Description
As visitors enter the campus of Santa Clara University from the El Camino Real (Highway 82), they are impressed with the well-maintained campus of 104 acres. The city of Santa Clara, located at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay and west of San Jose, is in the midst of Silicon Valley. The Mission Church is the heart of the campus, resulting in mission-style architecture that links its original facilities with buildings built in the past decade and manifests an appreciation for the historic origins of the campus.
During the 1998-99 academic year, the university enrolled 7,707 students in five academic units: the College of Arts and Sciences (2,561 undergraduate students, 58 graduate students), the School of Law (934 students), the Leavey School of Business (1,120 undergraduate students, 985 graduate students), the School of Engineering (630 undergraduate students, 989 graduate students), and the Division of Counseling Psychology and Education (409 graduate students). Almost all of the undergraduate students are full-time; two-thirds of whom are residents of California. A significant majority of the graduate students are part-time.
Accreditation History
Santa Clara received accreditation in 1949. The last accreditation occurred in 1987. As a result of that visit, the team made sixteen recommendations under four groupings: planning, administrative, faculty, and general institutional. Significant progress has been made in responding to these recommendations, although this report recommends continuing efforts to enhance three of the above – diversity, the library, and institutional research. The 1987 report, adopted by the WASC Commission, reaffirmed accreditation and requested a fifth-year visit and a special report focusing on institutional priorities and fiscal issues by the new president. In 1990, on receiving the special report, the Commission cancelled the fifth-year visit.
History and Mission
Although Santa Clara University traces its origin to the founding of Mission Santa Clara by the Franciscan Fathers in 1777, it dates its educational origins to 1851 when two Jesuits opened a college at Mission Santa Clara. The state of California granted a charter to Santa Clara College in 1855 and two years later it conferred its first bachelor of arts diploma – the first to be granted in California. In 1912, the college became a university with the addition of schools of law and engineering. The School of Business was established in 1926. Driven in part by the decision to admit women as undergraduate students in 1961, the university more than doubled its population to 2,800 students between 1958 and 1968. Since the accreditation visit in 1987, the student body has remained approximately the same size. However, the number of full-time undergraduate students has increased from 3,700 to 4,300, offsetting a decline in part-time graduate students. As it prepares to celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2001, Santa Clara University is in the midst of extensive planning efforts, implementing an ambitious administrative reorganization and refocusing its educational goals. Thus, this accreditation visit comes at an opportune time in the history of the university.
The most recent mission statement for Santa Clara University, approved by the Board of Trustees in 1993, declares that the purpose of the university is "to be the education of the whole person within the Catholic and Jesuit tradition." This purpose is to be achieved through an education that stresses moral and spiritual as well as intellectual and aesthetic values; the pursuit of academic excellence with "an unwavering commitment to academic freedom, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of expression in the search for truth; an affirmation of its Catholic identity with a respect for other religious and philosophical traditions; and a community enriched by men and women of diverse backgrounds." The university community, trustees, administrators, faculty, staff and students have a shared acceptance of the mission. Building off its mission statement, the university adopted a strategic vision to "excel in educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion."
Planning
The 1987 accreditation team recommended that all aspects of institutional planning be strengthened at the university. Upon assuming the presidency in 1988, Paul Locatelli, S.J., began an aggressive planning effort. In 1990 the Board of Trustees approved a five-year strategic plan and established goals to guide a projected $100 million capital campaign. During the following five years, under effective presidential leadership, the university completed a $134 million capital campaign and implemented much of its strategic plan, including the approval of a new core curriculum, extensive involvement by the university community in the budgetary process, and investments in enrollment management, facilities and technology.
In May 1995, as the 1990 five-year strategic plan neared its completion, the university initiated a major planning exercise, perhaps the most significant planning effort in its history. The University Planning Council, which was established by the president as a standing committee, entered into a nine-month process that involved the entire university community. The Board of Trustees adopted on May 10, 1996 the document resulting from this effort, "Strategic Plan 1996." Based on the experience gained from implementing this plan, the Board of Trustees updated this with the "Strategic Plan 1998." It is this "living document" that currently guides the university.
The 1998 Plan is based on two strategic initiatives: "building a community of scholars" and "providing an integrated education" with a supporting third initiative – "focusing resources for excellence." The first initiative encourages cross-disciplinary inquiry, the creation of endowed professorships to support strategic initiatives, increasing the diversity of its faculty, staff and students and enhancing the quality of the students, and preparing them to become leaders of "competence, conscience and compassion." The second initiative calls for providing coherent educational experiences, especially in the core curriculum, and creating integrative structures through targeted "centers of distinction," interdisciplinary perspectives, and effective multicultural programs. The phrase, "competence, conscience and compassion," is seen on banners on campus and heard in conversations with students, faculty and staff. Even though there may be no consensus concerning the precise definition of these concepts, there is no doubt that they enjoy wide currency and undoubtedly have an impact on how the university community goes about its daily rounds, thus contributing to the widespread acceptance of the mission of the institution.
The Strategic Plan 1998 is guiding important decisions at the university. For example, potential "centers of distinction," as elaborated in the strategic plan, are "distinctive" in two ways: focusing on excellence and possessing a special identity. They both embody and support "a community of scholars" and "an integrated education." The three centers currently approved are the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the Bannan Institute for Jesuit Education and Christian Values, and the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. These centers are intended to involve faculty from across the university, thus bridging the traditional gaps among schools and departments and promoting a "community of scholars" that addresses vital societal issues. The university plans to establish endowments of up to $10 million to support most of the funding for the centers. Some of this is already in place.
Authorization for new or replacement faculty positions depends on a school or department being able to indicate how the position contributes to the plan’s strategic goals. Numerous examples of successful cases were given to support this strategy, as well as examples where the failure to do so resulted in authorization for hiring being denied.
Governance
The university is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of thirty-six members, thirteen of whom are members of the Society of Jesus. The President is responsible to the Board. A Board of Regents, which does not possess statutory responsibility, provides advice and financial assistance. Members of the Board of Regents also sit on some Trustee committees. The administrative structure of the university has recently been reorganized with a Provost, a Vice President for Administration and Finance and a Vice President for University Relations. The Office of the Provost is a result of the merger of academic affairs and student affairs. All of the above officers report to the President. The integration of student affairs into academic affairs, which was partly in response to a 1987 WASC recommendation, is still a work in progress. It has raised fairly widespread concern among the former student services personnel. They are upset about the process that led up to the reorganization, and are anxious about how their reporting lines will ultimately be defined. Despite their concerns, most appear to accept the intent of the reorganization, that is providing a learning environment for Santa Clara students that integrates the academic and co-curricular, and the intellectual and behavioral aspects of student life.
Since the last accreditation visit, the role of faculty in governance has been enhanced. In addition to a Faculty Senate, consisting of tenure-track faculty and others possessing full-time academic appointments, seven university policy committees contribute in substantive ways to the determination of policy on issues ranging from faculty development, curricular formation, budget determination and university planning. The participation of the faculty in these activities appears to be extensive and effective.
The Accreditation Process and Visit
The Visiting Team
The ten-person team appointed by WASC to carry out the review of Santa Clara’s experimental Self-Study possesses skills and experiences that complement the goals that both WASC and Santa Clara University have for the Self-Study. The majority of the team members are involved at their home institutions in measuring and assessing educational effectiveness and in strategic planning. Most of the team comes from institutions outside of California. Three individuals had not had WASC experience prior to this visit. Five members come from private institutions -- two of which are Catholic, one is Jesuit. The chairperson of the team attended a WASC workshop, spent a day on campus on a preliminary visit, then returned to California with the other members of the team on November 8, 1999, the day before the visit began. Santa Clara provided each member with copies of the Self-Study and two boxes of documentation six weeks prior to the visit. Working with the representatives from Santa Clara and WASC, the chair assigned each team member to a group that would focus on an aspect or theme of the Self-Study. Two members had responsibility for Mission, Planning and Governance; two for Learning Outcomes; four members focused on two of the planning initiatives – Creating a Community of Scholars and Providing an Integrated Education; two others considered the third initiative – Resources for Excellence.
On Tuesday, November 9, the team met from 10:00 am to 3:00 p.m. in the team room at the hotel prior to traveling four miles to the campus for a tour, preliminary meetings with the coordinators of the Self-Study and the president. The day ended with a reception and dinner with members of the university community, hosted by President Locatelli. Given the widespread involvement of the campus community in the Self-Study process, two team members, typically, met with groups representing campus constituencies from 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 10 and most of Thursday, November 11. Six members of the team had an early breakfast with eight members of the Board of Trustees. Each evening the team met for dinner and held a wrap-up meeting. The team spent Friday morning in the team room on campus, completing the individual drafts and preparing for the exit interview. This meeting was held at 1:30 p.m. with the president and the individuals who had primary responsibility for the Self-Study process.
The ten visitors quickly came together as a team, working well with one another and tolerating the ambiguity that came with the experimental nature of the visit and accreditation process. The success of this undertaking is due to the care and support provided by the Santa Clara community, especially the Associate Provost, the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and their staff. Experienced team members unanimously agreed that this was the best-supported visit in which they had been involved. They also agreed that the chairperson had overscheduled their meetings, leaving less than ample time for reflection and discussion. The chairperson seconds both conclusions.
Background on the Experimental Self-Study
Two processes that began in 1995 came together to make this experimental Self-Study possible. The university began the process by drafting a new strategic plan, one supporting the recently articulated strategic vision of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion." At the same time, various representatives of WASC began a discussion of new Self-Study models focusing on student learning. As a result, the Executive Director of the WASC Commission suggested that Santa Clara University do a "special focus Self-Study rather than a full-scale compliance report addressing each of the nine standards." After much discussion, the university decided that the benefits of this approach outweighed the risks of not having much institutional experience with assessment and not knowing how a visiting team might respond to such an approach. For nearly two years, representatives of WASC and Santa Clara discussed the direction of the Self-Study. In March 1998, they agreed that the Self-Study "will review and analyze the university’s performance in relation to its strategic plan." Thus, the structure of the Self-Study would examine Santa Clara’s effectiveness in achieving its core educational objective of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion" and examine the three initiatives that support its strategic plan. These initiatives, which advance the university’s mission, values and vision, are building a community of scholars, providing an integrated education, and focusing resources for excellence.
