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Santa Clara University

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, California 95053
Phone
(408) 554-4000
Email address
admission@scu.edu
School Information
"Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara University blends high-tech innovation with a social consciousness grounded in the Jesuit educational tradition. We are committed to leaving the world a better place. We pursue new technology, encourage creativity, engage with our communities, and share an entrepreneurial mindset. Our goal is to help shape the next generation of leaders and global thinkers. Santa Clara's undergraduate and graduate programs span areas ranging from psychology to sustainable-energy engineering and from theatre arts to business analytics." The university enrolls over 5,500 students, employs over 910 faculty, and offers numerous programs. (Source: https://www.scu.edu/aboutscu/) (Source: https://www.scu.edu/aboutscu/at-a-glance/)
General Information
Santa Clara University has taken steps to placate anti-racist activists. In a symbolic gesture, the university administration apologized on behalf of a campus safety officer for the display of a Blue Lives Matter emblem, during a Zoom call about public safety. No mandatory Critical Race Training sessions are yet required of students. However, see developments below:

Actions Taken

Faculty/Staff Requirements
  • The university is promoting inclusive hiring and recruitment practices.
Program and Research Funding
  • The Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship's Director stated, "We have long been cognizant of and worked to avoid the “top-down” power dynamics that are reminiscent of colonialism and white-saviorism, but only in the last couple of years have we articulated a focus on locally-led enterprises. In the last quarter of CY2020, 113 social entrepreneurs graduated from our programs with 62 local leaders or 55%. I would like to see Miller Center reach at least 75% by 2025."
Resources
  • Santa Clara hosted the "Anti-Racist Teaching Showcase," which "presents some of the pedagogical work being done by faculty, staff, and students on our campus that uses digital technologies to work toward racial justice, or that questions the racial justice and equity of digital media."
  • The Ethnic Studies Undergraduate Department allows students to "critical[ly] examin[e] race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and intersecting modes of inequality particularly as manifest in the experiences of historically marginalized populations."
Symbolic Actions
  • University administration apologized on behalf of a campus safety officer for the display of a Blue Lives Matter emblem.
  • In a March 2021 Fireside Chat with President Kevin O’Brien, S.J., Ford Foundation president Darren Walker discussed "disruption[s] in power structures [as] key to creating an anti-racist society."
Last updated April 3rd, 2023
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