Santa Clara University

Honors Convocation 1998

June 12, 1998

It is a privilege to be able to say a few words to you on our 21^st Honors Convocation. I congratulate you and welcome your families and friends to this celebration and graduation. Today Santa Clara University celebrates you - the honor students of 1998 - and a legacy of learning and academic excellence in Jesuit education about which Father Privett spoke.

I want to tell you a story and offer some advice for your future. Last Fall, I attended a meeting in Santiago, Chile on Jesuit education and had the privilege of chairing the final session where we were to develop an action agenda for the future.

Attending such a meeting of more than sixty Jesuit educators from every continent in the world and from a wide range of academic disciplines was a learning experience, and chairing the final session was even more so. We were looking at two questions:

The conversations were lively and challenging; solutions were elusive. Yet, you could not help but appreciate and respect how differently people from a variety of cultures approach questions. At the risk of over simplifying the discussions, Americans, and to a lesser extent Europeans, tend to be the most pragmatic: more interested in finding immediate solutions than in prolonged discussion. For those from Latin America, the conversation itself was much more important, while those from East and Southeast Asia (except Japan) struggled to raise our consciousness about the plight of their hungry and destitute.

North Americans are quick to look for economic solutions to societal problems, while Latin Americans look more to the primacy of socio-political solutions over economic ones. Solutions for Asia are much more complex with a gap between the countries, a wide gulf between the rich and the poor, and rigid social even caste structures within their countries.

We all agreed on one thing. The cultures and economies of every country are now, whether we like or not, interdependent and inter-related. And more to the point, in the 21^st century, we will see the growing dominance of a world culture with its potential to destroy national cultures. The two driving forces for a world culture or a "global state" are the rapid growth of information and communication technology and multinational corporations.

Many of the same socio-economic trends that are tidal forces driving transformations in society worldwide affect the U.S. These societal trends, on the one hand, are creating new opportunities, freedom and growth. On the other, they are also destabilizing much that is traditional and of great value, and creating fearful reactions to changes seemingly out of control.

You might ask, What does this have to do with me? You are stepping into a global society. As the brightest and best our society has to offer, a time will come, when you will be in positions to influence the future. Our hope for you is that your Santa Clara education has prepared you to make a difference in at least three ways:

First, approach questions with a scholarly and professional competence that is informed by a Christian and social humanism. Virtually all organizations are a mixture of local cultures and the growing world culture. As you continue to gain the knowledge, skills and expertise to be successful in your future profession, I hope you respect people of different cultures and use your talents to make life better for all -- not just to build a better chip, sell more shoes, acquire more stock options or teach a better class.

Second, make choices not based only on self-interest but also on ethical and moral principles that lead to genuine compassion. You have the talents and education to become leaders powerful enough to help our world overcome the ignorance that fractures our communities, especially along racial or economic lines. I hope that your quest for your personal well-being -- economic and social -- will be generous -- inextricably bound up with the well-being of the local and global society.

Third, make your personal quest for excellence be a pathway to God who teaches us to be compassionate. You are gifted. I hope you see your gifts not as your private possessions but as gifts from God for the good of the community. My prayer is that you will always have the courage to ask the right questions, the convictions to use your knowledge well, and the wisdom to act humanely and justly for the greater glory of God. This will give meaning to your life and your community, because to whom much has been given - much is expected.

Thank you for your commitment to excellence and for having made Santa Clara a better University community. Again, congratulations and may God bless you and your families, and may your life and work always bless God.

Paul Locatelli, S.J.

Mayer Theater

Hope for Just Peace

September 11, 2002

One year ago, we gathered in this Mission Church, filled with a mingling of emotions: confusion, anger, hurt, anxiety, and grief. I asked: Where is God in the face of such terrible evil? The attacks of September 11 were a powerful evil -- like a dark hole that sucks all that is good, beautiful and human into it.

Yet, in the midst of those terrible images of the destruction of life, we saw the God of mercy and power. We saw God in the innocent victims whose life stories have been recounted to us by the New York Times over this past year. We saw God in the braver and generous people who responded by risking -- and some losing their lives. We saw God in the generosity and goodness of the parents and brothers and sisters, family and friends of the victims. We saw God in the response around the world. And, we saw God in the people who prayed and reached out to each other with love and faith, compassion and hope.

This morning a leader of the Sikh religious community expressed his sympathy on this anniversary by quoting his Holy Scripture: "I see no Stranger, I see no Enemy. Wherever I look, God is All I see."