The discussions within WASC on a new model for accreditation resulted in April 1999 in a proposed framework for such a model, Dialogue II. This framework calls for institutional demonstration of two core commitments: Institutional Capacity and Educational Effectiveness. Educational Effectiveness focuses on three elements: "articulating a collective vision of educational attainment, organizing for learning, and becoming a learning organization."
The Santa Clara Self-Study, in the judgment of the visiting team, successfully mirrors WASC’s proposed framework. The team interprets "Institutional Capacity," that is an institution having the basic structures in place to support educational effectiveness, as roughly corresponding with meeting the broad intent of the Nine Standards.
Although Santa Clara’s Self-Study report, in accordance with its agreement with WASC, does not explicitly deal with each of the Nine Standards, it does meet the criterion of the experimental model of enabling the team to review the institutional compliance with "the broad intent of the Standards." This is evident in Santa Clara’s positive response to the issues raised in the 1987 WASC report, in the breadth and depth of the report itself, and in the cross-referencing of the documentary materials to support the conclusions of the Self-Study and the compliance with the Nine Standards. Each team member, in addition to being a member of a group that focused on one of the themes of the 1999 Self-Study, had responsibility for insuring that Santa Clara was meeting the broad intent of one or more of the Standards (See Appendix A).
[Note to the reader: This report uses "bold" or "italicized" formatting to highlight important statements. "Bold" indicates an advisory recommendation or concern; "italics" a positive finding. Some of the recommendations or concerns that are found in the text are advisory; others, considered more critical to the university’s strategic plan, are restated in the conclusion of this report.]
The team is impressed with Santa Clara’s successful implementation of the three key elements that support WASC’s proposal for measuring the educational effectiveness of a university. The Self-Study documents the university’s "articulating a collective vision of educational attainment." Santa Clara’s vision of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion" is widely understood and has generated significant consensus. This vision is the foundation for the strategic plan, for the initiatives supporting the vision, and for curricular, co-curricular and fiscal decision-making. The university community is also making significant progress toward reaching agreement on appropriate outcomes and the means by which these are assessed.
Santa Clara is also "organizing for learning," the second element for achieving educational effectiveness. The 1998 Strategic Plan provides the framework for the realignment necessary to achieve the university’s vision and the three initiatives. The Self-Study documents many examples of this realignment, including revising the core curriculum and degree programs, the hiring and evaluating of faculty and staff, the integrating of student services and academic affairs, the linking of academic goals and the allocation of resources, and establishing an assessment infrastructure.
The third element, "becoming a learning organization," is also evident in the report. An environment exists that supports the commitment to creating a "culture of inquiry, evidence, and action." The president indicated in his conversations with the team that Santa Clara is more successful in creating a culture of action than one of inquiry and evidence. The Self-Study concludes that the university "is not as far along the learning curve [of identifying performance measures, benchmarking, or articulating a research plan] as [it] had hoped." Yet, it is obvious that the president and the campus community are committed to balancing action with inquiry and evidence. The team agrees with the university’s conclusion that it has "made significant progress and laid a good foundation for continued progress in assessment."
The team believes that both the substance of what is happening on the Santa Clara campus and the reporting and documenting of this through the Self-Study process should accelerate the validation of WASC’s new model. Santa Clara should take great satisfaction in undertaking a Self-Study process that supports the implementation of its strategic plan and that contributes to the development of an exciting new model for accreditation. The numerous faculty members and administrators of WASC institutions and the WASC staff should share a sense of excitement with the impressive progress that is being made toward validating the proposed model for accreditation and enhancing learning.
The Santa Clara Self-Study
In preparing for the Self-Study, the president designated the University Planning Council as the coordinating committee for the accreditation process, specifically linking planning, assessment and the Self-Study. This council, chaired by the provost, is composed of fourteen individuals – two students, five faculty, one staff, one dean, two vice presidents, the associate provost and the vice provost for academic affairs, and the executive assistant to the president. The council created three task forces, each composed of twelve members: learning outcomes, community of scholars and integrated education, and resources for excellence. These represent the four themes or chapters of the Self-Study. To complement the university’s Self-Study, each school and most units prepared self-studies to review their effectiveness in achieving their goals and outcomes.
Chapter One provides the context for the Self-Study. Chapter Two focuses on learning outcomes of the undergraduate and graduate programs, building on the vision of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion." The next three chapters evaluate the initiatives that support the strategic plan – Community of Scholars, an Integrated Education, and Resources for Excellence. Each chapter concludes with recommendations that clarify the strategic goals identified in the strategic plan and with a set of questions directed to both the Santa Clara community and the WASC visiting team.
The Self-Study includes the following recommendations. These provide a sense of Santa Clara’s progress and its challenges for the future.
Chapter II. Learning Outcomes
Chapter III. Community of Scholars
Chapter IV. Integrated Education
Chapter V. Resources for Excellence
The final chapter summarizes the major conclusions, recommendations, and questions in the four previous chapters. It also includes observations on the strategic plan and shares "lessons learned" from the Self-Study process for Santa Clara and WASC. It concludes with four global questions for the visiting team. We, as members of the visiting team, attempt in the following pages to provide a thoughtful critique of the Self-Study, to answer some of the questions posed, and to conclude with five recommendations and two observations.
II. Learning Outcomes: Assessment
Overview
Santa Clara University is to be commended for designing an exemplary program that bridges strategic planning and assessment of learning outcomes. To achieve successful planning and learning assessment, Santa Clara is building on its traditional strengths and on a very effective strategic planning process. The university has made a good start in assessment efforts because it is supporting in varying degrees many of the elements necessary for effective assessment. These include:
To take assessment to the next level, however, the university is encouraged to address missing elements and to improve the assessment process. These include more effective scanning of the internal and external environments, as well as collaborating with comparable institutions that are seeking to achieve similar objectives. As increased time and resources are invested in assessment, it is even more necessary to insure that the assessment tools and instruments are methodologically sound.
Identification of Learning Outcomes
Undergraduate
Within the context of the commitment to competence, conscience, and compassion, the faculty identified four learning goals for undergraduate education: reasoning and communication, breadth of learning, depth of learning, and building community. The university has a clear statement on specific learning outcomes for courses that are proposed for inclusion in the core curriculum. The team finds evidence to indicate that the core curriculum is thoughtfully designed to achieve the learning goals/outcomes.
Further, multiple assessment measures are employed to gain an understanding of the ways in which the core curriculum contributed to the students' learning. While most, but not all, of the learning goals are supported by assessment activity, the evidence of educational quality is derived largely from self-reported surveys and other attitudinal measures that may or may not provide sufficient information for curricular affirmation or improvement. In addition, comparative data, such as standardized test scores at entry and exit, for peer institutions are provided as a means for establishing external benchmarks and to place the assessment findings for Santa Clara University within the context of other universities with a similar mission. The campus is reflective in considering the data and noting negative or neutral findings as well as positive ones.
As noted in the Self-Study, the integration and articulation of themes in the core curriculum and between the core and majors are the next steps to be taken as the campus continues its quest for integration of the core curriculum, the major, and the co-curricular program. Certainly, departmental/school learning outcomes for majors are defined less consistently than those that support the undergraduate core curriculum. Departmental strategic plans reflect disparity of sophistication and attention to the specification of learning objectives. Some are highly defined with multi-dimensional evaluation strategies. Others are lacking in any thoughtful reflection of educational effectiveness as related to the learning mission of the university. This suggests the need for the schools to continue to refine their learning goals and methods for demonstrating student achievement within the major.
The challenge for the faculty and administration is to work together to seek credible methods of evaluation of student learning that yield meaningful information and justify expenditure of faculty and student time and institutional resources.
Graduate
In discussions with members of the visiting team, each of the professional programs (counseling psychology and education, law, business, and engineering) demonstrated evidence of faculty engagement with the learning goals and mission of both the university and the school. In our conversations, the deans and chairs provided some examples of ways in which the commitment to the three core values are interwoven into the curriculum, clinical work, and applied projects. However, the learning goals for the graduate programs are less clearly articulated and connected to university learning goals than those at the undergraduate level. To demonstrate educational effectiveness in the professional graduate programs, the faculties are encouraged to develop learning outcomes and assessment approaches that are consistent with their applied, professional focus and the university’s mission.
An element that may assist the continued development of graduate programs in this area is the move of specialized accreditation agencies (ABET, AACSB, NCATE) toward a mission-driven demonstration of student learning and educational effectiveness. This would allow the professional graduate programs to focus their creative energy on student learning outcomes consistent both with accreditation standards and institutional direction.
Co-curricular support of learning outcomes
A sign of institutional strength is the successful integration of its curricular and co-curricular programs so that its learning outcomes are reinforced in and outside of the classroom. An environment rich in learning opportunities is evident at Santa Clara University. The Freshman Residential Community program is an example of support for creating a community of scholars. Many community-based service learning programs (such as the Eastside Program and Central American Immersion Project) are impressive in their connection to the campus mission and learning goals. Further, the commitment to meet the learning needs of a diverse student body is also a conscious element in program planning and further enriches the learning community.
Use of assessment data for program improvement
Given the relatively short time between design and implementation of its commitment to learning outcomes, the university is just beginning to demonstrate that it is using assessment data consistently for decision making and program improvement. This use of data in decision making is critical as the university continues its quest for enhancement of educational quality. Hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions must be based on explicit criteria related to student learning. While a strong connection is evident between strategic planning and assessment of student learning, it is less clear how budgetary decisions are connected to the high value placed on the enhancement of student learning outcomes.
Faculty and administration appear to agree that the evaluation of teaching will be improved by an increasing focus on the assessment of student learning. This will necessitate a revision of the student evaluation of teaching instrument, along with a multi-faceted approach toward the evaluation of teaching excellence including peer evaluation of classroom teaching, examination of student learning materials, and other strategies directly related to learning. Faculty within the College of Arts and Sciences are currently experimenting with evaluation instruments that combine teaching evaluation and assessing learning outcomes.
