University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN to Celebrate Opening of Center Named in Honor of Pioneering Inventor Ernie Schaeffer

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2007) — Cal State Northridge officials are celebrating the opening of the Ernie Schaeffer Center on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the university’s College of Engineering and Computer Science with a special reception on Thursday, Feb. 22.

The center was established to promote the development of innovation and entrepreneurship-related knowledge and skills among CSUN students, faculty, alumni and the community at large. It was created with a $2 million pledge by pioneering inventor and entrepreneur Ernie Schaeffer.

"Through his visionary leadership, Mr. Schaeffer has created a legacy that will help engage students directly with real-world inventors and entrepreneurs," said Northridge President Jolene Koester. "The center will support imaginative projects and exciting new ideas. It is from such an environment that true innovation emerges."

In addition to serving as a conduit between students with real-world inventors and entrepreneurs, the center also is also expected to strengthen faculty professional development, hold seminars, lectures and panel discussions and conduct other activities consistent with its mission and subject to the resources available to it.

The reception is scheduled to take place from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Grand Salon in the Sol Center on the east side of the campus off Zelzah Street.

Schaeffer, who made his pledge last spring, said the center was a natural extension of his work with a group of volunteers at the university, members of an informal entrepreneurs’ roundtable, who discussed ways to weave entrepreneurial themes into academic programs.

When he announced his pledge, Schaeffer said he was impressed with the school and its diversity of students.

"If we are going to succeed as a region and a country, we need people like CSUN’s students, with their wealth of diversity and ideas, to become educators and contributors to society," he said. "I don’t see that happening at some place like an Ivy League. I see that happening at CSUN."

Schaeffer, who was known for his innovative motor designs first for defense contractor Whittaker Corp. and then for his own company, Schaeffer Magnetics, said he hopes the center will encourage other "creative thinkers" to follow their dreams.