Stories

Santa Clara University Turns 172 Years Old

On March 20 we will celebrate Founders’ Day at Santa Clara. The founders of the university are Fr. John Nobili, S.J. and Fr. Michael Accolti, S.J. In 1851, Bishop Joseph Alemany, O.P. accepted Mission Santa Clara de Asìs from the Franciscans and entrusted the land and buildings to the Jesuits, who dedicated the early college to St. Joseph.    

As we know from SCU’s Land Acknowledgement, the land at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay is the traditional homeland of the Ohlone people who have lived in the region for approximately 10,000 years. The goal of the Franciscan missions was to convert the indigenous populations to Catholicism and a European way of life. Nearly a century after the Mission’s founding, it fell into disarray for complex social, political and environmental reasons that have haunted encounters between indigenous people and Europeans in this region to this day.

Bishop Alemany charged Fathers Nobili and Accolti with establishing a college on the Mission Santa Clara land, which would be the first institution of higher education in California. Initially, classes at the preparatory and collegiate level educated the sons of Catholic families in the area, including Californios with a class catalog in both Spanish and English. The educational venture eventually became Santa Clara University and Bellarmine College Preparatory School, and has continued for nearly two centuries on this site.

On Founders’ Day, we honor the patron saints of the university. First, we celebrate  St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose feast day is March 19. We also honor St. Clare of Assisi, an early follower of St. Francis, and the foundress of the Poor Clares, a women’s monastic order, although her feast day is in August. A statue of St. Clare graces the front facade of the Mission Church and another statute blesses the center of the altarpiece above the sanctuary. The original carved wooden statue of St. Clare from the outside of the church now presides over the Executive Conference Room on the third floor of the Learning Commons.

Santa Clara University can point to many other ‘founding days’ on its path to become the university it is today. Its first purpose, according to Fr. Nobili, was: “To cultivate the heart, to form and cherish good habits, to prevent and eradicate evil ones.” While the original curriculum focused on the humanities, by 1912 with the addition of the law and engineering schools, the college became The University of Santa Clara. The Leavey School of Business launched in 1926.  Its official name of Santa Clara University was adopted in 1985.

Other firsts include the admission of women as students in 1961, and Black students in 1965, including Melvin Lewis '53, first Black student to enroll as an undergraduate at SCU. With those early steps toward inclusion, SCU has been on a journey to build a community that lives up to its commitment to care fully for the needs of all students, while remaining grounded in its Jesuit, Catholic mission. Just this past summer, we welcomed President Julie Sullivan, SCU’s first lay and woman leader.  

Over the years, SCU has expanded its understanding of what it means to educate the whole person, in knowledge and faith, in order to ‘build a more humane, just, and sustainable world,’  in the words of our vision statement. We are still a work in progress. As a community, we can fulfill the university’s mission only when we envision together what it means to be whole, cared for, and respected - and then we link arms to make this a reality in solidarity and kinship.

Alison M. Benders, Vice President for Mission and Ministry