Santa Clara University

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

One of the key values of Santa Clara University is to foster a learning community in which diversity and inclusive excellence are integral. Building a humane and just community is our ideal. When we learn with and from each other, we learn to respect and cherish the dignity of each person and the gifts each person brings to our community. So it is always disappointing when the values and ideals we set for ourselves are not reflected in the way we live together. The stereotyping of Latinos at the recent theme party provides the important lesson that targeting and demeaning any group or individual, even if unintentional, is unacceptable.

This incident, together with other examples of prejudice and misunderstanding in our society, serves to underscore the importance of our on-going efforts to promote diversity and inclusive excellence, as well as social justice, on our campus. There are many examples of efforts to make Santa Clara a welcoming campus for all, but more can and will be done. For example,

• Since her arrival on campus last October, Provost Lucia Albino Gilbert has been working to develop a comprehensive approach to multicultural education, cultural sensitivity, and inclusive excellence. Together with faculty, staff, and students, Dr. Gilbert has implemented steps to improve the quality of our campus through recruitment of faculty and students of color, curricular initiatives, and improved climate. The University will redefine and move a position under the Provost to improve coordination of current programs and new initiatives.
• Diversity and inclusive excellence are a significant component, for all undergraduate students, of the proposed core curriculum revision currently being reviewed.
• The University's accreditation self study will have as one of its three themes "Promoting a Community of Inclusive Excellence."

Efforts to improve cross-cultural understanding are emerging from all parts of the campus. Students from the Multi Cultural Center and Associated Students planned the silent march that brought many members of our campus community together. These groups and others have also joined together in planning programs and offering open and honest dialogues for students, something that will continue into the future.

As a Jesuit university we are using this troubling time to create a teaching and learning moment -- for those directly involved and for our entire community. We are encouraging personal contact and conversation across all segments of the University. This kind of conversation and learning together, both inside the classroom and in social settings, both in teaching and scholarship, enriches learning and helps overcome stereotyping and its deleterious effects on people. An important part of a Santa Clara education is understanding people whose culture or religious heritage, nation of birth, ethnic background, or sexual orientation may be different from our own.

I wish to reinforce that fashioning more humane and just communities is a key aim of Jesuit education. When we understand and appreciate people, cultures, religions, and different ways of life, we dispel prejudice and overcome ignorance -- and truly become persons of competence, conscience and compassion. May we all continue to learn and to socialize and to serve our God and each other with respect and with love. Let us continue working together to enrich our community and learn to make Santa Clara University and the world in which we live more humane and just.

Paul Locatelli S.J.