William & Mary expands new climate-focused major, deepens coastal research with $100 million gift

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — William & Mary has received a $100 million donation that aims to help the world's coastal communities adapt to changing temperatures, rising seas and more intense storms, the university announced Wednesday.

The gift from Virginia philanthropist Jane Batten is the largest in the school's 331-year history and will establish the new Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences. It will help the school hire more faculty and deepen long-standing research in the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean and beyond. The money also will help expand a new major in marine science for undergraduates.

William & Mary is based in Williamsburg, Virginia. But the new Batten School will be located alongside the university's Virginia Institute for Marine Science, which is 17 miles (27 kilometers) east of campus near the Chesapeake Bay.

Coastal Virginia is one of the nation's most vulnerable regions to sea-level rise. Rural and urban communities alike have been increasingly plagued by flooding from rising tides and intensifying storms, while the area is becoming a hub for developing ways to adapt.

William & Mary has seen growing demand in surveys of its 7,000 undergraduates for a major that helps take on challenges posed by climate change, university President Katherine A. Rowe told The Associated Press.

“These challenges are local, they're national and they're international,” Rowe said. “And what we specialize in is high impact science for solutions. That speaks to what policymakers need, what city managers need, what homeowners need.”

Rowe said the new major will be the coastal version of an agricultural degree. And it will serve as a springboard into fields ranging from coastal ecology and marine biology to city planning and coastal supply chain logistics.

Students will make use of the university's Virginia Institute of Marine Science, known as VIMS, which has spent more than 80 years researching and developing solutions for coastal communities.

For example, it helped resurrect Virginia's oyster industry, which was plagued by disease and pollution in the 20th century. It also studies the harmful algae blooms in the Chesapeake Bay, which are fueled by runoff from the region's farms and cities.

“We’re kind of one degree of separation from almost everything that touches coastal life,” said Derek Aday, VIMS' director and dean of the new Batten School. “We have the largest seagrass restoration project in the world. We have the longest running shark survey in the world. We have some of the best comprehensive flood modeling.”

Batten, who provided the $100 million gift, is the widow of Frank Batten Sr., who died in 2009. He had built a communications empire that included The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk and co-founded The Weather Channel. He served as board chairman of The Associated Press in the 1980s.

Rowe said she's unaware of a gift this large to any university that focuses on coastal and marine science education, research and solutions. The new major is expected to be available to students starting in the fall of 2025.