Santa Clara University

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Oct. 13, 2005. How does an undergrad from the Gulf Coast get over the culture shock of coming to a university thousands of miles away, where everything from the weather to the way students get to class is undeniably West Coast? The answer may be found in “Skateboard Etiquette 101,” a special one-hour course being offered to the visiting students today at Santa Clara University in the Donohoe Building from 4 to 5 p.m. After learning the basics of skateboarding, safety tips, and campus regulations, the students will cruise away on boards of their own and join the dozens of other undergrads who choose to skate their way across campus.

“The idea behind Skateboard Etiquette 101 was twofold: one, to give the New Orleans students something they could use in their daily campus life and two, a memento from Santa Clara that they can take home when they leave,” said Pete Sclafani, assistant director of the SCU Alumni Association.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Santa Clara enrolled 46 students from Loyola University New Orleans, Tulane University, and Xavier University. In light of the tremendous losses many of the students and their families suffered, SCU waived tuition for the visiting students and gave special consideration on room and board charges depending on financial need.

Skateboard Etiquette 101 is being offered by Life After SCU, a program sponsored by the Alumni Association that also offers graduating seniors a series of “real-life” classes each spring to help them make the transition to post-college life. Gravity Skateboards of Southern California gave a discounted rate on the skateboards to Life After SCU after learning about the special course and the students who would be receiving the boards.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,213 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is online at www.scu.edu.

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