$10 million gift to university from Ronni and Shepard Goodman will support first‑generation students in the social and behavioral sciences

California State University, Northridge, has renamed its newest academic building in honor of alumni Ronni and Shepard Goodman, following a 10 million gift aimed squarely at boosting first‑generation students in the social and behavioral sciences.

The commitment, announced recently across CSUN channels and marked by the unveiling of Ronni and Shepard Goodman Hall, is the largest single gift in the history of the university’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a deeply personal act of philanthropy by a couple who once walked the campus as first‑generation students themselves.

The Goodmans’ story with CSUN stretches back to the 1960s, when the university was still known as San Fernando Valley State College and public higher education in California was rapidly expanding access to students from working‑ and middle‑class families. Shepard earned his business degree in 1964; Ronni completed a history degree in 1966, the same year the pair married and began building a life that would eventually allow them to give back at scale.

Both later described themselves as first‑generation college students whose trajectories were transformed by faculty who took their potential seriously, a theme that runs through the way they structured their philanthropy.

Their 10-million-dollar gift is designed to hit students where the need is most acute: in tuition, time, and opportunity. Within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the funds will endow scholarships with a particular emphasis on first‑generation students, support paid research experiences and immersive learning opportunities, and expand access to internships and community‑based projects that often remain out of reach for those juggling heavy work schedules to pay for school.

Campus leaders say the resources will allow more undergraduates to participate in faculty research, fieldwork and public‑facing initiatives across departments like psychology, political science, sociology and anthropology, strengthening the college’s role in understanding and improving the communities CSUN serves.

The building that now bears their names is itself a symbol of CSUN’s academic ambitions. Opened in 2024, Maple Hall was the first new academic building on campus since 2009, adding flexible, technology‑rich classrooms on the west side of campus and quickly becoming a central hub for social and behavioral sciences instruction. Hundreds of course sections meet there each semester, meaning thousands of students will pass through Ronni and Shepard Goodman Hall daily, encountering the couple’s name not in a donor brochure but on their classroom doors and lecture schedules.

The renaming was approved by the California State University Board of Trustees and publicly announced through CSUN’s newsroom, social media, and student media, with video and photo coverage of the new signage and celebratory events.

University President Erika D. Beck has framed the gift as emblematic of the institution’s mission, calling the Goodmans’ story “a powerful example of the transformative power of higher education” and stressing that their philanthropy will reverberate beyond campus to “strengthen entire families and communities.”

For Shepard, the decision to put both names on the building carries added weight. Ronni died in June of the previous year, and he has been explicit in describing the gift as a tribute to her “love, service, generosity, and promise.”

By tying their philanthropy to first‑generation students—“like we were,” he has emphasized—Goodman is turning their personal story of upward mobility into a permanent resource for those following in their footsteps. Every scholarship award letter and every research project launched in Goodman Hall, he suggests, will extend her legacy in ways that are both practical and profound.

The gift also lands at an important moment for CSUN, which in recent years has emerged as a magnet for high‑profile philanthropy while sharpening its message around social mobility and equity. Record contributions—including more than 100 million dollars from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott—have fueled new programs and priorities, but the Goodman commitment stands out as a major, targeted investment from within the university’s own alumni community.

In an era when many campus naming rights go to corporations, CSUN’s newest academic building will instead carry the story of two first‑generation students whose belief in the power of a public university education led them, decades later, to write a transformative check for the next generation.