Santa Clara University

On June 29, 2023, Santa Clara's President issued a statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on race conscious admissions which reads in part as follows: "Santa Clara University is deeply disappointed in today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which effectively outlaws the consideration of race in university admissions nationwide...Our diversity, including race, is a part of our human identity. Today’s decision therefore places a substantial burden on our freedom to recognize aspiring and current students as 'whole' human beings...True to our mission, we will continue to actively pursue all legally permissible avenues to build the diverse and accomplished student body our campus and our world needs."

The Cowell Center at Santa Clara University offers a BIPOC Students Support and Empowerment Group which includes topics such as “micro aggressions, imposter syndrome, race-related stress and trauma, family concerns, and other issues related to being a person of color in this sociopolitical climate and university environment.”

The university is promoting inclusive hiring and recruitment practices.

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."

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."

Santa Clara University offers Spark Seminars, which are “open to all undergraduate students at SCU” and “provide opportunities for students to explore social justice topics that capture their imagination.”

Santa Clara University has a program known as SCU Unity which is “designed exclusively for our multicultural and first-generation admitted students” and is “intended to both celebrate your admission and your identity, while giving you space to explore how your various multicultural and social identities intersect and thrive on our campus.”

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."

The Department of Ethnic Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences released a statement following the death of Tyre Nichols, stating, “The work that we do recognizes the relationship between the history and systemic racism we study and the continued eruption of violence in our present moment. Even with our knowledge of this violence, the continual act of bearing witness to its repetition weighs deeply and heavily. And we recognize your hurt and pain as well, and the need to come together as a community to care for each other, affirm our desire for transformative justice and a reciprocal human recognition that could guide toward collective healing and radical hope.”