Letter from the Chairman of the Board to the Jesuit CommunityDear [Faculty, Presidents, Provincials, Rectors, etc.], On Friday, March 14, Paul Locatelli, S.J. informed the Board of Trustees that he will be stepping down as President of Santa Clara University during the 2008-09 academic year. His responsibilities as Secretary of Higher Education for the Society of Jesus are to be greatly expanded. We are proceeding immediately with the search for a new President and I wish to enlist your assistance in helping us identify qualified Jesuit candidates. A vacancy announcement is attached which outlines the qualifications we seek in our next President. I ask you to give the position some thought and to help identify potential candidates who are qualified to become President of Santa Clara. Robert Finocchio, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, will be chairing the Search Committee. Please send any nominations before April 30 to: Robert J. Finocchio, Chair, Presidential Search Committee, c/o James Briggs, Executive Assistant to the President, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053. Father Locatelli’s appointment as Secretary and his additional responsibilities for the intellectual apostolate of the Society of Jesus are recognition of his many talents, accomplishments and contributions over the 20 years that he has been our President. These accomplishments form a strong foundation on which the next President will be able to build. Santa Clara is academically strong, financially stable and poised to reach a new tier of excellence. The University recently completed the Campaign for Santa Clara which raised over $400M for scholarships, professorships, and two much need new facilities – a state-of- the-art Learning Commons, Technology Center, and Library and a new School of Business Building. Last Spring, the Board of Trustees approved a new comprehensive undergraduate core curriculum and implementation is planned for Fall 2009. We are in the midst of our self study for WASC which will help us to focus better on three important themes: evaluating how well we are accomplishing our vision of educating leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion – and how we can do even better; how we can continue to build a community of inclusive excellence; and, how we can improve the Santa Clara teaching scholar model. We are also in serious discussions with the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley regarding a potential integration of the JSTB with Santa Clara University. All of this, together with our interest in becoming a more active participant in the global network of Jesuit universities, makes this an exciting time to come to Santa Clara. Thank you for your assistance in our search process. Sincerely. A.C. “Mike” Markkula Chair, Board of Trustees |
 |
