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Convocation Address, 2015

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CONVOCATION ADDRESS
Mayer Theatre, SCU
15 September 2015

Welcome

Thank you for the introduction, and welcome to the annual convocation to commence the academic year. I am pleased to see so many of you here, and I greet all who are watching via live streaming on the internet.

Let me preface my remarks with a story about summer travel. My vicarious travel. In early August I received an email from one of our rising seniors, Elahdio Aliaga, who reported about his summer immersion trip in Africa. Elahdio Aliaga wrote from the city of Kumasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, where he and 3 other students – Lauren Gardner, Emily Takimoto, and Elizabeth Anderson -- were working as Global Fellows out of the Leavey School of Business. They were engaged with a Ghanaian NGO, Bright Generation, that promotes the empowerment of women and children through social programs and sustainable businesses. They were immersing themselves in the gritty social reality that is integral to a Santa Clara education. Elahdio explained: “We are experiencing how it is to live in Ghana first-handedly [sic], bathing in cold showers and experiencing the country’s constant energy shortages.”

 

Applying Silicon Valley know-how to meet a real need, Elahdio explained: “One of the ways Elizabeth, Emily, Lauren and [I] decided to serve the Ghanaian youth in rural communities and also make a lasting impact during our time in Bright Generation is by creating the "Menstrual Pads for Dignity" a crowd fund campaign. They had learned that most girls in rural Ghana repeatedly interrupted their schooling because of the absence of available sanitary napkins. These four students impressed me with their response to a basic human need by applying high-tech crowd funding through social media.

These four students reminded me what we are about at Santa Clara. They exemplify for us how compassion and the courage to act helps to complete the breadth of the educational experiences that all of us provide at Santa Clara. I shall return to this idea later in my address, but first I wish to welcome the new members of our community.

For our most recent arrivals on the faculty and staff, I join your colleagues in welcoming you. Please stand so that we can recognize you and show our welcome. Continuing our greetings, there are several new leaders in the administration. I am delighted with each of them assuming their new roles here at Santa Clara:

  • Dr. Debbie Tahmassebi now leads the College of Arts and Sciences
  • Caryn Beck-Dudley is now at the helm of the Leavey School of Business
  • Eva Blanco has been promoted to Dean of Undergraduate Admission
  • Dr. Carol Ann Gittens is also serving as interim dean this year for the School of Education and Counseling Psychology

 

Also assuming a leadership position, we welcome our new Athletic Director, Dr. Renee Mack Baumgartner, an experienced professional in athletic administration who has excelled at University of Oregon and at Syracuse University. I have also expanded my Cabinet so that Dr. Baumgartner can report directly to me as we leverage our athletic program to enhance the reputation of Santa Clara. Welcome!

 

Accomplishments of 2014-2015

As we begin this year I think it is important to recognize and acknowledge the many accomplishments of a remarkable 2014-2015. In the past academic year:

  • Princeton Review ranked Santa Clara as one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education –thanks to the hard work of faculty, staff, and administrators.
  • Forbes magazine recently named Santa Clara one of the 100 best universities in the United States, #85. The only Jesuits schools ahead of us were Boston College, Georgetown, and Holy Cross. We also ranked ahead of all UCs (except Berkeley and UCLA), and far ahead of all our WCC rivals. http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/#tab:rank
  • Faculty earned research grants that totaled approximately $6 million. Congratulations, faculty scholars and creative artists!
  • Student retention from first to second year was 96.7 percent, the highest among master's universities in the nation –due to hard work of so many: admissions, residence life, faculty, staff, RLCs.
  • Santa Clara received one of its largest single gifts in its history: $25 million for the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship from trustee Jeff Miller and spouse Karen Miller. Kudos to Thane Kreiner, director of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship!
  • In the Leavey School of Business, the My Own Business Institute (MOBI) sought out its new home at Santa Clara. I wish to recognize Drew Starbird as the first director of MOBI, who worked with MOBI founders Phil and Peggy Holland to facilitate their gift of $10 million to support MOBI.
  • All told, last year Santa Clara received a total of $83 million in gifts, the most raised in one year in the university's 164 year-history. Congratulations to Jim Lyons and all the University Relations staff! May this year be even more successful!
  • Additionally we received $5 million in in-kind gifts from Cisco for enhanced equipment.
  • Thanks to the generosity of alumnus Edward M. Dowd '72, we broke ground for the Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History building on 25 April and celebrated the topping off ceremony on 9 June. I am happy to report that the building is on schedule for completion in June 2016.
  • Over the summer, work on Facilities and our Information Services continued non-stop, and I congratulate Mike Hindery, Chris Shay, and Bob Owen for their respective accomplishments. These include:
    • Installation of Wireless nodes across campus
    • Upgrading and improving Information Technology
    • Disaster Preparedness Exercise on 29 July
    • Thanks to the generosity of Mary and Mark Stevens, the Stevens Stadium was renovated and readied for dedication this Sunday during our women's soccer game against Stanford. You are all invited!
    • Stevens Soccer Training Facility was completed and dedicated, a state-of-the-art building for women's and men's soccer.
    • Basketball Locker Rooms renovation underway.
    • Move of the School of Education and Counseling Psychology from Loyola to Guadalupe Hall, and shared with the School of Engineering.
  • Our students and young alumni received 1 Rhodes Scholarship, 4 Fulbrights, and 2 National Science Foundation Research Fellowship Awards. Congratulations to the award winners, but particularly to our Office of Student Fellowships staff and faculty, led by Professor Leilani Miller. Santa Clara was also named a Top Fulbright Producer.
  • This past June, the following staff members received recognition at the annual Staff Awards Ceremony. I share these images so that we can all appreciate our distinguished colleagues.

I also wish to recognize the many Faculty and Staff contributions to our collaborative governance system at Santa Clara. I am very pleased with how well things worked through our six University Policy Committees in receiving suggestions, discussing these matters thoroughly, and making recommendations to the Administration. Two examples I can cite are the adoption of the Academic Integrity Pledge that I shall discuss further and the Smoke-Free Campus policy.

The University Coordinating Committee under Arthur Liebscher SJ, and with funding from the university president, hired an administrative assistant to coordinate communications for our collaborative governance system. I thank Christine Coli for her work to date. I should note that numerous faculty and staff members generously served on the 6 University Policy Committees, conducted more meetings than I could count, and made many excellent recommendations to the Administration. I also wish to recognize last year's work of the Staff Senate, led by Claire Shaw and Jenny Sullivan, and the Faculty Senate ably guided by James Lai.

Looking Forward for 2015-2016

This evening at the Faculty Awards, we shall recognize professors newly named to Endowed Professorships. I offer a sneak preview so that we can all congratulate:

  • Jerome Baggett, JST;
  • Michelle Oberman of the Law School;
  • Eric Tillman in Chemistry and Biochemistry, and
  • Nicolette Meshkat in Mathematics and Computer Sciences

This year we are implementing the Academic Integrity Pledge for all students. A group of undergraduates first proposed the idea of the pledge three years ago, which then went through our collaborative governance system for review and discussion by faculty, staff, and administration. Approval came in 2014, along with testing through a pilot project in classes with other 2,000 students. Starting next week, we shall hold signing ceremonies in the Residential Learning Communities, in Benson Student Activity Center, and at other venues.

"I am committed to being a person of integrity. I pledge, as a member of the Santa Clara University community, to abide by and uphold the standards of academic integrity contained in the Student Conduct Code."

For those of you who follow professional football, you are well aware that Levi Stadium here in the city of Santa Clara is the site of the 50th Super Bowl, on 7 February. San Francisco will host the preceding week’s festivities, and the game-day celebrations will shift to Santa Clara. The City of Santa Clara has reached out to the University to host several events, and Butch Coyne of SCU Presents handled initial contacts with the City. Given the magnitude of the events, Mary Smoker from Alumni Relations has assumed those duties. Thank you both for work to date. As details are finalized, “Super Bowl Mary” will be informing the campus community. Stay tuned!

