|
Greetings!
We have been busy here on campus, as the University welcomed students back to in-person learning this fall. I certainly felt the energy that students brought back. Riding my bike onto campus the first day of the quarter showed me for the first time what SCU looks like with thousands of people here; it sure beats the tumbleweeds-empty feeling of last fall!
I, along with many others on campus, was delighted to celebrate the opening of the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation. A week full of events marked the occasion, culminating in the dedication ceremony that Governor Gavin Newsom attended! His presence and his speech at the event underscored the importance of what we’re doing here at Santa Clara, illustrated perfectly by the attention he paid to the students who were there with us. Because, what is all of this for, if not the students?
In my role as dean, I continue to work to move the College forward. After much time spent in the community learning what areas and topics need attention, some of what I am committed to include:
- Keeping the lines of communication open with students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni,
- Taking a close look at staffing in the College, to ensure that we keep pace with increased enrollments and program growth,
- Championing projects that benefit students, including internships during the academic year, smoother processes for transfer students, and new curricular initiatives coming from departments all across the College,
- Weaving diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our academic and personnel processes.
As part of my commitment to our students, I have put together a new College of Arts and Sciences Student Advisory Council, comprised of 10 students representing majors from across the College. These 10 students were selected from a list of nearly 80 nominees; they are all tremendously accomplished, dedicated and talented students, who will meet with me twice a quarter to discuss their aspirations, suggestions for new initiatives and their responses to issues of the day. In fact, I have already had them meet with our Leadership Board to discuss ways to work together and move the College forward, and am very much excited to see how the two groups will collaborate. I hope that bringing them together will provide valuable mentorship opportunities for Broncos in the College.
While we have had much to celebrate this fall, I recognize that it has been fraught with difficulties in general, and most tragically, the loss of three of our students. We quickly learned that many of our students carry the ongoing stress and disorientation that COVID-19 visited upon them. Deprivation, precarity, loneliness, anxiety and depression marked the COVID months for many of our students. These did not disappear when the campus reopened, which is why I am in full support of the measures that the University has taken to expand mental health resources on campus. We need to ensure that our students are properly supported as they face the realities of returning to life on campus amidst an ongoing pandemic.
As I wrote in a piece collaboratively published with other Arts & Sciences deans from Jesuit Universities across the country, “we are interested not only in what students know but in who they become as persons for others, engaged citizens who respond compassionately to human suffering and the crises that plague our contemporary world.” This is important now, more than ever, if we are to ensure our community of Broncos maintains the strength, resilience and compassion that we are known for.
Wishing you a holiday season filled with the blessings of hope and joy.
Daniel Press
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
|
