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President Paul Locatelli, S.J. says diverse community shapes SCU's educational mission

Tuesday, Sep. 16, 2003

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 16, 2003 — As Santa Clara University prepared to begin a new school year, President Paul Locatelli, S.J., asked faculty, staff and students to examine if Santa Clara was living up to the best of its traditions.

In a morning speech entitled "Achieving  Excellence: The Education of the Whole Person" Locatelli said that the diverse and pluralistic community at Santa Clara University had shaped a distinctive educational mission. "The education of the whole person has been the ideal of Jesuit colleges and universities from the time of Ignatius of Loyola in the 1500s," he said.

The convocation address at 10.30 a.m. today marked the beginning of Locatelli’s 15th academic year as SCU president. He reminded SCU staff and faculty assembled in Mayer Theatre that education at Santa Clara retains the orientation of an ethical education found in the Renaissance humanist schools. "It (SCU) strives for the intellectual rigor, critical thinking, and scholarly and professional excellence represented in the American research university, because academic excellence in research and teaching are critical to solving the complex problems the world faces,"he said.

Locatelli said  that the teaching scholars who made up the SCU faculty serve as mentors, advisors and examples of what students at Santa Clara can become: people of well educated solidarity who use their considerable talents to heal the world. "They do this by being excellent teachers and researchers in their own discipline but also by looking beyond .. to make the world more just," he said.

The fall term for undergraduate students and all graduate programs except the School of Law begins on Monday, Sept. 22. The law school began classes in August.

For the complete text of President Locatelli's speech, visit www.scu.edu/president

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,060 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the fourth-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is online at www.scu.edu.

 

<p>President Paul Locatelli S.J. delivered the convocation speech for 2003-04 academic year</p>
Posted by darora

Tags: convocation

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