Challenges: Organizational structures and resources
We consistently found evidence of a strong campus culture with a clear sense of communal agreement of the importance of learning outcomes. Many faculty members spoke of the consensus on competence, conscience, and compassion as a vehicle for focusing academic discussions and providing a commonality of purpose.
The faculty expressed a concern for the time commitment, the expertise, and resources needed to evaluate - in meaningful ways - student learning. They struggle with gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to enhance the assessment of the learning outcomes. Frequent references were made to the need for a university-wide re-commitment to faculty development. Some faculty mentioned the loss of an important resource a few years ago with the decision to eliminate the faculty development programs previously offered by the Teaching and Learning Center. Whether faculty development is accomplished through a university-wide center or the placement of this activity within the schools or a combination of the two, successful implementation of this is necessary to enhance the vision and strategic plan. The team recommends that the university link teaching and learning with a systematic, multi-year faculty development plan for assessment support.
Further, the university is encouraged to clarify administrative accountability for institutional assessment of student learning and educational effectiveness. While many functions may appropriately be performed best in a decentralized structure, oversight at the provost level would likely strengthen the effort to ensure that the university collectively meets its stated goals of educational effectiveness.
For example, the administration indicated that no formal program reviews were completed within the past two years. Instead faculty and administrative energy was devoted to strategic planning and to developing programs, specific goals, and student learning outcomes. The team recommends that the administration, with strong faculty participation, move quickly in implementing a systematic approach to program review. Of course, the effectiveness of student learning at both undergraduate and graduate levels would be at the core of the review. However, the overall review at the provost level would allow for an institutional view that transcends individual departments and schools.
In the Self-Study, institutional research is defined as primarily focused on administrative decision making. And the assumption is that the Office of Institutional Research will continue this focus because it does not have sufficient staffing and time to devote to the "academic" assessment. However, given the centrality of the assessment of learning outcomes in the strategic plan, the IR Office should be seen as a resource to the review process. Within this context, the team recommends that the university consider a redefinition of or an expanded role for institutional research. This would enhance academic planning. Also, increased resource allocation for learning assessment should be included in budget planning.
III. Community of Scholars/Integrated Education
As Santa Clara University moves forward seeking to achieve its vision of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion," it believes that diversity represents both an on-going challenge and a significant opportunity. For this reason, the visiting team opens its discussion on the Self-Study’s two key themes with an evaluation of diversity on the Santa Clara campus.
Diversity: The On-Going Challenge and Opportunity
Institutional Strengths
Santa Clara University recognizes the significance of gender and ethnic diversity in meeting institutional goals. The university is making great progress in creating a positive climate throughout the campus. Meetings with students, faculty and staff produced many positive comments about the changed climate while stressing the need for continued improvement.
The visiting team commends the university for the positive campus climate. It is clear that the administration is taking a pro-active approach to diversity issues. The administration is accessible to students, faculty and staff. The consequences of these actions could result in Santa Clara University becoming an exemplar of campus diversity.
The team notes the developing infrastructure that is designed to influence the way the university acts to implement diversity initiatives. Over the past decade grants from the Irvine Foundation have allowed the university to address issues of faculty recruitment, curriculum development and organizational growth. The most recent grant, Partnerships for Diversity, focuses on the development of a comprehensive strategy to expand and strengthen diversity initiatives. The team is impressed by the careful thought and design revealed in this program. Over 120 faculty and staff have volunteered to become associates in this initiative and work toward improving the campus climate. The plans for institutionalizing the programs developed out of this initiative could make Santa Clara a model in the new millennium. However, achievement of such a goal will require continued diligence and commitment to all of the multiple dimensions of a successful diversity effort.
The visiting team is very impressed with the off-campus initiatives that positively impact diversity and contribute to creating a "Community of Scholars" and to providing "An Integrated Education." The Central American Immersion Program is a wonderful opportunity for faculty to develop links with each other that transcend colleges and disciplines. Immersed in Central American communities for up to two weeks, faculty members come to a deeper understanding of themselves and their common bonds with each other. This experience builds links that will ultimately affect their work on campus—and their pedagogical strategies. Faculty members speak passionately about the positive consequences of this program. We are persuaded that it is a small but consequential contribution to developing a sense of community among the faculty as well as institutionalizing the principles of competence, conscience and compassion.
The Eastside Project has a similar consequence for students and faculty. This program permits students in a number of courses to work in community projects and receive credit for their learning experience. Students may also volunteer for projects. The impact of such involvement leads students to reflection and insights that make them better persons as well as better students. Their education becomes much more holistic. Students find that participation in the Eastside Project has major consequences for their life choices as well as on their academic studies.
Challenges
The team notes the insufficient representation of women and minorities in the Board of Trustees and the senior administration. In our view it is imperative that serious efforts are made to provide leadership from underrepresented groups at the very top. When the intuitive understandings, counsel and insights of women and minorities are missing as major policy issues are deliberated, as resources are allocated, and as new directions are contemplated, the campus community as a whole is lessened. There will be greater confidence in the outcomes if people feel their views and voices are present in the considerations.
Question 3, at the end of the chapter, The Community of Scholars, asks how to assure a greater representation of women and minorities in campus leadership. In a similar way, the president suggested that the university needs to be aware that "diversity" means more than just increasing the numbers. Strategies to expand the pool of leadership might include:
The need to increase the number of minority and women faculty is and will be a constant and on-going effort. The team cannot emphasize this enough. Their increased presence means that their voices will influence decision-making, will insure that the curriculum supports multiculturalism and diversity, and will enhance the university’s vision. Some progress has been made since 1987 with the numbers of African Americans on the faculty increasing from 6 to 10, Hispanic/Latinos from 8 to 19, and Asian/Asian Americans from 14 to 35. More impressive is the increase in women in tenure-track positions, an increase from 18% to 31%. Continuing to diversify the faculty requires an even stronger commitment within the system of faculty governance. Deans and faculty must go beyond traditional approaches in carrying out search and recruitment processes. They must develop more creative approaches to reviewing and assessing candidates—without compromising academic quality.
However the recruitment and appointment of faculty of color and women are not sufficient to ultimately transform institutional culture. To retain and support minority faculty members requires creative approaches to mentoring and professional development if these faculty are to meet the multiple demands on their lives including the fulfilling of normal university expectations for promotion and tenure.
While significant progress has been made since 1987 and the overall enrollment of minority students is impressive (40% of the student body), African-American, Latino and Native American students are still seriously under-represented. Although the number of African-American students has increased from 109 to 182 since 1987, this represents an increase from 1.4% to only 2.4% of the student body. Among Latino students, the change is somewhat more impressive with the numbers increasing from 377 to 773, moving from 5% to 10% of the student population. Much of the increase has occurred in the College of Arts and Sciences, rather than the professional programs. Furthermore, six-year graduation rates for Latino, African-American and Native American students are lower than the impressive rates for white and Asian-American students. The campus faces a significant challenge in recruiting and retaining under-represented minority students.
In reaching out to women and minorities the diversity initiatives must impact the entire campus community and particularly its academic components. A cohesive, comprehensive, sensitive academic program with appropriate co-curricular supports will help students transform their undergraduate experience into a culture of success and high achievement.
Diversity initiatives are not just for minorities. Majority students, faculty and staff benefit significantly from such programs and need them as much, if not more, than women and minorities. The curriculum affords Santa Clara an opportunity to enhance the diversity education of faculty and students. Therefore the visiting team is concerned that the ethnic studies component of the Core is only required of students in the College of Arts and Sciences. If the university is to achieve its goals it will be necessary to ensure that all Santa Clara graduates become engaged with diversity issues.
We are also concerned that issues concerning staff be included in the development of a positive campus climate. Minority staff members feel they have a lot to offer the campus because of their unique perspectives as well as their strategic placement throughout the institution. They often encounter students in ways and at times that make them excellent institutional resources. If there were ways that staff members can be utilized, without compromising their institutional obligations, the benefits to the university would be substantial. Furthermore, staff can be a source of personnel for higher level positions were it possible for them to be trained and mentored by senior administrators.
Caveat: "Listen Eloquently"
It is clear that Santa Clara University has made enormous progress in campus diversity since the last accreditation visit. In spite of continuing challenges the changes are both evident and impressive. What is more, intensive discussions with minority staff, students and faculty, as well as women, reveal admiration, respect and support for administrative leadership. However such progress leads to higher expectations.
We sense a need for even more effective means of administrative communication and interaction with the diverse constituencies at Santa Clara University. The changing population on the campus along with the heightened expectations creates a "dynamic tension" that has the potential to be creative and flourish or to become unproductive, or to explode. Managing such a "dynamic tension" is not easy. Yet effective communication is a major step toward constructive outcomes. Listening with the "third ear", seeing with the "third eye" and "deep learning" can lead to productive insights. Even when people do not get the results they seek they must feel they are being heard, they are understood and their concerns are heeded.
We heard students complain their views were not heard, their consultation was not sought, or their perspectives were ignored as administrative changes were under consideration. We believe the major difference in perspective is that students knew what they had in certain programs targeted for change, they knew what they would "lose" but they did not know what they would get that was better. In this case perception became reality.
We heard women and minority faculty members talk about a "culture of overwork" a "culture of self-sacrifice" that is perceived as overwhelming their personal and professional lives. While they recognize there are no easy or simple answers, they must feel they are being heard and there is an intuitive understanding of their motivation and desire to be at Santa Clara, as well as the emotional and personal costs of pursuing careers in higher education.
Minority faculty members want to respond to minority students yet they cannot effectively respond to increased numbers of students without slighting their personal and professional responsibilities. Women want to "do it all" yet they are overwhelmed by the expectation to be "endlessly available to students" while meeting personal and professional obligations. Students want faculty and administrators (particularly Jesuits) to be more available for co-curricular programs, for example, in the residence halls and the Benson Center, yet they expect them to govern and manage the university.
At a surface/administrative level these are unrealistic expectations, yet they are profoundly human and in a climate of "competence, conscience, and compassion" they are not surprising. If there are ways the administration can become more proactive in "listening eloquently" and communicating with the campus these "dynamic tensions" can have creative consequences. Thus, a campus community of conscience and compassion will have even higher levels of competence.
