W&M gets $100 million boost for coastal research

Jane Batten, the matriarch of a Hampton Roads family known for philanthropy, pledged $100 million to William & Mary in July to boost coastal and marine science research toward finding global solutions for flooding and sea-level rise.

The newly named Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences will expand the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and allow it to hire more scientists whose research could have a worldwide impact, officials say.

Batten, whose late husband, Frank Batten, co-founded The Weather Channel and was chairman and CEO of Landmark Communications, set a record for the 331-year-old university’s largest donation. W&M officials also say the gift is “by a factor of four” the largest donation ever made to any research institution focused on marine and coastal science.

W&M hopes to raise $100 million more through private, state and federal sources to complement Batten’s donation, which will go toward the creation of a bachelor’s degree in coastal and marine sciences and building out the VIMS facility on the York River in Gloucester Point. President Katherine Rowe says about $50 million will go toward new learning and research spaces, although W&M is still determining whether to renovate existing structures, construct new buildings or both.

Rowe says that she and Batten have been discussing the gift for the past five years, and both women saw the possibility of expanding VIMS’ marine research to benefit coastal communities worldwide.

“There is no institution better positioned to address the environmental threats, the economic challenges that are faced in the world’s coastlines and oceans,” Rowe says. “We see the Batten School as powering at a much higher level the kinds of ‘science for solutions’ that William & Mary has been producing for decades, and to do that for Virginia, and more broadly to do that globally.”

Batten, whose family has made significant donations in the past to Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, W&M and other institutions, said in a statement that she is “confident that this will spark significant change, building resilience in coastal communities in the commonwealth and across the globe for generations to come.”

Derek Aday, VIMS’ director and dean of the Batten School, says he hopes other philanthropists will follow Batten’s lead and contribute funding toward climate change research, coastal resilience and other environmental factors. “There will be imitators, as there should be.”