We write today to provide an update on new and expanded commitments we are making at Santa Clara University to strengthen the campus environment for our students of color, and to significantly increase the number of low-income and underrepresented students attending Santa Clara. As a Jesuit institution, we are “of the world,” and we strive every day to ensure our world’s cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic richness is mirrored in our faculty, staff, and students. 

The meaningful progress we share below was made possible through our partnerships with committed students, faculty and staff. We are grateful for your ongoing energy and effort in this important work which is vital to the fulfillment of our University’s mission. 

• New space for the Multicultural Center (MCC). The University will provide a larger, customized space to house the Multicultural Center as part of Phase 2 of the campus remapping process. MCC deserves a space that reflects the growth, importance and success of its many member organizations. We will identify a space by this summer, and begin a remodel that will provide a home worthy of the contributions of our multicultural student organizations. 
• An advisory group to help accelerate becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). We have earned “Emerging HSI” status by increasing our Hispanic/Latiné-student enrollment to 19% from 15% a decade ago. Now, we are creating an advisory group, led by Enrollment Management Vice President Eva Blanco Masias. This advisory group will help us keep our focus on the multi-year journey to attain full HSI designation, increasing our undergraduate Hispanic/Latiné-student enrollment to 25% and ensuring we are a community where they thrive and flourish. The advisory group composition will include student representation and will be announced this quarter. 
• American Talent Initiative. In December, Santa Clara University joined the American Talent Initiative and committed to a goal of increasing representation of incoming first-year Pell-eligible students to 15% by 2025, while continuing to increase overall low- and middle-income student representation. We commit to maintaining a high retention (90%+) and 6-year graduation rate (88%+) of our Pell-eligible students. Next steps in this bold initiative include sending a team of faculty, staff, and administrators to an ATI Summer Institute on Equity in the Academic Experience. We also are in the process of convening a team to work out the important funding, marketing, and outreach measures required to meet our goal. 
• Increasing diversity components in the SCU Core Curriculum. Student groups have expressed a strong interest in adding more diversity requirements to the current Core Curriculum. The Office of the Provost will soon be leading a comprehensive revision and revitalization of the Core Curriculum, in conjunction with University shared governance. We are pleased that just as justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) will be infused into our upcoming university strategic planning, so will JEDI be fundamental to this revisioning, ensuring the Core reflects our mission and helps prepare our graduates to thrive in an increasingly multicultural world. 
• Supporting Comunidad. We commit to supporting Comunidad, the coalition of Santa Clara’s Latiné organizations, including providing staff support to increase their connection, impact, and network-building with each other, and with faculty, alumni, and community groups. We have made similar commitments to Black and African-American organizations as they develop and launch the Black Bronco Network, and we look forward to continuing to support all groups similarly interested.
• California Private College Alliance (CPCA). To inform and encourage low-income applicants to seek out SCU and other California private institutions, Santa Clara has joined eight other private colleges and universities in the California Private College Alliance. Announced at an SCU-hosted event on March 17, the new group has developed a suite of information and resources regarding scholarships and other offerings to help low-income students recognize that “private college is possible.” The group will offer virtual and in-person events throughout the year in California. This ongoing effort was supported at the launch by a number of stories and public-service announcements produced by the Spanish news station Univision. 
• Outreach and support for community-college transfer students. Community colleges are another important way to reach underrepresented populations with opportunities to access a Santa Clara education. We are expanding outreach to community-college transfer students through two new programs, the Silicon Valley Power Sustainable Futures Program, and the Genentech Foundation-funded Career Paths in Biotechnology. 
• Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The President's Cabinet recently reviewed—and the President approved—a proposal to establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official University holiday. Initially put forward as a resolution by the Associated Student Government and supported by the Faculty Senate Council and Staff Senate, the proposal was vetted through our shared-governance process. The holiday will be celebrated annually on the second Monday in October, beginning next year. We will approach this holiday as a time to reflect upon the history and celebrate the contributions of Indigenous peoples, including the Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone people on whose ancestral land Santa Clara sits. We also expect to welcome our first Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone Student Scholarship recipient this fall. 

These broad strategies and ongoing commitments are especially important as we await what many believe will be an onerous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could revoke the ability of all U.S. public and private universities to consider the race of its student applicants in the admissions process. As we wrote in an op-ed in October, our limited consideration of race is the opposite of discrimination: It is part of a complex, holistic approach that aims (among many things) to ensure that qualified and promising students from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences form our campus communities. 

We will keep our community apprised as we build on our justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives as a campus. We know there is much work to be done. We are extremely grateful to students, faculty, staff, and alumni who are partnering with us to ensure our progress as a University is steady, meaningful, and equitable. 

Sincerely, 

Julie Sullivan 
President

Shá Duncan Smith
Vice President for Inclusive Excellence

Eva Blanco Masias
Vice President for Enrollment Management