State of the University
Mayer Theatre
Santa Clara University
19 February 2015
To begin, I want to thank Lulu Santana for the invocation that centered us as we began our gathering. We needed this prayer of healing and comfort for our students, staff, and faculty after an act of violence unexpectedly hit our campus two days ago. I extend the gratitude of the University to the EMTs (Emergency Medical Team members), the CFs (Community Facilitators), the staffs of Campus Safety and Student Life staff, and the members of the Crisis Management team. Each of you responded quickly and professionally in the early hours of this past Tuesday. Your care for our students impressed me deeply, the compassionate care that distinguishes Santa Clara as such a special place.
1. Big Ideas/Reflections on the Year
Not only is this a special place, but Santa Clara is located in an extraordinary spot on the globe. Think of the people, the economy, and the mindset that animate Silicon Valley. We live and work within a rare ecosystem of venture capital, creativity, risk, and genius that fuels the economy and vitality of this region and impacts the world. We live amid one of the greatest wealth producing economies on this planet. Santa Clara exists in this dynamic environment that impacts the lives and dreams of billions of people. Given such powerful influence, I believe that we must think how this region will continue to drive change here and around the globe for the coming decades.
We must position Santa Clara to prepare for what is often called “disruptive change.” We must enable Santa Clara not just to adapt and react, but to drive innovation in pedagogy, in law, the digital humanities, and in STEM. We can do this because our dreams for the coming decades are inspired by a restless vision for improving humanity and never settling for the status quo. True to our heritage, we must seek and provide excellence in all we do and aspire to be. The Jesuit concept of the magis conditions us to seek the next horizon of our potential and to face the future with confidence.
We do not act alone. I also want to point out our strong alumni support, the generosity of our benefactors, and the enthusiasm of the parents of our students. They recognize in the work we do at Santa Clara a force for good, a university built on ethics with a concern for the world. They recognize that we are positioned to influence business, technology, law, education, and government. They see that we have advanced significantly in recent years. Let me offer several examples out of the many achievements of which we can all be proud.
- We have set a record high undergrad retention rate! 96.2% of the first-year students return as sophomores. I am grateful to all our dedicated faculty and staff whose care demonstrates that we are a student-centered university.
- Thanks to the teaching and mentoring of faculty and staff, Aven Satre-Meloy received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University this fall. First, however, Aven will return to campus to work as a President’s Fellow in student leadership development and to assist students applying for awards like the Rhodes.
- We do not rest on our laurels. Our Enrollment Management team continuously recruits ever-more talented applicants. Nearly 15,000 applied for the 1,250 openings for next fall’s class.
- Work on sustainability, led by Lindsey Kalkbrenner, has received increasing national attention. At present we are preparing to renew our Campus Climate Commitment to use solar energy and reduce the carbon footprint of the University.
- In the area of collaborative governance, we have made progress since last year’s differences. I want to recognize all faculty and staff who serve on our 6 University Policy Committees who do so much of the work of our collaborative governance system here. You generously provide advice and insight that aids me and benefits the university.
- Belinda Guthrie, our Title IX coordinator, reports high marks for our existing policies and protocols for ensuring a safe campus climate. Given the recent changes in state and federal laws, she is now working with a number of you to ensure that we remain fully in compliance to educate and prevent campus sexual violence.
And I could go on, but you get the picture. We have made great progress as an institution, progress that we must sustain and advance. As you know all so well, we have been deeply engaged in planning for the future for several years. Our campus-wide collaboration produced a grass-roots integrated strategic plan with many critical components. In a few moments, Dennis Jacobs will share with you the further developments of the integrated strategic plan.
First, though, I want to acknowledge all of you who have contributed to the planning processes. You have enabled the administration to present to the trustees new plans for financial aid, the law school building, a center for the arts and humanities, endowed professorships, and an ambitious, audacious STEM program. I believe that we have a tremendous opportunity to position Santa Clara to better serve humanity through educating students, supporting faculty, and engaging our society and the world. At this strategic moment in the university’s history, we are poised to propel Santa Clara to grow more fully into our potential to build a more just, humane, and sustainable world. I shall now speak of next year, and then Dennis Jacobs will describe further plans.
2. 2015-2016 University Budget
Every year the University Budget Committee of faculty, staff, and administrators prepares a proposed budget for the next year. This year, our new Vice President of Finance and Administration, Mike Hindery, guided the months of meetings. A balanced budget proposal then went to the trustee Finance Committee, which recommended it to the trustee Executive Committee, that passed it on to the to the full board of trustees. On this past Friday, the trustees approved the budget. Tomorrow, Mike Hindery will host a forum to explain the budget in detail.
Today, there are three points I wish to share with you.
- First, the tuition increase of 3.4% is the second lowest in over 30 years. We have worked hard to keep costs down because we know families struggle with affordability.
- Second. When Mike Hindery arrived on campus this past summer as the new Vice President, one of our first conversations addressed the need to examine the merit pool and salaries of faculty and staff. I have been concerned that we attract and retain the best talent available. Mike worked magic on the budget so that we have a merit pool of 3.5% for faculty and staff salaries, the highest merit pool we have had in several years. Further, we are able to add 16 new tenure-track positions on the faculty. This involves an amazing conversion of several adjunct positions to tenure-track position in the faculty.
- Third. Another highlight of the budget will be an investment in information systems. Thanks to the hard work of Bob Owen, Chief Information Officer, and his staff, we have a comprehensive plan to upgrade our network. Over the next two years you will notice significant upgrades to the speed, stability, and access of both WiFi and network connections throughout the campus.
