Global awareness comes to campus

By Chris DaCosta

What many students refer to as the Santa Clara bubble is being challenged; soon the hackneyed statement may even cease to exist. Armed with the intent to enlighten the community, administrators and students alike are hoping to engender lively discourses regarding global issues that also have a local impact.

In an upcoming nine-month series of lectures, conferences, classes and other events, a campus-wide Institute on Globalization plans to facilitate an understanding of the influence of various forms of international relations.

This year's globalization focus comes in the form of an institute, an organization dedicated to a specific purpose.

"The Institute model looks at a common theme that is important and relevant to the university," said Don Dodson, vice provost for Academic Affairs and director of the Institute on Globalization. "A model that raises both public policy issues and social justice issues, in a way that tries to engage the whole campus."

While unifying the university in an extensive discussion of significant concern, the institute also aims to connect students to the world, offering a greater sense of universal responsibility. The program will function as a testament of the university's mission to "apply knowledge" and act as a "voice of reason and compassion in society."

The Institute, instigated by Paul Locatelli, S.J., has been at the forefront of agendas of universities similar to Santa Clara. "[The institute] is Santa Clara's contribution to the dialogue about globalization, which has become a key issue in Jesuit institutions of higher education around the world," said Dodson.

Dodson also mentioned that the university's ambitious plans began as a mere single session and through the course of the program's inception, it eventually evolved into a multi-faceted group of events. "We have a diverse set of perspectives on this important issue and we can arguably provide a better program than other institutions because we're rooted in scholarship and we do have a particular commitment to fostering social justice and raising ethical and moral questions," he said.

Foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, Thomas Friedman raised and answered such questions last night in the Leavey Activities Center. Friedman kicked off Santa Clara's Institute on Globalization with his opinionated keynote address on "how globalization is changing our world." Setting an intellectual tone for subsequent speeches in the lecture series, Friedman will be followed by renowned globalization critic, Jerry Mander on October 14.

The rest of the fall quarter series will be marked by lectures by economists, activists and authors, culminating in the Archbishop of Teguciagalpa, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga's keynote speech within an international conference. In addition to the lecture series, over 100 courses directly related to the Institute on Globalization will be offered this year.

To supplement the abundance of learning opportunities created by the institute, students will be recognized and awarded academic credit through the Globalization Certificate Program.

Unfortunately, a large majority of students are not currently aware of the upcoming lecturers and presenters who include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as distinguished pundits on the issues of globalization and foreign affairs.

"No matter how big these people's names are, students aren't going to know who they are," said Associated Students (AS) President Kristen Love, who is also a member of the institute planning committee. "It is our role to make sure that the talks are coming back to the students. I want to make sure that we have these learning opportunities available, so we can educate the students, so we can get them involved."

Love is part of a committee that allocates grants to student-run organizations, clubs and Residential Learning Communities (RLCs) that are interested in furthering the conversation about globalization at their events.

"As a committee, our role has been to determine how we can connect this to classes, how can we connect different causes and organizations and how can we encourage to attend events," she said.

Jeanne Rosenberger, dean of Student Life and Leadership, directly facilitated allowances for specific campus organizations. "I have set aside approximately $5,000 in a co-sponsorship fund to support student initiated projects or programs that connect in some way to the institute," she said.

Consequently, club and organizational involvement is becoming widespread on campus.

"What we try to do is to create an umbrella that will allow the places like the Center for Applied Ethics to put together a conference on business ethics, which is quite congruent with its mission," said Dodson.

Sally Bachman, the institute's program coordinator, stressed "issues of equity among peoples."

One of the primary issues concerning globalization involves equality across borders. "In the U.S. we have a disproportionate amount of wealth; we have a disproportionate amount of ease in our lives; we live in a country with a constitution that provides freedoms unlike any other country's constitution," said Bachman. "With globalization we have numerous ways to realize that we are interconnected across barriers of inequity."

Bachman hopes that the Institute on Globalization will provide students with a questioning motive and pragmatic knowledge. "I would hope that students walk away with intellectual tools, to help them understand difficult, ethical and equity issues," said Bachman.

From the student's perspective, Love believes the institute will complement the comprehensive Santa Clara education. "I think that the Institute on Globalization really connects with the Jesuit ideals of the university from the standpoint of really taking a good look at the justice issues."

Zack Bongiovanni, a senior Economics and Spanish major, is enthusiastic about the institute in general. "It's incredible how many amazing people have connected with the Institute and offered to come and speak on campus. It's my hope that the speakers and programs will motivate students to examine the factors and real challenges of globalization and also that the school's focus on such a critical world issue is not lost after this year, but that it is integrated into our education in the years ahead."