The Self-Study describes institutional efforts that "foster a vital intellectual community whose members collaborate as partners in learning and scholarship" (p. 61). As a whole, the university has made significant strides since the 1987 visit in the development of programs and structures that create an intellectual community, and foster intellectual collaboration and engagement with both the university and the surrounding communities.
The strategic vision statement in the 1998 Strategic Plan seems to define and focus the conversations on the campus around the development of the community of scholars. All levels of the institution, students, staff, administration and faculty are familiar with "competence, conscience, and compassion," and use them as benchmarks to assess strategies and performance. A banner with the three elements of the strategic vision hangs in the Benson Center; the orientation program for new students introduces students to these concepts through the discussion of ethical issues; faculty report the inclusion of these elements in the curriculum; and projects, such as The Eastside Project, and the Student Reflectors Program, bring the pedagogy of engagement, reflection, and justice into the classroom and academic life of the campus. As President Paul Locatelli, S.J., shared in his opening statement to the visiting team, "The strategic vision is a stake in the ground and we try to move everything toward it." We commend Santa Clara for the clarity of its vision and the ways in which the campus is invited and encouraged to participate in these values.
Fostering Intellectual Collaboration
Santa Clara University has a strong intellectual tradition, well grounded in Jesuit values. Students report being engaged in their classes; they find the academic work to be rigorous and meaningful. Santa Clara also has instituted a number of new programs and strengthened some already existing programs which foster intellectual collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and across constituent groups. A few deserve special note.
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum has undergone significant revision since the 1987 WASC visit. The theme-based nature of the Core, Community: Sense of Place and Person; Global Societies; Methods of Inquiry, Interaction and Analysis; Leadership: Integration and Perspective (p. 34, Bulletin; p. 63, Self-Study), fosters cross-disciplinary examination of a broad liberal arts base. The development of learning outcomes for each of these themes guides the approval process for inclusion, and the recently formed Undergraduate Core Curriculum Committee has encouraged discussions between faculty in various disciplines about the nature of the liberal arts experience.
The team notes the absence of a systematic avenue for all students to become more mindful of the complexities of the increasingly diverse American culture. Although all Arts and Sciences students are required to take either an ethnic studies or gender studies course as part of the Core requirements, other students do not share this requirement. Although the United States component of the Core may introduce students to these issues, the requirement does not insure that this will occur. More faculty discussion is needed about the importance of developing these perspectives in an increasingly multi-cultural world.
Other Interdisciplinary Programs
Other interdisciplinary programs are available on campus, but seem to serve a very small number of students. Although the faculty in the interdisciplinary minors (including Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Asian Studies) find their work in program development and implementation stimulating and exciting, relatively few students (10%) opt to take these minors. This pattern deserves some additional scrutiny by the institution to assess if there are barriers (either structural or philosophical) that discourage students from taking this route. It will also be interesting to see if the largely positive experiences of students in the freshman residential learning communities, which have interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary components through linked courses, will encourage students to seek this mode of learning more in their upper division work.
Cross-listed courses provide another avenue for interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work. Currently 14% of courses are cross-listed, bringing students from more than one discipline together to examine an issue or theme. The Centers of Distinction also bring together faculty who might not ordinarily collaborate around broad themes such as ethics.
Reading Groups
Reading groups, both those formally sponsored by Centers of Distinction (p. 68 SS) and informally developed by faculty, provide an additional avenue for intellectual engagement across disciplinary boundaries and foster the feeling of a community of scholars. Faculty (and sometimes staff) come together regularly to discuss readings in Critical Theory, Political Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Ethics, or Technology. The administration supports these efforts by providing some small funding for materials and refreshments.
Challenges
Different Experiences: Graduate Students
There are many examples of a culture that supports faculty/undergraduate student collaboration. The new labs in the science building are fostering enhanced participation of students in faculty research projects, and the performance arts area provides opportunities for faculty and students to collaborate on the writing and production of theatrical and musical performances. The inclusion of common spaces in all the new buildings is creating gathering areas that encourage students to interact with each other and with faculty.
Throughout this visit, it is clear to the team that faculty and administrators, most staff members and a number of the students embrace Santa Clara University’s vision of "educating men and women for competence, conscience, and compassion." There is definitely a spirit of collaboration, enthusiasm and shared ownership in this vision. However, the voice of graduate students is missing in this discussion and it isn’t clear that their voices had been sought out in the Self-Study report (fewer than ten pages in the report pertained directly to graduate students).
The graduate programs are all professional in nature and a majority of the students are working adults. Graduate degrees at the Masters level are offered in Business, Engineering, Counseling Psychology & Education (CP&E), and Pastoral Studies. The College of Engineering offers to a few students the opportunity to pursue the Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. In addition, certificate programs are offered in CP&E. These professional programs are important to the university’s educational mission and serve over 2,700 graduate students. (See Exhibit III.1.9 and III.1.11, Self-Study)
To facilitate the schedules of this part-time student population, Santa Clara University has developed some innovative programs that allow students to attend classes either very early in the mornings (e.g., 7-9 a.m.) or later in the evenings (e.g., 7-10 p.m.). It appears that most of these students take one to two courses each quarter, thus taking up to five or six years to complete their degree programs. All of the graduate programs have been rated highly by the various disciplinary associations.
Connecting the graduate students to the campus and to a community of scholars is a very real challenge. Several brief college-based orientation programs are mentioned in Law and Business, but not much else. In the Self-Study (p. 74) mention is made that graduate students don’t seem to be engaged in the "cultural life of the university community beyond their specific schools." Much of this may be due to minimal communication that appears to be happening between the university/schools/departments and the graduate students.
During the team’s visit, it wasn’t clear how the university communicates with graduate students. For example, is there an effective e-mail list available to and relevant for graduate students to announce campus-wide events and deadlines for their specific programs? Are there other ways to communicate the programs that support the vision and mission of the university? Are there gathering places where graduate students can feel comfortable studying or meeting with other graduate students and/or faculty? Are lounges, such as the one that serves the MBA students, successful gathering places? It may be worthwhile to conduct a needs assessment or graduate student focus groups to determine what services they would like to see and what they think might be done to help connect them to the campus community.
It came to our attention that there isn’t a Graduate Student Assembly or something similar through which graduate students can share their concerns and relate to the larger university community. If the ASSCU (Associated Students of Santa Clara University) doesn’t effectively include graduate student representatives, it may be worthwhile to make sure there is graduate student representation in that body or to create a separate body for graduate student concerns.
International graduate students are typically full time and tend to be majoring in engineering or business. The Self-Study indicates (p. 75) that these students may have needs that differ from the typical part-time graduate student. However, it is not clear that effective programs exist to help these students feel connected to the rest of the campus and to adjust to attending school in a different country.
Academic Programs
The team has a serious concern about the role and future of the Division of Counseling Psychology & Education (CP&E). Though the faculty with whom the team met appeared to be very enthusiastic and dedicated, the programs seem to be in jeopardy due to a lack of personnel and financial support. Adjunct or part-time faculty members teach a majority of the Division’s courses. It is the team’s understanding that the Educational Administration program has no tenured faculty members and that the directors of this program are Lecturers. Teacher Education has three tenured faculty members and two tenure-track faculty members. At this time, there is an acting director who oversees this whole division and a search in progress for a permanent one. The team believes that the Division needs to be thoroughly reviewed in order to determine if these programs can contribute significantly to the university’s mission and to the creation of a community of scholars.
Faculty Issues
Faculty identified a number of potential barriers to the development of a true community of scholars. Although these are clearly of different weight, each of these deserves some attention by the university.
Santa Clara University is developing strong programs that reflect commitment to integrated education. Many of these programs bring together curricular and co-curricular life, building an environment that supports and fosters the intellectual and personal development of their students. Santa Clara has taken active and creative steps since the last WASC visit to develop the structures and programs to support the university's stated vision of the "holistic treatment of students." The new model frames the work of student affairs more explicitly in terms of motivating and supporting student involvement (p. 69), although problems with the implementation with the model seem to exist. A number of the programs discussed in the Self-Study and in this report clearly contribute to this goal.
The Jesuit tradition of the institution fosters an examination of faith in students' lives, yet supports this examination in whatever faith they bring to the campus. Students who come to Santa Clara from faiths other than Catholic or who had not yet examined the question of faith in their lives appreciate the value of the Jesuit tradition and the religious studies requirement. They reported that Santa Clara fosters an environment in which questions of faith and justice can be examined in relationship to a modern world. The Core requirement in religious studies allows for study of variety of religious practices. Santa Clara also makes efforts to provide appropriate support for worship for those who are not of the Catholic faith. The Jesuit tradition also supports the intentional inclusion of justice work and the exploration of ethics across the curriculum and strategies for seeking deeper engagement with the world.
Santa Clara, as well as all Jesuit institutions, will be challenged in the next decade to expand on programs that bring faculty and staff into the Jesuit tradition and introduce them to the university’s values. Lay faculty and staff will be the ones who must give life to this tradition, given the decreasing number of Jesuits who will be available for teaching, administrative or staff positions.
Programs fostering an integrated education: Examples
Residential Learning Communities
The Residential Learning Communities initiative (pp. 38 and 118ff, Self-Study) is resulting in increased involvement by faculty members in the residence halls through linked courses that involve both faculty and staff. Students enrolled in these programs are very positive about the ways these learning communities provide a more integrated experience for them and ease their adjustment from high school and home to college. Faculty report livelier classes and more engaged students. The learning communities not only create a cohort of students with a common academic experience, but the residential component also encourages the blurring of the lines between classroom and residence hall, between curricular and co-curricular activities.
As the campus moves to extending this program to all first-year students, a number of questions might be explored. Moving to full-scale implementation may require the recruitment of new faculty to this program. Are there adequate support mechanisms in place for faculty and staff development and for planning so that linked courses can be more than simple parallel experiences for students? Is participation in the learning communities adequately represented in the faculty reward structure? Will the increased participation of students in this program lead to an interest in more opportunities for this kind of experience in the other Core courses or the major? Should an Eastside experience be a common part of these learning communities? Has enough discussion and education of the campus been accomplished so that both staff and faculty are valued for their contributions and perspectives in these linked partnerships of faculty and staff?
