STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY
Mayer Theatre, SCU
13 February 2018
Steal Away.
Refrain:
Steal away. Steal away. Steal away to Jesus.
Steal away. Steal away home. I ain’t got long to stay here.
My Lord, he calls me. He calls me by the thunder.
The trumpet sounds within-a my soul. I ain’t got long to stay here.
Green trees are bending, poor sinner stands a-trembling.
The trumpet sounds within-a my soul. I ain’t got long to stay here.
Welcome
Thank you, Dennis, for the introduction, and for your tireless dedication as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. I thank you, Sara Session for your invocation, and Jack Herstam, ASG president, I am grateful for your remarks. To everyone in attendance, or tuning in digitally, welcome. I offer a special greeting to our newly named Vice President for Finance and Administration, Mike Crowley, long affiliated with the Oakland A’s and the San Jose Earthquakes. I would also like to welcome W. Kamau Bell, our Artist in Residence and the Frank Sinatra Chair in the Performing Arts. Kamau is more than a nationally recognized comedian; he is a leader and model for engaging in difficult conversations around race, gender, and politics—but more on that later.
Finally, special thanks to Scot Hanna-Weir and the members of our University Chamber Singers for the opening hymn. Your selection of “Steal Away,” an American spiritual, speaks to our need to pause and find comfort in times of real distress. It is also a song of resistance to oppression and is part of the tradition of other spirituals that encouraged slaves to follow the Underground Railroad to freedom. Drawing on this pre-Civil War hymn, you have offered us a message of inspiration to take a higher road in our time of tension and stress. I appreciate that very much.
Why is such a message so important today? Recently, the American Psychological Association published an annual report, "Stress in America." Findings reveal that 2017 was a record-breaking stressful year; respondents stated that the state of our nation and its political discord was more stressful and tense than their work and home lives. And so, realistically, stress is likely to get worse before it gets better for most Americans in 2018, and stress-related disorders and problems are likely to increase too. We already feel these pressures here at Santa Clara. We are not isolated from the rising stress brought on by social and political tensions.
"...in awe at what folks have to carry"
This situation prompts me to address these issues, and I begin by drawing on a book that my Cabinet and I started reading in December: Father Greg Boyle’s newest book, Barking to the Choir. In it, Father Boyle referenced a passage in the New Testament that described the first Christian communities, “There was no needy person among them.” They all cared for one another. Greg commented:
There is one line that stopped me in my tracks: "And awe came upon everyone." It would seem that, quite possibly, the ultimate measure of health in any community might well reside in our ability to stand in awe at what folks have to carry [emphasis added] rather than in judgment at how they carry it. (55)
Reflecting on this passage, I asked myself, how well do we at Santa Clara understand what burdens others carry? What is the measure of our health as a community? As you recall, last year both the Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity and Inclusion and the Task Force that followed it recommended that we study our efforts to foster greater diversity and wider inclusion. We are examining ourselves now through a campus climate survey prepared by an experienced survey consultant. Knowing more about “what folks have to carry,” we shall be able to establish baselines for measuring our progress in promoting the community’s health in areas of diversity and inclusion. We have launched this survey, and I encourage each of you to participate because we need to hear from all sectors of the campus. The survey will close on Friday, February 23rd, and then the consultants will analyze our contributions and prepare a report by early fall.
Father Boyle also recounted in his book stories of the young people with whom he works at Homeboy Industries down in Los Angeles. Each teenager and young adult has a tale of suffering that astonishes the reader. Again, Fr. Boyle urges us to suspend judgment and condemnation and allow ourselves to stand in awe of these fellow human beings - to pay attention, to honor their stories. As he notes, “Awe softens us for the tender glance of God, then enables us to glance in the same way.” (56) To glance in the same way as God does. Then awe can take the place of judging others, and lead us to compassion and to the discovery of kinship, radical kinship that links all human beings. (57, 66)
From my perspective, I often stand in awe of all of you for what you do at Santa Clara, how YOU live out the mission of this university. You continue to put the health of our institution first. Last year I made two requests: first, that we attend to the budget of the university, and second, that we seek ways to be more efficient and generate more revenue. I asked you to cover my back so that we could balance the budget and strengthen the financial viability of the school. I also promised to watch your backs so that there would be no layoffs. You delivered; the budget ended in the black, balanced through painful cutbacks. I kept my promise, as well: we avoided layoffs of staff and faculty.