These three accomplishments of the University Budget Committee merit the gratitude of all of us. We shall all benefit, and tomorrow at noon in the deSaisset Museum auditorium, you can hear further details from Mike Hindery.
3. Planning/the Comprehensive Campaign
Friday’s trustee meeting covered another major topic, and that is the comprehensive campaign. The Trustees approved the new comprehensive campaign based upon the Integrated Strategic Plan with its critical components.
[Provost Dennis Jacobs presented on the strategic goals, the comprehensive campaign, capital projects, and how the University will handle an increase in enrollment]
4. New Chapter in Santa Clara History
Recently I read a quotation attributed to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected woman head of state in Africa, for country of Liberia: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” There have been a few among us who find our vision for Santa Clara more than startling, and they had cautioned that we are aiming too high. I have reflected on their comments while also pondering why the world needs Santa Clara University, why global society needs our students and graduates. I have contemplated how the world benefits from the research and creative works of our faculty. I have considered how the world is enhanced by the hard work of our staff.
Our campaign for Santa Clara calls us to dream big because the problems of the world are so great. Repeatedly this year I have been brought face to face with the tremendous needs of the world.
In countries like El Salvador, our students touch the lives of hundreds of people through the Casa de la Solidaridad. I witnessed this impact while participating in the 15th Anniversary celebration of the Casa and while listening to the testimony of the campesinos this past November. Along with our delegation of Santa Clara faculty and staff, we recognized how Santa Clara’s support has meant so much to the University of Central America. We saw and heard this appreciation for our solidarity during the commemorations of the 25th Anniversary of UCA Martyrs.
We must dream big in our fundraising campaign because of the work our students, faculty, and alumni affects our world and influences the local community. Let me offer two examples. Alumnus Fred Ferrer, president of the Health Trust, invited me last December to join him on a tour of one of the largest homeless encampments in San Jose, known as the Jungle. He introduced me to homeless advocates, county medical personnel, volunteers, and inhabitants of this sprawling camp of 300 to 400 residents. Our visit took place just days before the camp was bulldozed and the residents dispersed to find other shelter wherever they could.
Homelessness is a massive and complex problem, one that involves public health, mental health services, job training, and chronic poverty. It requires serious and prolonged thought, deep study, and great compassion to produce solutions that so far have eluded American society. And why not Santa Clara University to engage in such an issue.
The local community also needs Santa Clara to work with its children. Our Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, led by Mick McCarthy, has launched the Thriving Neighbors Initiative at Washington Elementary School. The Thriving Neighbors Initiative is to bring together faculty, students and staff along with parents and children of Washington Elementary. The principal of that low-income neighborhood public school is SCU alumna Maria Arias Evans. The advisory board of the Ignatian Center recently joined her to observe the after-school enrichment program. In her Engineering 111 class, “STEM Outreach to the Community,” Santa Clara Professor Shoba Krishnan and her university students are teaching principles of engineering to fifth and sixth graders.We also heard from two of the mothers, Liz Molina and Adriana Leon, and staffer Irene Cermeno. Liz explained how her pre-school age son had worked with Santa Clara professor Marco Bravo through an Ignatian Center Thriving Neighbors Initiative Research Grant. These funds allowed Marco Bravo, his students, and five mothers to design, implement, evaluate, and sustain an early literacy program for children. Professor Bravo had explained to the parents and children that they were doing research with him and were co-authoring the results. Through the use of personal iPads in the course, Liz explained that her four-year old son – who had never learned to speak - pronounced his first words. Liz wept as she told this story.
If you want to know more, Professor Bravo, students, and mothers will co-present their findings at a poster session in conjunction with the last Bannan Institute event of the year (on May 19), together with other recipients of the TNI Grants.These are three examples out of the many I could have cited to demonstrate why the world needs Santa Clara. I could have added stories of prominent world leaders who speak here, like Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez, the chair of the Pope’s 9-member council to reform Vatican government. Or I could have described the Global Social Benefit Fellows, the Katherine and George Alexander Law Center, “Can’t Thread a Movie Needle” film, our amazing Public Health Program, or the School of Education and Counseling Psychology’s new campus in East San Jose. Santa Clara faculty, staff, and students are changing the world, one life at a time, here and globally. True to our university vision, you have often focused on the most needy in society, those so often overlooked or unable to access resources for success.
Let me close with a piece of history – which is what you get with a historian as your president. Sources record an episode that concerns the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, as you know, was not a member of any denomination, yet during the Civil War he occasionally attended church in Washington, DC. One Sunday he participated in services at one of the fashionable churches in the capital and heard a sermon preached by the city’s most eloquent minister. While descending the church steps after the service, his body guard asked how he liked the sermon. Lincoln replied, “It was…good.” Surprised, the body guard asked, “It was only good?” Lincoln explained about the preacher, “He never asked us to do anything great.”Our mission at this university challenges us to do something great. Our comprehensive campaign is ambitious because it will enable us to do even morefor our students in service to our world. How we go about this service to the world starts in each office, in every classroom or studio or lab on our own campus. We are called to greatness of study and research and creativity; great engagement of imagination, a worldview that is expansive and passionate. And driving these great energies of mind and soul and heart requires an expansive dream, a dream of a university alive to the challenges and needs of our planet, our society, and the greatest needs of God’s people. Scary? Daunting? Yes – but we at Santa Clara stand equal to the dream of doing something great.
Thank you, and God bless Santa Clara.
Michael E. Engh, S.J.
President