Stories

Santa Clara University turns 174 years old on March 19, 2025, which we celebrate as the University Founders’ Day. In 1851, Bishop Joseph Alemany, O.P. entrusted the land and buildings of Mission Santa Clara de Asìs to the Jesuit fathers John Nobili, S.J. and Michael Accolti, S.J. They dedicated the new college – the first institution of higher learning in the state of California – to the protection of St. Joseph, and for that reason the University marks the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, as its founding day.

As our University Land Acknowledgement reminds us, the land at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay is the traditional homeland of the Ohlone people who have lived in the region for approximately 10,000 years. In  1777, Franciscan missionaries established the Mission Santa Clara de Asís – the eighth of the original 21 California missions, and the first to bear the name of a woman, St. Clare of Assisi – near the Guadalupe River. Over the ensuing years, the Mission was relocated and rebuilt on several occasions after floods and fires. Nearly a century after the Mission’s establishment, it fell into disarray for complex social, political and environmental reasons that have haunted encounters between indigenous people and Europeans in this region to this day.

In 1851, Bishop Alemany charged Fathers Nobili and Accolti with establishing a college on the Mission Santa Clara land, which would become the first institution of higher education in California. Initially, classes at the preparatory and collegiate level educated the sons of Catholic families in the area, whose international character was reflected in the publication of the initial class catalog in both Spanish and English. The educational venture eventually became Santa Clara University and Bellarmine College Preparatory School, and has continued for nearly two centuries on this site.

On University Founders’ Day, we honor not just the founders of the University, Frs. Nobili and Accolti, but also the Catholic patron saints of the university. First, we celebrate  St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose feast day is March 19. We also honor St. Clare of Assisi, an early follower of St. Francis, and the founder of the Poor Clares, a women’s monastic order, although her feast day is in August. A statue of St. Clare graces the front facade of the Mission Church and another statue blesses the center of the altarpiece above the sanctuary. The original carved wooden statue of St. Clare from the outside of the church now presides over the Executive Conference Room on the third floor of the Learning Commons.

Santa Clara University can point to many other ‘founding days’ on its path to become the university it is today. Its first purpose, according to Fr. Nobili, was: “To cultivate the heart, to form and cherish good habits, to prevent and eradicate evil ones.” While the original curriculum focused on the humanities, by 1912 with the addition of the law and engineering schools, the college became The University of Santa Clara. The Leavey School of Business launched in 1926.  Its official name of Santa Clara University was adopted in 1985.

Other firsts include the admission of women as students in 1961, and Black students in 1965, including Melvin Lewis '53, the first Black student to enroll as an undergraduate at SCU. 

Building on these early beginnings, and through its ongoing steps toward ever-greater inclusion, SCU continues to live out its mission to foster the flourishing of every member of our community and the shared seeking of a hope-filled future for our world.