Sustaining Excellence Project
Further, you contributed valuable ideas through the Sustaining Excellence Project. Led by Dean Lisa Kloppenberg and Professor Tom Plante, eight working groups and a leadership committee held extensive meetings and compiled your valuable suggestions. Thanks to the organizational expertise of Mike Nuttall of the Ignatian Center, my cabinet and the Planning Action Council of our collaborative governance system reviewed and made final recommendations. Based on input from across campus, I have decided to take the following actions:
1. Coordinate and centralize event planning on campus
2. Evaluate the use of technical services, CRM, ERP
3. Change the culture, process, and expectations of the purchasing process
4. Review summer orientation
5. Examine and expand use of facilities over Summer for existing and new academic programs
6. Incentivize all programs by changing the financial resource models.
These are all areas that you suggested, that we looked at, and that we analyzed. I have charged members of my Cabinet to oversee the implementation of each of these priorities and we will keep you updated as they come to fruition.
Given the variety of these initiatives, some are more easily implemented than others. For example, we have begun the consolidation of event planning. Also, we also have proceeded with CRM and ERP to improve technical services. The other initiatives are under study. I am grateful to all of you who participated in this project. The long-term success of the Sustaining Excellence Project rests on implementing ideas that increase efficiencies for cost-savings and revenue-generation. I firmly believe that improving financial awareness and responsibility in all areas of the University will benefit SCU long into the future.
Back in my graduate school days in history, I never imagined that I would be reading financial reports as closely as I do now. For example, I was keenly interested when Moody’s Investors Service downgraded American higher education institutions from stable to negative investments.
Thanks to all of you, however, Moody’s reaffirmed Santa Clara’s bond rating with no qualification or hesitation. We share a bond rating at the same high level as other financially solid institutions such as Boston College and Holy Cross. I particularly like what Moody’s wrote: “The rating also reflects the university’s very good strategic position with excellent operating cash flow and well-integrated financial modeling and strategic planning.” All of you helped us achieve this. You made this possible through your sacrifices and reductions in budgets.
Budget
You had the university’s back, now the university has your back. I am very happy to announce that the Trustees approved next year’s budget to include:
- a 3% merit pool increase for staff and for faculty;
- equity adjustments in salaries;
- funding for promotions; and
- the first phase of the long-awaited adjustments to staff compensation to make our staff salaries more competitive in this high cost of living environment.
I thank the University Budget Council and our Finance Office staff for the long hours to prepare this Budget.
In addition to our dedicated Staff, I also stand in awe of our faculty. Permit me to draw attention to a few highlights from across the University. Last month, I asked the deans to share with me an overview of faculty success in the College and in the schools. I received impressive reports that demonstrated the dedication of our faculty to teaching, research and creative works, and service. I wish there was time to list every professor's name, so permit me to touch on a representative selection.
College of Arts & Sciences
In the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor Leilani Miller and her “team” prepared two finalists for the Rhodes Scholarship competition at Oxford and one for the Knight-Hennessy scholarship at Stanford. It is truly an impressive feat to name our third Rhodes Scholar in 8 years! Congratulations to Sean Reilly ’16; you continue to make us proud.
Standing behind him were all the faculty and staff who worked in preparing his application along with the other applicants. Professor Stephen Carroll in the English Department advised three Rhodes applications this year, and TWO of whom were selected as finalists – a first for SCU, and a significant accomplishment for any university! Dr. Carroll also wrote the initial drafts of the institutional letters for all three applicants and was a member of the mock interview teams for our finalists.
I would like to extend my praise to everyone from the interview committee and the letter writers for their contributions to the process.
Leavey School of Business
Kudos to Professor Nydia MacGregor, the Faculty Program Director of the online MBA program, and all the faculty who will be teaching in this program for all of their hard work and passion. Our faculty and our staff ensured that the new online MBA launched successfully in January 2018.
Professor Jennifer Woolley received a $263,248 Policy Grant from NSF Science of Science and Innovation.
Additionally, the Leavey School of Business was listed in the annual Poets & Quants compilation, “10 Undergraduate Business Programs to Watch in 2018” for setting themselves apart – and acting as role models for the nation.
Jesuit School of Theology
Over 10 faculty, alumni, and students contributed multiple entries to the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits.
Hung Pham, S.J., assistant professor of Ignatian Spirituality, and Alison Benders, Associate Dean and Senior Lecturer, led a pilgrimage of students to Spain and Rome, following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola, as part of a class on Jesuit history and spirituality.
Gina Hens-Piazza taught an Old Testament course on women in the Bible, leading her students in study across Jerusalem.
School of Engineering
Professor Emre Araci has accomplished important work. When he came to Santa Clara, he spent six months building his lab, then recruited students from engineering and one from biochemistry—undergraduates, master’s, and Ph.D. candidates—to help develop and prototype smart contact lenses that can detect early stages of glaucoma, AND created a smartphone application to collect and display the data gathered. Over the past 18 months his lab team has had tremendous success. His student team has filed a provisional patent and are submitting an article to a top-tier industry journal.