Eastside Project
The Eastside Project has a fifteen-year history of providing opportunities for students to integrate work in the surrounding communities with their academic classes. About one thousand placements are made each year. Students who participate describe these experiences as enriching and transforming their lives, changing paradigms, career plans, and perspectives. We commend Santa Clara for seeking to increase external support for this program. The Jesuit community has recently provided a million-dollar endowment to enhance this program. This endowment will allow the program to move beyond the role of "brokering placements" for faculty with community agencies to supporting initiatives to deepen the academic component and integrate Eastside experiences into the Core. Thus, this kind of connected learning can become more common in the Santa Clara experience (p. 68; p. 124, Self-Study). The faculty members and staff who are involved in the Eastside Project and the Residential Learning Communities may want to collaborate on strategies to include the Eastside experiences in the learning communities.
Connection of these programs to academic classes seems to be a critical part of the students' experience. Students and faculty alike report that classroom reflection is a very important component that strengthens the experience and helps to sort out confusing situations. Eastside staff and faculty participants report that it is a struggle to help faculty view Eastside as a true academic experience, not just a service adjunct, analogous to the Santa Clara Community Assistance Program (SCCAP). Some of the new initiatives planned may help educate more faculty members about the benefits of an Eastside component in their courses. The student participants themselves are articulate ambassadors for the program and could be used effectively.
The team also offers additional suggestions. The university might create "ladders of engagement", that is the development of opportunities for graduated and sequential Eastside experiences in some major programs, and might expand the ways that participation in the Eastside program be included in the faculty reward structure.
Student Reflectors Program
The Student Reflectors Program is an innovative program that exemplifies an integrated educational experience. Students in this program report that not only do they learn skills to help others reflect on both curricular and co-curricular events on campus, they also develop skills through the program to help them put together their own experiences and think about issues both in and out of the classroom. They report shifts in paradigms as a result of their work as Reflectors. As one student said, "Lots of people have answers, few have good questions. This program has helped me learn to ask better questions."
Faculty Advising Model and Orientation
Student and faculty responses to the recently implemented advising model seem quite positive. Although the implementation is new, faculty advisors report that they hope for more consistent, effective services and better referrals. The advising system seems to be constructed with the goals of advancing student learning and helping the institution systematically identify those students who may need additional resources and support. Joint appointments of advisors with the recently established Drahmann Advising and Learning Resources Center and academic departments and/or the Center for Multicultural Learning may enhance the efforts toward building a more integrated experience for students.
The new structure is also providing opportunities for some programs to work more collaboratively. Orientation programs now include planning by both faculty and staff and have matured over the past three years with an increased emphasis on the academic and philosophic life of the campus through seminars on common readings and discussions of ethical issues. The introduction of students to the values of compassion, conscience, and competence begins with the orientation. We encourage the university to continue to find ways to provide orientation programs for first-year students who are not able to attend the summer orientation session because of distance, expense or conflicts with summer work.
Challenges
Graduate Students
It may be that because the vast majority of the graduate students are part-time, they do not share an appreciation for the vision of the university. The team suggests that an orientation program, combining the best of the undergraduate and the faculty orientations, could introduce the new graduate students to the rich Jesuit education tradition at Santa Clara.
The team also suggests that the curriculum, though professionally-based, could incorporate aspects of the university’s strong liberal arts and Jesuit tradition. The Self-Study (pp.141-144) offers examples of ways that certain themes or perspectives are being incorporated into the curriculum. These include such themes as international, multicultural, environmental, technological, and ethical. The team believes that these themes are especially critical to the integration of the professional and graduate education and the university’s vision. In fact, examples exist where the Business and Engineering schools have developed mission-driven programs. The School of Engineering has a number of programs that support the retention of minority students and the dean of the School of Business is investing in service learning and leadership programs. Additional academic opportunities, similar to the East San Jose Community Law Center and the Eastside Future Teachers Program, could be developed for business and engineering graduate students.
Currently, most opportunities for integrated learning at the graduate level seem to be through programs jointly given by the various Centers of Distinction. It is unclear how many of the graduate students take part in these programs, although they are available. Integration among various colleges or graduate programs is also not clearly evident. For example, engineering students work with people from the various areas of engineering, but seldom collaborate with faculty or students from Arts & Sciences. We recognize that because the students are part-time and spend little time on campus, such opportunities may be limited.
The Reorganization of Student Affairs
The new advising model is a small component of the larger reorganization of university into the "Provost model." The reorganization of the Student Affairs functions and integration with Academic Affairs is clearly consistent with the mission of developing a more integrated experience for students. The changes have promise for helping the institution move toward these goals and assure the inclusion of staff, faculty and students in planning.
In discussions with those most affected by the changes, some believed that although the product of a more integrated model may be good, the process employed in developing it was flawed. Some staff reported that their initial 'cautious optimism' about the program was quickly replaced by frustration at their lack of voice in the process and the sporadic and incomplete communication about the model as it developed. One staff member reported that the new model felt like a "takeover, not a collaborative effort." As a result, some are left demoralized and unsure of their place in the university they love. They feel that their skills, perspectives and expertise are not valued, and that they are not true partners in a community of scholars providing an integrated education. They believe that have come more than half way to build what should be a collaborative model and that most faculty and the administration do not recognize their efforts.
The team recommends that some work needs to be done to rebuild the good will that was eroded by the reorganization. We recognize that change is always difficult, and this particular change pushes against the traditional culture and divisions of higher education. The model itself is exciting and may lead Santa Clara toward the goal of a more integrated education, but the campus culture needs to be developed to support these new roles and ideas. Faculty development may be particularly important as faculty members are expected to enter into more collaborative partnerships with staff. Student Affairs professionals are more likely to have a clear idea of the roles and skills that faculty bring to the learning environment than vice versa. If members of these groups are going to work together collaboratively in a community of scholars, then clear understandings of the value each brings to the team need to be clarified and supported by the administration and other leadership.
IV. Resources For Excellence
To increase collaboration and integration of important service functions, the academic support unit, identified as the division of "Information Services," was formed in 1997 consisting of three separate units: Information Technology (academic and administrative computing), Media Services, and the Orradre Library. This larger unit resides within the Provost’s area, reporting to the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and University Planning.
Information Services (IS) has made important contributions to the academic and administrative functions of the community since the last accreditation visit. The group has made significant progress in supporting the teaching, learning, scholarship, and administrative activities of the university, and has demonstrated strong commitment to the strategic initiatives of developing a community of scholars, supporting integrative education, and focusing resources for excellence. The Information Services Self-Study is an impressive document, evidencing deep self-reflection and a clear, comprehensive look at the external environment impacting the role of IS within the Santa Clara University community.
Orradre Library
The library is responding very positively to technology. It has automated its administrative processes and implemented an online public access catalog, OSCAR. It provides an impressive array of electronic resources including databases, electronic journals, and website access to resource sharing with other libraries. Training and user support for these resources, as well as for the more traditional, print-based materials, are offered to the community through workshops held at the library and as part of regular classes, "liaisons" for each academic department, individual consultation with reference librarians, and handouts and signage throughout the library. These offerings are advertised in various ways, such as on the library’s web page, signs and printed material within the library. Also since the last accreditation visit, two significant reviews of the library collection have been made, and a Collection Development Policy created to assist in decision-making and prioritization. This policy document is available to the community via the library’s web page.
The library as a physical facility, however, remains inadequate in terms of both aesthetics and functionality of space. This is reflected in faculty and staff satisfaction surveys, discussions with staff, faculty, and students, and from the team’s visits to the library. The ambience of the internal structure is not in keeping with the rest of the campus. Although renovation of the existing building and/or creation of a new building were considered in the 1980’s, and continue to be considered in various planning documents, such as the new Five-Year Master Plan for Facilities, limited progress has been made. The last accreditation team recommended improvement of facilities, also. A physical presence, or metaphor, that is usually embodied in the library, benefits learning communities. The university’s library, to a large degree, cannot provide this important function because of inadequate facilities. The opportunity to create a physical center, which could help lead students, faculty, and staff to a virtual center, for the university’s learning community, is a priority in the new Five-Year Master Plan for Facilities. The library would be much more effective in supporting the university’s strategic initiatives of developing a community of scholars and providing integrative educational opportunities with a new facility. We recommend that this opportunity be pursued aggressively.
Information Technology
A very strong service orientation characterizes the Information Technology (IT) unit and has led to ambitious goals for training and user support for the university community. Effective and efficient data and voice communication systems have been developed, and a renewal/replacement plan is in place for hardware and software at both the infrastructure and user application levels. IT is taking advantage of its location within the Silicon Valley to create strategic partnerships with vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, 3-Comm, Dell, Lucent, and Novell. In this way, IT supports, through various technologies, a solid infrastructure upon which the university provides learning, teaching, and research opportunities.
The primary technology policy development group is the Technology Steering Committee (TSC), an active group representing diverse interests of the university. The TSC has been very successful in garnering strong commitment throughout the community for technology and, through activities such as the Technology Funds Programs, encourages and supports innovative uses of technology to support the university’s mission, vision, and values. A long-term plan, "A Strategy for Technology at Santa Clara University" was developed in 1995 and later revised in January of 1996. A companion document, "A Short-Term Technology Plan" which specified intended outcomes for the university’s continued investment in technology, was developed. In 1997, the Committee adopted a "Plan for Classrooms" which provides minimum standards to support the use of technology in all spaces used for instruction. In this way, the TSC addresses the daunting task of planning for the university’s technology needs.
Tension exists regarding the provision of IT services between the efficiency of centralization and the user convenience of decentralization. While this tension is not currently a barrier to service and support, it should be resolved. The current practice of offering some central services (e.g., using the MultiMedia Lab and the Orradre Library for most training) and some decentralization (e.g., computer labs in several classroom buildings) provides a model for continuing to address the tension that comes with technology. However, in implementing the initiative, "Focusing Resources for Excellence", the IT staff are spread very thin. IT is overly dependent upon student assistance, and cannot hope to take advantage of the wonderful resources now in place throughout the community.
