Reflections from My First Month
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for the warm welcome with which you have greeted me as I embarked on my new adventure as President of Santa Clara this month! It has been such a delight to meet many of you in-person and begin to get to know the community and culture. I must say warmth, kindness, and exuberant loyalty to and enthusiasm for Santa Clara have been in abundance. I am increasingly excited about the work we will do together to more fully realize our Jesuit and Catholic vision of educating citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion and cultivating knowledge and faith to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world.
It was very meaningful to me to conclude my first month by participating in the Mass celebrating the Feast of St. Ignatius in our beautiful Mission Church. The Jesuit mission of being people with and for others, and most especially its grounding in Ignatian spirituality, drew me to Santa Clara. I am keen to more firmly ground my own life and the life and work of our university community in the power of Ignatian spirituality and discernment. Thus, another highlight of my first month was participating in a directed spiritual retreat. I found greater peace during my transition, heightened joy and excitement about the future, and a deeper connection to the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance in my life.
As I get to know the community and further reflect on the strategies and priorities that will help us more fully realize our vision, I am reminded that our vision’s purpose is centered on our students and the holistic impact of their Santa Clara education and experience. So, I am very excited that we continue to generate great student interest, our fall enrollment deposit numbers remain strong, and we are planning to welcome the largest first year class in our history to Santa Clara this fall. Consistent with our Jesuit and Catholic mission of advancing the common good and embracing our responsibility to enhance social mobility, I am delighted that our number of first generation and Pell eligible students are higher than our historic norms in this class.
I reaffirm our priority of building a diverse and inclusive learning and living community and nourishing an environment where all students flourish, feel affirmed and a sense of belonging, and find a multitude of opportunities for meaningful connections with peers and mentors. We have made progress on reimagining and implementing a tiered approach to mental health support that ensures support for every student, accurate information about mental health resources and how to access them, and a recognition of everyone’s role in our shared responsibility for our students’ mental health and overall well-being. You will hear more detailed updates on our work to transform mental health services from Jeanne Rosenberger as we approach the fall term.
Compelling and distinctive academic programs are critical to more fully realizing our vision. In addition to my meetings with our Acting Co-Provosts, I have been meeting with each of our Deans to learn more about their faculty and academic programs. To ensure their perspectives are fully integrated into our discussions and to promote transparency for faculty and staff in each of our academic units, I invited the Deans to become members of the President’s Cabinet. We had our first “expanded” Cabinet meeting this week.
Also, in consultation with the search committee and search consultants for our provost search, I elevated the title of this position to Executive Vice President (EVP) and Provost. I want to convey the importance and breadth of this role and its vital partnership with the president. The person selected will be a strong academic leader and advocate who will work closely with me and our community to define our academic vision and to support students, faculty, and staff as we strive together to build ever stronger academic programs and richer, holistic student experiences centered in our Jesuit, Catholic vision and values. This leader will oversee and ensure strong integration and coordination across our academic units and centers, the Division of Student Life, and Enrollment Management and ensure that all work in close collaboration with our Inclusive Excellence Division and Division of Mission and Ministry. I am especially grateful to Professor Sharmila Lodhia for chairing the EVP and Provost search committee. She will be sending you further details next week on how to provide input to the committee on qualities you seek in an EVP and Provost.
Filling out our existing strong leadership team is a critical priority as we look to the future. I will be actively involved in our on-going leadership searches and will be intentional and reflective about our hiring decisions. To assist with the important leadership transition of our Vice President for Finance and Administration role, I am pleased to share that Michael Crowley (whose departure date previously was announced as the end of August) will be staying until January 15, 2023 or when we bring his successor on-board, whichever is earlier. We are posting this position within the next week. I also am pleased to share that beginning August 1, Zenobia Lane is our Interim Vice President for Human Resources and will lead the Department of Human Resources on a fixed term basis for the next nine months. Zenobia is an experienced Human Resources (HR) professional who comes highly recommended from St. Joseph’s University, where she served as Vice President for HR, and from Swarthmore, where she worked closely with Shá Duncan Smith. Zenobia will focus on specific projects identified in consultation with Molly McDonald and me, such as a review of staff compensation and implementation of our updated remote work policy. Finally, the General Counsel and Vice President for Marketing and Communications positions are posted, and applications are being received. We expect to make offers for these two positions this fall. Again, my gratitude to all who are involved in these important searches.
I am eager to engage the University Governance system in our work ahead and am looking forward to building relationships with our faculty and staff shared governance leaders, as well as our student leaders. My meetings with these leaders begin in August.
Finally, I have scheduled numerous meetings with local leaders of Jesuit, Catholic and secular education institutions and social service organizations, as well as with a number of business and civic leaders. I greatly value opportunities for Santa Clara to contribute to advancing the common good in our region and to collaborate and partner with other organizations to create experiential learning, service, teaching, and scholarship opportunities for our students and faculty.
It has been an exciting first month, and I am looking forward to the upcoming academic year and getting to know many more of you and welcoming our students to campus. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with your input and/or questions. I hope each of you are enjoying your summer and finding some time for renewal and replenishing.
My best,
Julie