Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year, and welcome back to campus and a new winter term. I hope that you found time to rest and relax over holiday break with family and friends.

The beautiful Festival of Lights concert, University Tree Lighting, and Christmas and Holidays Party were all lovely events to ease us from a very difficult fall term into a holiday frame of mind. Thank you to everyone who created those moments and all those who came together to celebrate as a community.

I know that many faculty and staff were not able to unplug over the break as they might have previously. Many of you— including the COVID-19 Operations leadership team, which met daily—were helping SCU plan for an expected surge of positive COVID-19 cases in our region and our campus. That entailed analyzing, planning, and communicating our plans for keeping campus safe in this uncertain environment. Others were spending time pivoting your courses to accommodate online learning, yet again, while others planned for resources and activities to support students in mind, body and spirit upon our return to campus. Still others were conducting traditional end-of-year work like gift processing, budgeting, facilities maintenance or planning that keeps our university on strong financial and operational footing. Our community is grateful to those who sacrificed time with family or loved ones to look out for our students and our campus in these frustrating and uncertain times.

I know too that many of you have been dealing with additional burdens stemming from our need to offer online course options for the first four weeks of this term. Whether it's pivoting your courses, working with students to adjust and understand their courses, or dealing with family questions or frustrations, many of you are dealing with unusual challenges as winter term begins. Your work is appreciated and deeply valued as we strive to keep our campus safe and move through what we trust is a temporay surge in positive COVID-19 cases on our campus. Thank you for your care and concern for our students and each other, and for your flexibility and strength working with us to respond to these times. To continue staying up to date, remember to regularly check Prepared SCU.

I have been so gratified and impressed with the outpouring of commitment across our Bronco Family for finding creative and meaningful solutions to support our students’ mental health in these trying times. The Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, administration, students, parents, alumni, and friends are committed to strengthening our capacity, training, staffing, and services for student mental health needs. We have heard from everyone from sorority leaders to alumni to families— all sharing ideas, offers of help, and even substantial gifts to increase our mental-health resources. Links to new and existing mental-health resources are being updated regularly at the website of the Vice Provost for Student Life.

I recently took the Kognito course, At-Risk Mental Health, an online training program to help faculty, staff and students identify students in distress, learn the best way to respond, and know when to call upon the experts and resources across campus. I feel more empowered to understand and help our students as a result of this course. I encourage each of you to invest the 40 minutes or so in Kognito (enrollment key is santaclaraemployee). It truly does “take a village” to ensure students in distress are noticed, accompanied, and provided the resources they need.

As part of our celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Santa Clara University will host a special honored speaker, Dr. Clarence B. Jones. Dr. Jones served as personal lawyer and advisor to the late Dr. King, and has played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement for the past six decades. He advised Dr. King through such historic events as the March on Washington (including Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech) and the writing of the Letter from Birmingham Jail—which Dr. Jones helped smuggle out to the world. Dr. Jones will be interviewed by SCU Law students during a virtual event on Tuesday, January 18 at noon. Look for an invitation and a registration link via email very soon. The event is being hosted by SCU Law, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, SCU Law’s Center for Social Justice, Black Law Students Association, and Social Justice Coalition.

I invite all staff members to mark your calendars for January 13 at 1 p.m. when I will be joining the Town Hall portion of the monthly Staff Senate meeting, to provide some brief updates. There will be time for a brief Q&A as well.

Also, everyone please mark your calendars for Feb. 15 at 4 p.m., when we will hold the annual State of the University address to campus. We are watching health conditions before deciding whether the event will be held in person on campus, or via Zoom or livestream. Stay tuned for an update.

I pray that we are able to ride out this new surge of COVID-19 safely together as a community, and that we continue to show one another grace, care and support.

Lisa