Administrative computing has worked very hard to implement "PeopleSoft", a sophisticated, integrated administrative system, which will provide both efficiencies and opportunities for expanded services. In the Human Resources and Financial areas, for example, this system which has been implemented is already providing, to varying degrees, these benefits. Like most other institutions of higher education today, the university has been ambitious and lessons learned from this endeavor have already served the community well.
The temptation to become a leader in technology, while strong in this geographical location, is not the mission of the university. Rather the university has the opportunity to become a leader in the use of innovative technology in the service of developing a community of scholars in the Jesuit tradition. As with academic computing, a focus on training and user support, and in particular, on sharing of effective strategies across functional departments, to effectively use current technologies may be appropriate. A lack of redundancy for IT’s mission-critical systems (voice and data structures), as pointed out in the Self-Study, continues to be a concern about the stability and reliability of the systems in place.
Media Services
Media Services is responsible for supporting and facilitating the application of media technology, information technology, and non-print media resources for teaching, learning, research, and administrative services. Assessment evidence garnered from interviews during the team visit indicates a high degree of satisfaction by faculty and staff with these services. Results of satisfaction surveys administered last year for assessment of technology in general to support teaching, learning, research, and administration are mixed, however. Of particular importance is instructional technology help. Two positions, with only one staffed to date, exist to support this critical function. The same situation exists for the continued development and maintenance of the university’s website. If the university hopes to become a true learning community of scholars that provides an integrative education for its students, additional resources must be provided to support the effective and innovative use of technology resources already in place.
The inevitable frustration by new users of technology when faced with change and the university’s very ambitious goals may account for these results. As mentioned above, the location of this community within the Silicon Valley may also raise expectations. The challenge for all universities is the difficulty of increasing the resources for training and user support to keep pace with the increasing demand for technology.
Summary
Information Services, in its Self-Study, includes a description of their members’ roles and responsibilities; challenges; goals; evidence of performance; and actions taken to advance the university’s strategic directions. It is a very impressive, reflective, and candid document that should assist IS in decision-making, planning, and prioritization of resources.
The effectiveness of this group would be improved with the creation of a leadership position, possibly a Chief Information Officer. This person would advocate on behalf of this function and be accountable to the community for the group’s success. Ideally, this leader would report directly to the Provost and maintain a close relationship with the Development Office. Such a position would bring this important function to the front and center of the university, allowing it to fulfill a critical role in supporting the implementation of the strategic initiatives.
The current fragmentation, or at least physical dispersion, of information resources and services will be alleviated, if and when the proposed new facility is built. The past delays in renovating the library or developing a new facility have seriously affected the effectiveness of this group, and in particular, the success of the library in supporting the university’s mission, vision, and goals. The library could, and should, play a leadership role in creating a true learning community of scholars for the university. It also should lead efforts in providing an integrative education for students, given its cross- and multi-disciplinary focus. Again, the strengthening of the organizational structure and a new facility would help IS to move to center stage, where it would become a very effective resource for the university.
Additionally, a more expanded view of training and user support for information resources, as it supports independent, lifelong learning and community building, would also greatly help all community members (students, faculty, staff, and alumni). The library contributes to the academic enterprise of the university by helping community members "learn how to learn." Articulating this endeavor as a necessary step to developing a learning community could help the library more fully participate in the strategic initiatives.
The Human Resources function is making significant contributions to the development of an effective community of scholars, and to the provision of an integrative education for its students. For example, staff, at all levels and across all functional areas, appear to be very much a part of the academic enterprise, committed to the university’s vision of competence, conscience, and compassion. This was strongly evidenced during discussions with staff during the visit week, as well as from readings of various written materials directed at, or authored by, staff. Staff commitment to implementing the experiment with residential learning communities is an example of their willingness and ability to think deeply and act responsibly in operationalizing the strategic initiatives.
The HR staff has developed and implemented an effective new performance evaluation system, "Partnership for Performance." This system receives high marks from staff at all levels and across all functional areas. It is hoped that this new system, in addition to increased sensitivity to the effects of housing prices, will reduce the increasing rate of staff turnover. The rate of 23% last year needs to be carefully monitored to determine if it represents an internal or external problem. Various strategies have been considered to help attract new staff and faculty hires with the high cost of housing. Innovated ways to cope with this problem should continue to be found and tried. The HR staff is also to be congratulated on its active role in the implementation of the PeopleSoft system and for its modeling an effective strategy for training and user support.
From discussions during the visit, it seems clear that some staff feel a "class distinction" between faculty and staff. A few staff shared their feeling that the university administration is "too distant" from both faculty and staff and that communication between these two levels (administration and faculty/staff) is problematic. Several staff suggested that faculty with supervisory responsibilities be required to take training to gain the skill set necessary to succeed with this difficult function. One should not assume that faculty, however bright and successful they are within their fields of teaching and research, and however well intentioned, can supervise and manage staff successfully without some training.
Santa Clara is committed to creating a physical environment that fosters academic excellence, promotes an integrated education and a community of scholars, and is sensitive to the ecology and historical heritage of the campus. The 1998 Strategic Plan identifies goals to support this commitment - a dynamic campus master plan, with a realistic and financially viable schedule for bringing needed facilities on-line over the next seven years, and a capital renewal program for repair and replacement.
Five-year Capital & Campus Plans: 1997-2001 & 2002-2006
Santa Clara currently has in place a Five-year Capital Plan & Campus Development Guidelines for the years 1997-2001. Most of the work identified in that document has been completed or is currently under construction. Recently the university published a new Five-year Capital Plan & Campus Development Guidelines for the years 2002-2006. Both documents are well-organized, condensed publications that combine text, graphics and photos to help readers understand the purpose, process, constraints and goals for campus improvements.
While the 2002-2006 document is impressive, some components are still in preliminary formative stages. One case in point appears to be the plan for Information Services. The Capital Plan identifies additional space requirements of 72,000 to 120,000 gross square feet, suggesting these may be added to the existing library. In the course of the team visit, WASC representatives heard a variety of different interpretations about this need. This suggests further consensus would be helpful to determine a project scope that will provide the needed improvements within budgetary constraints. In addition to the importance of the Information Services program to the scholarly life on campus, the library's location in the heart of campus will be an important architectural statement for the university.
Slightly more than half way through the current five-year planning cycle, the university has already completed an impressive set of projects totaling $58.4 million. These include a new Music and Dance Building, both an addition to and renovation of the Alumni Science, a new Arts & Sciences Building, a three-story parking structure, new athletic fields, major campus utility upgrades and a comprehensive recreational fitness center, the Pat Malley Center. Only two of the contemplated projects during this period remain. And both of these are under construction. A new support services building and a new student apartment building containing 244 beds are expected to be completed before the beginning of next academic year. These two final projects will increase the total cost for the five-year facilities improvements to $75.9 million. Both the quantity and quality of this construction deserve praise, especially for a campus that has had only limited new construction during the seventies and eighties. The 1997-2001 Plan also identifies as a goal the acquisition of properties north and south of campus. Several properties have been acquired, but significant progress will be dependent on when desired parcels are put up for sale.
The new Five-year Capital Plan & Campus Development Guidelines for the years 2002-2006 also offers an approach to ease the housing issues faced by current and future faculty. The discussions on campus during the team’s visit suggest that more needs to be done on providing assistance on housing. Team members heard on several occasions that the lack of affordable housing has reached a crisis stage. Apparently many job candidates from outside the Bay area are unwilling to relocate to the area because of the extremely high cost of housing. The frequency and fervor of these complaints suggest that additional housing for faculty, staff and students is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
Capital renewal program for repair and replacement of existing facilities and infrastructure
Usually when new construction is disrupting the campus and occupying the attention of the staff of the Facilities Department, it is difficult for them to concentrate on continuing maintenance and repair issues. To the credit of Santa Clara, the university is taking major steps to address this situation. Beginning in 1995-96 partial funding for a facilities replacement and renewal account was included in the budget. This allocation was increased annually until 1998-1999 when the university achieved the funding goal equal to 2 percent of the replacement cost for all campus improvements. Few schools are able to meet this standard established by the Association for Physical Plant Administrators (APPA) and the university deserves commendation for this important achievement.
Like many campuses, Santa Clara had deferred maintenance over the decades. With another capital infusion of $24 million from a recent debt financing, the university anticipates eliminating all accumulated deferred maintenance by 2001. Once these projects are completed and adequate renewal funds are in place, the university should be able to avoid future problems with the condition of all facilities.
The visiting team concludes that Santa Clara is generating, managing and conserving its financial resources to advance its mission and strategic initiatives. It is committed to the following goals to support the 1998 Strategic Plan:
Developing a comprehensive financial plan
The university has made significant improvements in the budgeting process since WASC’s last visit. The creation of a University Budget Council and a Budget Advisory Committee has broadened the discussion of budget issues throughout campus and developed a mechanism for feedback from the community. Financial planning has also expanded to include capital projects and debt financing. The $62 million of 30-year bonds, which were issued in 1996, represents an innovative approach to using the capital markets for project financing. The university may profit handsomely from this leveraged transaction, but it is important that it continues to understand the associated risks.
Improving fundraising performance
The success of the prior capital campaign in raising $134 million and the scope of the campaign being considered suggest that this lofty goal may be attainable. While an official goal will be identified early in 2000, the numbers currently being discussed are above those achieved in the prior campaign. Because most of the funds in the past came from a relatively small set of affluent donors, it is important for the Board of Trustees to provide the leadership for the campaign and to broaden the support for it, especially the support and level of giving from alumni.
Developing revenue streams consistent with the strategic direction of the university
The university is working in many areas to improve its non-tuition revenue. The most notable of these is the endowment fund. The growth of the value of the endowment is very impressive. Three factors are influencing this market value growth: contribution of new assets, investment performance, and the level of the spending policy. The most influential reason for the growth of the university’s endowment has been the contribution of new assets. In addition to the significant gifts raised in support of the university, the large increases in net tuition revenue have allowed the university to reinvest surplus funds into the endowment over the past several years.
