Safe Space Workshops are scheduled during each academic quarter. Please click on the link below for the latest schedule of offerings.
About LGBTQ+ Safe Space at SCU
Santa Clara University affirms the right of all community members to live and learn in a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment. The Safe Space program enhances Santa Clara's educational commitment to its students, faculty, and staff by improving the environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) members of our community. The LGBTQ+ Safe Space program gives Santa Clara University faculty and staff opportunities to deepen their knowledge about LGBTQ and gender issues, student identity development, and religion and sexuality, with the goals of:
- Providing a supportive environment for LGBTQ+ members of the campus community
- Creating visible safe spaces across the campus for LGBTQ+ members of the campus community
- Creating and developing more Allies
The Safe Space program is conducted in partnership with the Office for Multicultural Learning (OML), which coordinates the Safe Space training for students.
Requirements for a Safe Space Designation
Both individuals and departments can participate in Safe Space training to help build safe spaces and strengthen the network of campus partners interested in gender, sexuality, and diversity on campus.
To receive the Safe Space designation, faculty and staff will be required to participate in the 1.5-hour Safe Space workshop training. Those who currently display the old safe space sticker are encouraged to attend a new training if it has been more than three years since you attended a workshop.
How the Safe Space Program Supports our Jesuit, Catholic Mission
Santa Clara University recognizes and cherishes the dignity of each individual, regardless of age, culture, faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability, or social class. Each member of the Santa Clara community is expected to treat each other with care and respect, and to value and treasure differences in the spirit of the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, which calls for treating people with respect for their unique qualities, gifts, and challenges as individuals. As a Jesuit, Catholic institution, we are committed to finding God in all things and in each other. The Safe Space program grows out of our faith commitment, including the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family's Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers, 1997. The program serves to create an inclusive environment where the fundamental human rights of persons who identify as LGBT are defended;that is free from any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence;and where persons who identify as LGBT are welcomed and accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Because of this faith commitment, many Jesuit universities have Safe Zone programs, including Georgetown University, Marquette University, University of San Francisco, Boston College, John Carroll University, and Loyola University Chicago (adapted from Marquette University's Safe Zone Program).