The Bannan Legacy
The Bannan family tree roots stretch deep into Santa Clara University history. Nearly 200 Bannans have come here in the past 100 years, since Tom Bannan ’23—that’s 1923—went against his father’s wishes to attend the University of California at Berkeley and enrolled at Santa Clara instead.
The Bannan Family's affiliation with Santa Clara University is near and dear to the heart of the Ignatian Center. Indeed, the original Bannan Foundation for Christian Values, founded in 1982, eventually became the centerpiece for what has blossomed into the Ignatian Center.
Named in honor of Fr. Lou Bannan, SJ, the Bannan Forum continues to cultivate the University’s Jesuit and Catholic values — moral and spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic, academic and applied, local and global — in the multiplicity of ways those are lived in our SCU community today.
1982
The “Bannan Foundation for Christian Values” is established through the generous contributions of 55 members of the Bannan family in honor of Fr. Louis I. Bannan, S.J.’s (‘ Uncle Lou’) 50 year anniversary as a Jesuit.2005
The "Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education" is founded, bringing together the Bannan Center for Jesuit Education, the Arrupe Center for Community-based Learning, and marking the founding of the Kolvenbach Solidarity Immersions Program.2018
The "Bannan Forum" is launched, using the word "forum" to signal how the program will carry out the ideals laid out by Fr. Lou moving forward. Programming will encourage a conversation around SCU's Jesuit values and tradition.Bannan Form programming encourages a robust conversation in our campus community — faculty, staff, students, alumni, and local community — around the values encompassed by the Ignatian worldview. Drawing on the intellectual tradition of the Jesuits and Catholic social thought, Bannan Fellow and Bannan Events preserve and extend Santa Clara's distinctive traditions and values to new generations and apply them in creative ways in the pursuit of justice and the common good.
Supported by the Bannan Endowment
The Bannan Endowment in the Ignatian Center supports dozens of programs and initiatives each year in honor of the legacy of the Bannan family commitment to SCU's Jesuit Catholic mission. In high impact programs for faculty and student research, teaching, and immersions; in public facing events on a host of pressing topics; and in the attraction and retention of key Jesuit voices on campus, the Bannan Legacy has immeasurable impact. Below are some featured ways in which the Bannan Endowment funds are being put to high-impact use at the university today.
Bannan Research and Teaching Fellows
The Bannan Research and Teaching Fellows will advance faculty research and involvement around core concerns within the Jesuit, Catholic tradition as it relates to the wider mission of Santa Clara University.
Bannan Newly-Tenured Faculty Fellows
Bannan Newly-Tenured Fellows take part in a year-long program that provides them intentional support and formation by fostering depth, awareness, and engagement with the Jesuit tradition, offering support for research and a space for reflection and discernment.
Bannan Research and Teaching Grants
The Bannan Forum awards grants for research, teaching, and university initiatives that engage issues of contemporary significance within the Catholic intellectual tradition and extend the Jesuit, Catholic vocation of SCU as a transformative social force.
Bannan Forum Events
Quarterly events featuring contributions from a wide range of participants will further a conversation around issues of contemporary significance central to the Jesuit, Catholic social and intellectual tradition. Annual events include the Bannan Memorial Lecture as well as Carmody Lecture, named after Dr. Denise Carmody, a pioneer in female leadership at SCU.
Faculty Staff Immersion
Immersion Formation Reteats
The Ignatian Center's immersion experiences, and the profound reflection to which they naturally give rise, are privileged moments of vocational discernment deeply grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. Pre-immersion retreats help establish that grounding and profound the space for reflection and formation.
Bannan Jesuit Scholar
William O'Neill, SJ
Bill O'Neill, SJ returns to SCU, bringing his world-renowned expertise in Catholic Social Teaching in support of formation for the Ignatian Center, Markkula Center, and Jesuit School of Theology.
Bannan Jesuit Chaplain
Bob Glynn, SJ
Bob Glynn, SJ joins SCU, bringing his extensive global and higher education experience to support the spiritual formation of graduate students, particularly in the School of Law.