In the meeting between Jesus and the Woman from Samaria, we see God in All. Jesus teaches us that we are to love people of different national origins or with different religious perspectives. She was a Samaritan, and no respectable Jew would have anything to do with a Samaritan, much less a Samaritan woman. Men and women were not supposed to be at the well together or speak with each other. And Jews and Samaritans were not to share water from the same vessels. She was not even given the dignity of a name by John, who was amazed that Jesus would even talk with her.

Jews and Samaritans were also deeply divided over many other things as well. Their differences over the interpretation of the Torah were so great that they had little to nothing in common. Jews believed that Samaritans were not properly wedded to the true God of Abraham; Jerusalem was not the center of their religion. Nothing was right with this scene when Jesus does the unthinkable.

He speaks first, asking the woman for a drink of water. Their conversation is, at first, a little unpleasant as the woman responds with mocking surprise. Jesus quickly turns the conversation about water quenching the thirst to water becoming a symbol and gift of life from God. No longer is it about water but about love and harmony, faith and justice, hope and peace.

By speaking to this Samaritan woman, slowly but persistently Jesus breaks down the boundaries of ignorance and prejudice, and specifically rejects both discrimination against women and prejudice towards people of other religions and other national origins. September 11 must become the day we rediscover love, forgiveness, peace, justice, and the common aspirations of all good people. We find these virtues in hope, a hope that break down the barriers between people and binds us together as the children of God, as one community composed of people with many gifts, views, and many backgrounds, who have contributions to make for the good of all.

The conversation between Jesus and the woman shows us the path to seeing that we all share the gift of life from the God of all people -- Jew or Samaritan, Christian or Muslim, woman or man, African or American, old or young, rich or poor. We are in this together.

Today, Jesus again teaches that all men and women of goodwill will promote peace, justice, harmony, human rights, and respect for all of God’s creation and all of God’s people. Jesus again teaches that we are to love the God of all people with our whole hearts and minds, and to love our neighbor -- either friend or stranger, family or new immigrant -- with that same love. Then, will hate give way to love, vengeance give way to forgiveness, war give way to peace, maltreatment give way to justice. This is the gift of God we all share on this day of remembering and every day of our lives.

God bless.

Letter on Diversity

February 20, 1998

Dear Members of the University Community:

As part of our tradition of Jesuit education, we value cultural pluralism at Santa Clara. I want to reaffirm our commitment to diversity both because of its importance in learning and because of the current political environment. Our commitment is articulated in the Statement of Purpose: we are dedicated to "a community enriched by women and men of diverse backgrounds, respectful of difference and enlivened by open dialogue, caring and just toward others, and committed to broad participation in achieving the common good." In our strategic planning, we seek to realize our commitment to a "diverse community and the roots that must sustain it." ⁽¹⁾

Our commitment springs from three interrelated principles:

Diverse perspectives and experiences are central to academic quality because they expand creative thought and analysis, test unexamined assumptions, challenge accepted truths, and broaden understanding of ourselves and our world.

The University must be able to draw from a wide variety of experiences, perspectives, values, and disciplines within the community to "foster a vital intellectual community whose members collaborate in learning and scholarship." The University, through a careful stewardship of its resources and well-conceived programs, will continue to extend opportunities to members of groups that have been under-represented throughout this country's history.

Among the major challenges facing universities today is educating students to work effectively in a pluralistic, global, and multicultural society. Students must understand and appreciate a broad range of people and cultures in order to be effective leaders and to discern, articulate, and promote the common good of all members of society. The development of interpersonal and intercultural skills takes on added significance in a society such as ours that will be increasingly diverse.

As a Jesuit university, Santa Clara is committed to excellence in teaching and scholarship and to the promotion of that justice which faith requires - as exemplified best in the "teaching scholar" and the "community of scholars." Jesuit education promotes ethical and spiritual coherence by challenging participants to work for a more just and humane world. Jesuit universities nurture an intellectual community enriched by the full range and depth of human experience, where diverse voices and viewpoints, especially those of the impoverished and the disadvantaged, are represented. Santa Clara thus expects each of its degree programs to offer students "a learning environment that integrates rigorous inquiry and scholarship, creative imagination, reflective engagement with society, and a commitment to fashioning a more just and humane world."

Impelled by these convictions, Santa Clara will continue to develop a diverse community with an emphasis on ethnic diversity to further our educational priorities, to recognize diversity as an important learning resource, and to embrace a multidimensional understanding of the world and its underlying unity.

Sincerely,

Paul Locatelli, S.J.
President

1. All citations are from the Strategic Plan of the University.

Note: This Open Letter was developed in consultation with some faculty, students and staff during the Fall and early Winter Quarter. It is consistent with the statement published in the "The Chronicle of Higher Education" (February 13, 1998), On the Importance of Diversity in Higher Education endorsed by a number of organizations to which Santa Clara belongs, for example, American Council of Education, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.