Dear Members of the University Community,

As I mentioned in my State of the University remarks, the Board of Trustees recently approved a vice president position for mission and ministry. This position is the culmination of over a year of planning and consultation that began with the Mission Priority Examen (MPE) process. The MPE featured conversations across our campuses about how we can better live out our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic university with integrity, with attention to our particular context, and in service to the common good. The process was a collaborative undertaking rooted in the Ignatian tradition of conversation and collective discernment. It concluded with a self-study and with a report from a peer visiting team. The peer visiting team report affirmed the self-study findings and recommended establishing a vice president position to provide better institutional and strategic leadership regarding our mission. The position also represents best practice: of the 27 Jesuit universities in the U.S., 18 have a vice president position focusing on mission.

With the peer visiting team’s recommendation in mind, Dorian Llywelyn, S.J., executive director of the Ignatian Center, Dennis Smolarski, S.J, director of Campus Ministry, and I consulted with others on and off campus about how best to organize the position. I am grateful for their leadership and support as we imagined how to structure our mission-related efforts. As the Ignatian Center, Campus Ministry and the Mission Church have always been closely aligned to our Jesuit, Catholic mission, we concluded that the new vice president for mission and ministry would oversee a division comprised of each of these areas, effective July 1, 2020. Campus Ministry and the Ignatian Center will continue to exist, and this new structure will facilitate more engagement, collaboration, and synergy.

I am sensitive to the costs and impact of restructuring, so it is important to note that the vice president position will replace the current position of executive director of the Ignatian Center, just as the recently announced position of a vice president for diversity and inclusion will replace the current associate provost for diversity and inclusion position. I am confident that in both cases, the new appointments and the offices reporting to them will be able to do their work more efficiently and effectively for the good of the whole University. Moreover, I envision significant alignment between the two new cabinet-level positions, as diversity, inclusion and campus culture are directly related to living authentically our Jesuit, Catholic mission.

Even as I am very hopeful about what these particular roles will bring to our community, I want to emphasize that each of us has a vital part to play in creating a more diverse and inclusive campus and in expressing our distinctive mission at Santa Clara. These priorities are everyone’s concern.

With the input of the University Coordinating Committee and others, I have appointed a search committee to conduct an open national search for the vice president for mission and ministry position. I am grateful to the following people who have agreed to serve on the committee:

• Kori Lennon ‘14 (Search Committee Chair), President-Elect, Staff Senate; Resident Director-Cura, Residence Life
• Jim Bennett, Associate Professor, Religious Studies; Associate Provost, Undergraduate Studies
• Donna Bolio, Executive Assistant to the Athletics Director, Athletics
• Sarah Bonini, J.D. ‘93, Assistant Director, Community Engagement-Service and Spirituality
• Bill Carter ‘71, M.S. ‘95, Trustee
• Drew Descourouez ‘20
• Yesenia Magdaleno ‘20
• Laura Nichols ‘90, Associate Professor, Sociology
• Rob Scholla, S.J., Faculty Director-Loyola; Lecturer, Religious Studies; Director, Catholic Studies Program
• Sally Vance-Trembath, Senior Lecturer, Religious Studies

Throughout the search process, the search committee will periodically share updates with the community. As is our custom, finalist candidates will be invited to campus and meet with various University representatives to ensure broad input and the best candidate for Santa Clara University. It is my hope to have a person in place before the start of the 2020-2021 academic year.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. O'Brien, S.J.
President