The City College business department received a $1 million donation last Tuesday that will help support the department’s six individual disciplines.

The donation was pledged to the college by the Nadel Foundation, led by entrepreneur Julie Nadel and her late husband Jack Nadel. Jack passed away late last year during preliminary discussions of this contribution.

The business division has six disciplines including the accounting education, business administration, finance/international business and marketing, computer applications and office management, computer information systems and professional development studies departments. The division will be renamed the Jack & Julie Nadel School of Business and Entrepreneurship in their honor.

This gift will establish an endowment fund for the school, which allows the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College to invest the proceeds from the donation. They then will be able to draw from the fund’s positive gains over several years. The interest that accumulates on the initial donation is then granted to the business division.

“This is the example of what really good relationship building and fundraising should look like,” said Geoff Green, director of the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College. “The Nadels just have a deep interest in giving people the tools for education.”

Green also said that Jack acted as a mentor for students, which led his deep interest in City College and the business entrepreneurship.

“This incredibly generous gift will ensure Jack’s legacy lives on and will impart wisdom and inspiration to SBCC’s future entrepreneurs and business students,” said City College President Anthony Beebe.

The proceeds of this endowment will be spent under the discretion of President Beebe and Melissa Moreno, dean of education programs-business.

“The decision to spend the funds is based on whatever the critical need of the division is at this time,” said Moreno. “We don’t have any of the proceeds yet to spend, so we haven’t made any official determination. We have certain priorities that we can identify, but there has been no decision yet.”

The business department intends to use additional grant funds to refurbish the lobby of the Business-Communication Center to become a “collaborative study and incubation area,” said Moreno, featuring new furniture among other interior renovations designed by Dawn Ziemer of KBZ Architects.

There is a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for late September to promote the new name and improved Business-Communication Center, where a number of notable figures from the college will be in attendance. The event, which will be open to the community, will begin in the renovated lobby and proceed into the Fé Bland Forum next door.