This quarter we shall finalize the design of the new law school building. This 95,000 square foot building will be erected to the east of Vari and Lucas Halls on the lot that is already fenced. The leader donors are law alumnus Howard Charney and his wife, Alida S. Charney, for whom the building will be named. This construction project has involved extensive faculty and staff consultation, one part of a broader project to propel this to being one of the nation’s premier Jesuit law schools.

Initial planning for the programs in the new STEM complex will continue this year. This work of envisioning what teaching and research will look like in this new complex has involved wide-spread faculty participation. I congratulate all who have participated so far under the facilitation of Amy Shachter and Lisa Millora. I strongly encourage all STEM faculty to continue to share insights and contribute to this conceptual stage of planning.

In a parallel development, we are leveraging NCAA intercollegiate sports as one means to improve the Santa Clara student experience, enhance our regional and national recognition, and encourage the engagement of alumni and friends. Dr. Baumgartner is implementing the recommendations that the trustees received from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Athletics and which the trustees approved in June 2015.

This will be an exciting year for the Center of Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences. The Center is hosting its first Salon during the Winter Term 2016, with photography, dance, poetry, debate, and music. The theme of the Salon is “(in)humanity,” to celebrate ideas about the humanity of culture and the challenges that come from injustices in our world. Later, on 4 May the Center will be co-hosting newly appointed United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera for a day of activities. The Center is partnering with Information Services to support a digital innovation. A team of faculty, staff, and administrators will investigate existing and potential digital projects and resources on campus and at aspirational institutions in order to provide recommendations to help define the mission, goals and infrastructure needs at Santa Clara.

In April 2009 I gave my Inauguration speech and spoke of my vision for Santa Clara to be a leader in Sustainability and Justice. I believe that we could build on our extensive activities to promote justice in the world by focusing on environmental issues that affect the poor and marginalized. Recently, Pope Francis addressed those same themes in a letter, “Laudato Si,” which has received international attention. One of the chief architects of the letter is Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, a native of Ghana, and president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

With the aid of David DeCosse, I invited Cardinal Turkson to speak at Santa Clara. He has agreed and will join us on 3 November to reflect on how the Pope’s vision engages Silicon Valley. David DeCosse and his generous committee of faculty and staff have planned a two-day conference titled, "Our Future on a Shared Planet: Silicon Valley in Conversation with the Environmental Teachings of Pope Francis." More information will soon be announced.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities - the AACU - invited Santa Clara University to join a distinguished set of institutions that offer a transformative liberal arts education to every one of their undergraduates. We shall send two representatives to the project meeting and the LEAP Challenge Symposium at AACU’s Annual Meeting in January 2016: Professor Jim Bennett, the Associate Provost for undergraduate studies, and Professor Chris Bachen, the University's Director of Assessment.

 

The AACU is examining those different kinds of integrative and applied student projects—undergraduate research, civic engagement, independent study, capstone projects, internships, practica, reflective and integrative ePortfolios, etc. Such hands-on learning is widely recognized as educationally valuable high-impact practices. Employers recognize it as being sound preparation for the workplace. Recent research has shown it to be correlated with important life outcomes, such as greater work engagement and satisfaction. In summation, the AACU has identified Santa Clara as an exemplar of liberal education, and they will be including us as a case study to help others learn from our example of helping students become critical thinkers in analysis and argument. See The LEAP Challenge: Education for a World of Unscripted Problems, http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/LEAPChallengeBrochure.pdf and http://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2015/winter-spring/schneider

Reflections for the New Year

Recognition of our current liberal arts education prompts me to reflect on how we are looking to the future. I began my reflections this afternoon with a story of our students and now I turn to a recent alumna.

Judith Martinez, class of 2013, was Associated Student Government president in her senior year. She majored in philosophy with a pre-law emphasis, and minored in entrepreneurship and communications. She recently wrote on the blog Medium that a surprising experience after graduation changed all her carefully developed plans for her life. She had applied to law school, received the cherished acceptance packet, and suddenly, “my heart sank.” Judith was staggered. “What do you do when you realize the one thing you always wanted may not have been what you wanted all along?”