Managing expenses to support the strategic direction of the university, making every effort to streamline processes, reduce costs, and reallocate funds where appropriate
Considerable evidence suggests that the university is actively working to support the strategic plan. By monitoring key ratios and reallocating expenses where possible, there is a high probability of success for this goal. Shifts of budgetary resources are difficult in culture bound institutions like universities, and Santa Clara appears to be on the leading edge in making this transformation.
Refining tuition and financial aid strategies
Santa Clara has spent considerable time and effort to develop a tuition strategy that reflects its market position. At the same time, it recognizes that tuition pricing must also include financial aid strategies that will enable it to recruit and retain its targeted student constituencies. Such a strategy requires being sensitive to the financial burdens of students and their families. To address a number of the financial issues the university has moved aggressively in increasing the price of undergraduate tuition.
The Board of Trustees adopted in May 1996 the statement on Tuition and Financial Aid Principles and Guidelines. In January 1997, the Finance Committee of the Board reviewed the implementation of those principles and guidelines. A fundamental component of the plan is to raise tuition to a rate equal to 95% of the mean tuition charged by a cohort of twenty-two private colleges and universities that have at least 60 cross admissions with prospective Santa Clara students. While there are several other components within the plan, it seems that this measure has been the most influential in current tuition pricing model. Since its implementation, the plan has provided significant increases in net tuition revenue to the university.
While it is hard to argue with the financial success of the plan, the university should be aware of two elements of risk related to the plan. First, the plan looks only at the tuition charged by competing private institutions and ignores the pricing of public universities. When four or five of the top six cross-admit institutions are public institutions, the university runs the risk of not monitoring the pricing of its major competitors. Second, the plan looks only at the list price of these institutions and ignores the net price charged to students after receiving financial aid. While these data are certainly more elusive, there are proxies available from a variety of sources. Because students' final enrollment decisions are often made based on net price versus the list price, the current plan risks not being aware of the university’s actual competitive position.
With the new tuition pricing model the net cost to students is going to accelerate more rapidly than in the past. Santa Clara has already reduced the percentage of need met from approximately 85% to 80%. Because the tuition discount for institutional aid is frozen at current levels of 19%, unless financial aid endowments increase rapidly, the percentage of unmet need will drop further. Thus there seems to be an inherent conflict between the goals of increasing the price of tuition and maintaining affordability to low and moderate income students.
The visiting team concludes this report with a number of suggestions and recommendations. These focus on five issues. We also offer two observations about the future. In emphasizing these five areas the team realizes that progress, in some cases impressive progress, is being made. However, these are areas that are critical to supporting the vision and the planning that the university community has boldly articulated and has committed itself to achieving. We are impressed with the competence of the faculty, the commitment of the staff, and the compassion of the students. The Self-Study is an excellent, well-written document that reflects extensive involvement of the Santa Clara community. It is based on the evidence that has been documented and it supports the university’s vision and strategic planning efforts. We are particularly impressed with the consensus and enthusiasm within the community for the vision and the plan.
Much of the success that Santa Clara University has experienced is due to the leadership of President Paul Locatelli, S.J., supported by an effective executive team of vice presidents and deans and committed faculty and staff. One faculty member offered the image that at Santa Clara "someone is driving the bus." The students particularly speak of a committed faculty and caring staff.
Critical Issues
Throughout the Self-Study are repeated references to the importance of and the commitment to creating a truly diverse and multicultural campus. The importance of this commitment is heightened for Santa Clara because it is also central to its vision of educating "students of competence, conscience, and compassion." This vision is reflected in the actions, as well as the rhetoric, from gardeners, to students, to university officers.
The university has become quite diverse in its student body and staff during the past decade. The number of Asian-American students has increased significantly, as well as to a lesser extent the number of Hispanic/Latino students. Enrollment efforts to recruit more African-American students are less successful. Similarly, increases are not impressive among the faculty and administrators.
The university’s major challenge is to share this emerging diverse community with students and faculty who come from groups that have been and still are underrepresented. It is especially important for the leadership to be sensitive to expectations that the university is creating through its commitment to "competence, conscience, and compassion." For all members of the community, especially for students, the absence of such sensitivity could lead to disenchantment and cynicism. An example of this is the controversies that surrounded the closing of the Student Resource Center and merging it into the new Center for Multicultural Learning and the Drahmann Advising and Learning Resources Center as well as the relocation of the Multicultural Center to the Shappell Student Lounge.
Minority and women faculty members speak positively about the President’s and Provost’s commitment and actions. Their concerns focus, however, on the changes that will be necessary in other areas, especially those that involve faculty responsibility. These include decisions about the curriculum, the hiring of faculty, and the evaluation of faculty. Faculty members, in general, must be willing to broaden the curriculum, to recognize the contributions of minority faculty that flow from their being role models for minority students, to award all faculty for their involvement in interdisciplinary teaching and research and experiential learning. The team is also concerned that the new Core Curriculum fails to insure that all students are introduced early to the complexities of racial and gender issues found in American society.
The team is quite impressed with the university’s maximizing the impact of the Irvine grants, especially the current one, "Partnerships in Diversity." The university is committed to base funding this program when the grant ends. More than one hundred faculty, staff and students have committed themselves to participate and to provide the leadership for this effort. Santa Clara is committed to the approach that "We act ourselves into new ways of thinking rather than think ourselves into new ways of acting."
Particular attention must be given to mentoring of minority and women faculty and staff who are targeted for leadership positions. For Santa Clara’s commitment to become real, it will be important to have their voices at the table when the executive officers and deans are making decisions. To assure this, the university must develop leadership from within, increasing the utilization of such programs as HERS and ACE (see p. 20). It is also important to prepare faculty committees to carry out searches that will produce a larger pool of minority applicants. This will insure that minority candidates will be interviewed and will be convinced to join the faculty if an offer is made.
To move the university to the next level – that is increasing the number of African-American and Hispanic/Latino students, especially in the professional programs, increasing the number of minority faculty, increasing the number of women and minorities in leadership positions, and allowing all to invest in and to influence Santa Clara’s vision – will require creative and proactive leadership. For example, building off the Eastside Future Teachers Program, the university could make a greater investment in faculty and staff to extend the educational pipeline to the university from schools and school districts that serve underrepresented groups in the Bay area. This would require the restructuring and expanding of the university’s commitment to the preparation of teachers.
Decision-Making Processes
The past five years have witnessed striking and positive changes at Santa Clara University. This report presents many of these accomplishments. What is impressive about the accomplishments and changes is that these are part of a whole, i.e. the building blocks that have formed and are supporting the vision and the strategic plan. These changes, in the words of President Paul Locatelli, S.J., are necessary to support the underlying values and principles of a Jesuit education. The changes were and are dramatic and needed. For the most part, the university leadership guides this change process with care and has achieved remarkable consensus for change.
We are impressed with the enormous good will and commitment that staff members have for Santa Clara. They speak of their love for the university and their enthusiastic endorsement of the vision of "competence, conscience, and compassion." This commitment places even more responsibility on the decision-making process to insure that the means as well as the ends are perceived as positive. Through conversations during the accreditation visit, we conclude that the reorganization of Student Affairs has generated resentment among both some staff and students. On one level the reorganization is itself an implementation of one of the recommendations from the 1987 WASC report. It also supports the twin initiatives of creating a community of scholars and providing an integrated education. Even the staff and students who are concerned recognize the benefits of this change. However, some feel that the process was damaging. They feel that their earlier work and dedication was not appreciated. Some feel that their good will has been squandered.
Some staff express two concerns; they share the impression that they and their operations are leaderless and that they are treated by some faculty, not as partners in the "community of scholars", but as simply servants. Leadership can deal with the first concern through communication, followed by action. The second is more difficult. Santa Clara, because of its commitment to the initiatives of creating a community of scholars and providing an integrated education, must address the implications of these initiatives on the historic differentiation of roles and responsibilities of faculty and staff. What are the implications for faculty governance, as staff members become increasingly active partners in providing a holistic education? What is the future of the model of "teaching scholar" as staff members take on both teaching and administrative responsibilities?
The team recognizes that change does not come without short-term costs, some anger and resentment. If change is not managed effectively, the negative effects of the means will destroy the benefits of the ends. We recommend that the leadership take time to reflect on what might have been done differently with this reorganization. This could insure the next phases of implementation and other reorganizations will be successful. It is very important to the success of the implementation of the strategic plan that the Drahmann Center and the Center for Multicultural Learning become successful models for integrating the educational goals of the university. We also believe that the university will face similar challenges in integrating the library, information technology and media services, not only together but also into its core missions - student learning and faculty scholarship.
The team agrees with the observations in the Self-Study that the university is struggling with assessment. Compared to many institutions, Santa Clara is taking giant steps forward in establishing a "culture of evidence". The university has identified learning outcomes and is collecting an impressive array of data. It is committed to "inquiry and evidence" and its agenda is ambitious. We also recognize that much remains to do. Although the level of frustration with the results of current efforts is apparent, we believe that through these processes, Santa Clara is becoming a learning community. We encourage the university to continue this journey. Assessment is critical for achieving the vision and insuring that the "culture of action" truly leads towards that vision.
Critical to future success is establishing an organizational structure that supports assessment and program review. Such a structure must be university-wide and have ultimate responsibility for insuring that curricular and co-curricular activities are fulfilling their stated outcomes and that these outcomes are consistent with the strategic plan. How much of the processes and procedures are centralized or decentralized will be Santa Clara’s decision. In the near future, the university will have to establish this institutional structure. This will require an investment of resources, as well as organizational changes. Such a structure should include or be closely related to the Office of Institutional Research and to the broader efforts of linking teaching, learning and assessment. One must also insure that the results of assessment, as well as program review, are tied to the process of allocating or reallocating resources.
Related to this is the team’s disappointment with the current efforts at program review. A currently held perception in the university is that such a process is simply bureaucratic and expensive. Although this may have been the case in the past, the team recommends that a systematic, university-wide program review process be implemented to support the vision and goals of the strategic plan. This is especially important for insuring the creation of a "community of scholars" among faculty, staff and students.
