Santa Clara University

Building a Community of Scholars

We will foster a vital community of scholars whose members collaborate as partners in learning and scholarship.

It is widely believed that a sense of community is not only an ideal but a distinctive strength of Santa Clara—a strength that contributes significantly to our quality and competitiveness. Yet Santa Clara is not immune to the forces of fragmentation that affect other institutions in society. The experience of community, especially the learning community, must be actively nurtured. We must find ways to enrich this experience of community for all Santa Clarans—undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, alumni and parents, friends and supporters—and to ground it more firmly in the intellectual life of the University and its emphasis on student learning.

Responding to this challenge will require continued institutional commitment to supporting teaching and scholarship of high quality, prompting a dynamic relationship between the two, encouraging close interaction between faculty and students, and inviting all members of the University community to participate in its intellectual life. While all constituencies of the University play a role in responding to this challenge, faculty have a central responsibility for fostering the intellectual collaboration essential for a vital community of scholars.

Strategic challenges

1.A. How can Santa Clara, with the leadership of its faculty, foster the intellectual collaboration necessary for building a community of scholars and providing an integrated education?

Goals:

• Stimulate and support cross-disciplinary inquiry. [1.A.1.]

• Connect co-curricular programs more closely with curricular programs, develop residential learning communities, and expand opportunities for students to engage in scholarly or creative work under the guidance of a faculty mentor. [1.A.2.]
  

• Create and support more opportunities for graduate students to participate in the intellectual and cultural life of the University. [1.A.3.]
  

• Engage alumni more actively in the intellectual and cultural life of the University. [1.A.4.]
  

1.B. How can Santa Clara support faculty in their efforts to exemplify the ideal of the teaching scholar?

Goals:

• With a judicious use of adjunct faculty, maintain a full-time faculty that is sufficient in size and composition to promote excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarship. [1.B.1.]
  

• Provide faculty development programs that support the professional needs of faculty members at different stages of their careers as teaching scholars. [1.B.2.]
  

• Increase support for curricular, pedagogical, research, and creative projects that enable faculty members to excel as teaching scholars. [1.B.3.]
  

1.C. How can Santa Clara continue to enrich the quality and diversity of its community of scholars?

Goals:

• Recruit and retain faculty and staff with outstanding professional qualifications and a commitment to advance the University’s vision, mission, and values. [1.C.1.]
  

• Increase the number of endowed professorships and target them to support Santa Clara’s strategic initiatives. [1.C.2.]
  

• Improve the quality of incoming students as reflected in their academic performance and their potential to become leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion. [1.C.3.]
  

• Increase diversity among faculty, staff, and students, with special emphasis on members of historically under-represented ethnic groups. [1.C.4.]
  

• Intensify efforts to recruit and retain members of the Society of Jesus. [1.C.5.]