After 4 months of reexamining her expectations for her life, Judith created InHerShoes. She wrote that this as an “organization committed to shifting the conversation of what it means to be a ‘successful’ woman today, and creating a tipping point for female entrepreneurship.” InHerShoes assists girls and women to answer for themselves, “What would you do if you were 1% more courageous?” The organization provides resources for women “to courageously step into their futures. Nearly a year later, we are on course to be in five new cities over the next five years to #CatalyzeCourage in communities all over the globe.”

Judith thrived at Santa Clara because of our emphasis on the education of the whole person. Here she experienced, “a freedom to discover and play inside of my passions”. She is not certain if she could have done that anywhere else. Reviewing her Santa Clara experience, Judith concluded that “being Jesuit educated does not end on graduation day. That’s actually when your Jesuit education truly begins.”

Judith and Elahdio provide us with two examples of why we do what we do at Santa Clara. Their actions and reflections reveal how our students respond to what and how they learn at Santa Clara. They also implicitly challenge us to continue to review our work and ask new questions about our effectiveness as educators in the ever changing world of American higher education. If we apply to ourselves the question Judith raised, we might ask: “What would I do if I were 1% more courageous?”

We answer that question individually and institutionally. For example, we challenge our curricular offerings through initiatives such as the Collaborative for Teaching Innovation, a pilot project that assists faculty and staff to keep pace with technological change. Funded by the Provost and the President, the Collaborative has been co-directed by Eileen Razzari Elrod (Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development), Christine Bachen (Director of the Office of Assessment), and Nancy Cutler (Director of Media Services). The Collaborative works across program boundaries to support imaginative teaching informed by new technologies, deliberate course design, reflective teaching practices, and meaningful assessment of student learning.

Being 1% more courageous also means examining how we educate for diversity and awareness of privilege. Our Office of Diversity and Inclusion welcomed Raymond Plaza to assist Aldo Billingslea in this sensitive mission. Aldo and Jeanne Rosenberger are also coordinating responses to student concerns about our collective sensitivity to issues faced by people of color at Santa Clara. It is a challenging endeavor to examine our own assumptions and actions. I recognize that, and also acknowledge that we must show our students that we are confident enough to look inward, as an institution and as individuals.

Other issues in our world beg for our attention and thoughtful action. We have seen, for example, the images of the refugees fleeing Syria and the Middle East, and the question arises: what is our response? We are living through one of the most severe droughts in the recorded history of California. What do we do and what do we teach? We read of violence against women, particularly on college campuses across the country. Where is our concern? If we were 1% more courageous, how might we react to those or other issues in our offices and in our classrooms?

Our challenge as educators is to provide students with the knowledge, ethics, and skills to make right judgments in such a complicated world. We broaden student horizons of the possibilities through the disciplines we teach within the context of the humanistic experience of the liberal arts. We prepare our students to think critically, reason logically, communicate clearly, collaborate effectively, and reflect carefully. In all our work, we go a step further than competence by educating for compassion and for courage to ask the deeper questions of an informed conscience.

We educate leaders to build a better world. Asking ourselves and our university questions of what courage demands of us in order to provide worthy goals for this new year. I have said it before and I repeat it today. The world needs Santa Clara: Santa Clara graduates, Santa Clara faculty and staff, Santa Clara students. The issues that face the world beg for Santa Clara faculty research and teaching, for the best work of a talented staff, for the direct engagement of students with the gritty social realities of society.

With courage, we continue our unique mission at Santa Clara in this new academic year. By happy coincidence, our new academic year falls on Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish feast that celebrates the “birthday of the world” and the start of the High Holy Days. I borrow the Hebrew greeting of L’Shanah Tovah to wish you a harmonious and productive new year. May our collaborative work include the courage to reflect deeply about how we educate to change the world. May our students like Elahdio Aliaga and alumni like Judith Martinez use these enhanced Santa Clara experiences to continue to build a world that is more just, more sustainable, and more humane.

Thank you very much.

 

Michael E. Engh, S.J.
President