Graduate and Professional Education
The university has taken on an impressive challenge of creating a university-wide vision and strategic plan. An obvious tension is defining what this means in a university with nearly half of its undergraduate students enrolled in professional schools and 3,300 students pursuing professional post-baccalaureate degrees, with most of these students being part-time. These students may or may not be drawn to or sympathetic with Santa Clara’s vision. The Self-Study in what it includes and does not include on graduate education indicates the need of greater alignment between the professional programs and the vision of competence, conscience, and compassion. Santa Clara’s challenge is to be more aggressive in integrating the vision and the outcomes of professional education. It is important to articulate the differences of how the vision is manifested in the professional programs, that is, in the curricula, the stated learning outcomes, and the values of the students, especially at the graduate level. Supporting this approach are the professional accrediting agencies which are adopting and implementing expectations that such programs identify and measure student outcomes and that the programs reflect the larger mission of their university.
The Self-Study (pp. 141-143) discusses integrating a number of themes into the curriculum to support the institutional goals. These themes are International, Multicultural, Gender, Environmental, Technological, and Ethical. If these were given even more emphasis and investment, they would become significant bridges linking professional and liberal arts education and the undergraduate and the graduate professional programs and the university’s vision and strategic plan.
The team is concerned about the future of the Counseling Psychology and Education programs. We recommend that the university undertake a thorough review of the role of these programs and their place in the administrative structure. The education program especially needs a core of full-time faculty to deliver its range of programs. This investment in faculty and staff could also support the expanded partnerships between the university and public and private schools in the South Bay area. To achieve its diversity goals, the university must enlarge the educational pipeline and expand such efforts as the Eastside Future Teachers Program.
Library and Learning Resources
In the 1987 WASC Report, the visiting team made a number of recommendations concerning the library. These have been addressed to varying degrees. The current team is impressed with the investment in electronic resources, with the efforts to increase the collaboration among the library, information technology, and media services, and with the plans for new facilities by 2006. The team also heard, as did the team of 1987, of significant criticism by both faculty and students about the lack of library resources and inadequacy of the space and the physical facility.
The team believes that the university has missed opportunities to fully integrate these resources into the strategic planning and will face significant challenges in the future. Although the university and the library are investing significant funds in electronic resources, the effort appears to have met with limited success in educating faculty and students about the availability of these resources. We are disappointed by the absence of any reference to the role of the library within the Self-Study until the last chapter. The director of the library currently reports to the Vice Provost, along with the directors of Information Technology and Media Services. Given the potential role that the library, as well as the other two units, could have in enhancing the two key academic initiatives of the strategic plan, we recommend that the university revisit the organizational structure and its leadership
The team is concerned about the current fragmentation of learning resources. Although some steps are being taken to increase collaboration, the absence of a truly integrated group calls into question how much success the university will have in the future in addressing this challenge. If in the future the organizational structure is implemented that simply links the library, information technology, and media services as three equal parts, the role of the library as central to the "teaching scholar" and the "community of learners" will continue to be eroded.
Considering the Future: Two Observations
Centralization and Decentralization
Santa Clara faces, as do all universities, the challenge of determining the appropriate balance between the forces of centralization and decentralization. We believe that the university will need to become more centralized to achieve the common vision and to implement its planning goals. At the same time, it must avoid undue bureaucracy. Santa Clara University has very talented and committed deans. To insure that the university moves forward these individuals will have to surrender some of their autonomy in order to achieve the larger vision. This must be balanced by giving them more influence at the university level. In the same way, the faculty must share at the university level their responsibility and authority with staff who are also involved in creating the community of scholars and in integrating learning.
Planning Beyond 2006
Although the university is very successful in its current planning efforts, it must look beyond the present horizons to insure that decisions made today do not have a negative impact on future decisions. A number of external trends should be carefully considered even today as the university prepares for 2006 and beyond. These trends include the population growth of California, especially among minority groups, the accelerating growth of technology, the increasing links between the West Coast and Latin America and Asia, and the decreasing number of Jesuits. What demands will society place on higher education? How will Santa Clara University, with its vision, respond to the increasing need for higher education among the underrepresented groups? What is the appropriate size for Santa Clara in 2001, in 2006, in 2010? How will the university manifest its Jesuit tradition in ten or twenty years? How does the university prepare for that today? Will the commitment to "conscience and compassion" and the success of the Eastside Project continue to influence Santa Clara’s vision and increase its engagement with society?
Concluding Thanks
As a team, we wish to express our thanks to the members of the Santa Clara University community for their hospitality and support. It made our work, if not truly enjoyable, certainly rewarding. The support greatly contributed to the collegial working relationships that we established with one another and with the offices, staff, students, faculty and administrators. Don Dodson, Charles Erekson, Diane Cranor, Debby Aaron, Linda Jocewicz and others allowed the visit to move smoothly, virtually without problems, even the most minor.
Santa Clara is a unique university, one that is deeply rooted in a 148-year tradition. It is an institution that has experienced impressive change, a change that is driven by a commitment to insuring its values. The facilities are impressive; the strategic plan is a living document; and the heart of the university is truly its students, staff, faculty and administrative leaders.
As the team members carried out their group assignments, each member also had the responsibility of insuring that Santa Clara University is meeting the broad intent of one or more of the WASC Standards.
Through team meetings with faculty, administrators, staff and students and its review of the documentation provided, the team finds that Santa Clara University clearly exemplifies the values of American higher education. This is reflected in Santa Clara University’s commitment to academic freedom, to a vision of a diverse and dynamic community, and to truthfulness in how its presents itself. (Standard 1)
Santa Clara University has clearly defined its mission, institutional purposes, and vision. The campus community understands and supports these. Through aggressive strategic planning efforts, the University has established ambitious, yet reasonable, goals and initiatives and is creating an infrastructure and allocating resources to accomplish these goals. Assessment is being undertaken to an extent found on few campuses, although much remains to be done if Santa Clara is to accomplish its plan and move toward its vision. (Standard 2)
University leadership from the President to the University officers and the faculty, staff and students, is very effective. The current President, on taking office following the last WASC accreditation visit, has led the University through the development of a thoughtful and creditable response to issues raised by that visit and through a nine-year strategic planning process. These efforts give Santa Clara an ambitious vision and a living, dynamic strategic plan. The current success is a result of significant involvement by all university constituencies, especially an active and supportive Board of Trustees and a committed faculty. As a result of major changes in the faculty governance structures during the past ten years, faculty involvement in the decision-making processes has increased significantly. There exists an environment of shared governance. (Standard 3)
Santa Clara University has demonstrated in multiple ways that its undergraduate programs are designed, offered, and evaluated in accordance with WASC standards. A coherent core curriculum, carefully constructed majors and active co-curricular programs, support learning goals and student learning outcomes. The faculty is working diligently toward the articulation of student learning outcomes and is struggling, as are most institutions, with appropriate methodologies for academic assessment. The University has reorganized student and instructional support services, placing these under the Provost. This will insure the alignment and integration of academic programs, student services, advising in all its facets, and enrollment management activities. The non-Law graduate programs, which serve primarily part-time working professionals, are rated highly by the professional accrediting associations. The University is struggling, as is most of higher education, with a reasonable and balanced model for integrating the professional programs, especially those serving part-time students, into its larger mission and vision. The University is committed to insuring that diversity is reflected in the number of students, faculty and staff and is manifested in its curriculum and learning goals and the inclusion of all in the achievement of its vision.
(Standard 4)
Faculty members are more than adequately prepared to deliver a high quality curriculum. As a group, the faculty is deeply involved in academic planning and the implementation of the strategic plan. The number of full-time faculty is sufficient for quality program delivery. Evidence supports the conclusion that the University has purposefully decreased the number of part-time faculty over the past few years and has added additional faculty to support the new Core curriculum. Policy and procedures for faculty recognition and advancement appear to be clear and appropriately applied. The University supports faculty in their scholarly and instructional work through encouragement of collegiality and the provision of appropriate resources and adequate salaries. Although some staff members are unhappy with the process of merging student and academic affairs, most staff members are involved in the implementation of the strategic plan and strongly support the University’s vision. (Standard 5)
Santa Clara is providing sufficient learning resources in general and computing resources in particular. The basic library collections are sufficient to support the undergraduate programs, the professional graduate programs, and the law curriculum. An issue of concern is the apparent lack of success in integrating information technology, media services, and the library as key learning-centered components of the instructional mission. The absence of an effective organizational structure and functional space is seriously limiting the critical role that the library should have in supporting the strategic initiatives. The major priority in the Facility Planning for 2002-2006 must be new and expanded functional space to support the planned integration of information technology, media services and the library. (Standard 6)
The University is making significant investments in enhancing student support services and for integrating many of these with academic services. This is evident in the newly established Drahmann Advising and Learning Resources Center, the Center for Multicultural Learning, and the new recreation and fitness center. The commitment to students is at the center of two of the strategic planning initiatives, creating a community of scholars and providing an integrated education. The Jesuit tradition fosters an examination of faith in students’ lives. The residential learning communities bring together faculty, staff and students. Students feel that there is an avenue for them to make a difference on the campus. Their representatives sit on most policy committees and the policies for participation are clear. Intercollegiate athletics seems to have a balanced role in campus life. Students are recruited as scholars first and then as athletes. Recreational facilities are new and heavily used. (Standard 7)
The University has developed reasonable plans and guidelines to insure that new facilities are added to support the strategic initiatives. Through its plans it insures that national standards are met governing design, maintenance, and management of facilities. For example, Santa Clara, in base-funding an amount equal to 2% of the replacement cost for all campus improvements, is one of a few schools to meet this standard established by the Association for Physical Plant Administrators. The University has also implemented plans to replace on a regular cycle PCs, as well as insuring that all equipment is maintained and replaced as needed. (Standard 8)
The team finds that Santa Clara University has presented considerable evidence that it has sufficient resources to meet its strategic plan. Its financial planning and management are sound, following the best practices. The University also meets the financial reporting requirements set by Financial Accounting Standards 116 and 117. Finally it is clear that the development program in place and the planned capital campaign will be carefully coordinated with the University’s academic plans and strategic goals. (Standard 9)