: Maybe the public universities don't start soon enough with current students. We should suggest to undergraduates and graduate students now that they will need to give back, perhaps a few years, or even many years, after they graduate. But they, too, should continue to re-invest in the University of California.