School of Law
Professor Colleen Chien received the American Law Institute’s Early Career Medal and along with Prof. Laura Norris, named one of Silicon Valley’s “Women Leaders in Tech."
Professor David Sloss won the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit in the category “Creative Scholarship” for his Oxford University Press book on global human rights law, titled The Death of Treaty Supremacy: An Invisible Constitutional Change.
School of Education and Counseling Psychology
Professor Kathy Stoehr was awarded a two-year $225,000 grant by the Heising-Simons Foundation of Los Altos, CA (as part of a team based at the University of Arizona), to study mathematics education of young children.
Sherry Wang, in Counseling Psychology, is part of a team whose paper was awarded “Article of the Year” in Career Development Quarterly for their research on academic and career development of undocumented college students.
These professors and all the others I mentioned give us evidence of all the hard work that is going on across the University. They all deserve our congratulations.
Staff
Time does not permit me to list all of the many staff accomplishments, so again, a few examples out of the many I could highlight:
- SCU decided to implement the Workday ERP, and partner with IBM for implementation. IBM moved the contract signing date up by a month to December 31st, 2017. Bob Owen, our CIO, responded by negotiating a $150,000 discount on the $4.2 million costs. In order to meet the December 31st deadline, however, people in many offices needed quickly to review and confirm the details in the final draft of the contract. During one of the busiest times of the year, we earned the discount because of the hard work of these staff members.
- In University Relations, the staff is moving steadily to the completion of the first phase of our two-part Campaign. This “Leadership” or quiet phase, has emphasized large-ticket items such as buildings. 100% of our Trustees have committed donations to the Campaign because they know that modern facilities enhance the teaching and learning experiences.
The second or public phase of the campaign will commence in October of this year and focus on endowed professorships, travel funds, program funding, equipment, and student scholarships. Thank you, Jim Lyons and team for the amazing progress to date, and what is yet to come with everyone's support.
- In Student Life, Vice Provost Jeanne Rosenberger reports that her division is addressing issues of mental health and suicide ideation. Santa Clara University has become a JED Campus. Over the next three and a half years, a 17-member broad-based JED Campus Program Committee will guide the campus through the development and implementation of a strategic plan to address mental health and substance abuse. Last Quarter, 50+ faculty, staff, and students offered input into the development of a draft of SCU’s JED Strategic Action Plan.
Furthermore, it is necessary that we recognize the importance our alumni play in the success of Santa Clara. The Alumni Association has launched a Strategic Plan that focuses on inspiring our alumni, supporting our university, and bettering our world. By finding new ways to engage our nearly 100,000 alumni meaningfully, we will make explicit that the SCU experience does not end at commencement—the four years here are just the start, because “Once a Bronco, Always a Bronco.” Thank you, Kathy Kale and team!
Conclusion
At this point, I wish to return to the questions I raised earlier in this address. I quoted Fr. Greg Boyle: “…the ultimate measure of health in any community might well reside in our ability to stand in awe at what folks have to carry rather than in judgment at how they carry it.” We face rising stress and divisive political discourse, so how do we understand the burdens others carry? What is the measure of our health as a community at a time of downward spiraling negativity in our country?
By coincidence, I recently heard from an alumnus who was applying to graduate school. This undocumented Bronco wrote of his struggles while in high school to believe that he had any future living in Arizona. He despaired. He ultimately discovered two sources of strength that inspired him to think of going to college. He wrote:
Truly, my mother’s work ethic and her motivational speeches were foundational to my success. Without her interventions, I would not have experienced such incredible growth in the presence of prohibitive laws created to thwart undocumented students. Intuitively, I understood that the prohibitive laws were wrong, but it was not until I read Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] that I had the words to explain the undocumented condition.
His mother and Dr. King. I note this because we are celebrating Black History Month, and this year, we also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the killing of Dr. King. But Dr. King's message of non-violence endures and did not die. Let us take a few minutes to listen to Dr. King’s words and to apply them to our circumstances at Santa Clara today. [View video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
In that video, you see the power of our Santa Clara University community. "What's your life like?" Ask the question. "Host the conversation" across any lines that divide us. We can take away the lesson to "shut up and listen." To listen to one another, as Kamau Bell urged, and to allow the state of awe to come over us, as Father Boyle recommended. As Dr. King challenged us, let us win over opponents and let us work towards befriending them.
Let us see with new eyes that we are all kin - related to each other. in “Moved by compassion,” and understanding “kinship,” let us remember that every person we encounter deserves our awe, our respect, our attentive listening. As Broncos, this is our duty; this is our calling; and this is the mission of the University.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless Santa Clara.
Michael E. Engh, S.J.
President