Locatelli: focus on diversity, academics

By Jack Gillum

The university will continue to build upon academic excellence and diversity in its goal to be a top Catholic institution, President Paul Locatelli, S.J., said Friday.

In a roundtable interview with editors of The Santa Clara, Locatelli stressed the importance of tenuring high-caliber faculty and increasing the quality of its students in admissions.

Locatelli, recently reappointed for a record fourth term and now slated to be the university's longest-running president, stressed Santa Clara's socioeconomic diversity among its students.

The Board of Trustees unanimously chose to reappoint Locatelli earlier this month, citing a "continuity in leadership" for ongoing building campaigns, Chairman Mike Markkula said in a written statement.

"We want to make sure that the students who come here are the students who are truly interested in making the world a better place," Locatelli said.

Many faculty at other institutions, Locatelli said, are "focused on their research"; here, professors are "deeply interested in our students," he said.

One in five undergraduate students are first-generation college kids, said Jim Briggs, Locatelli's executive assistant. And about 70 percent of students receive some sort of financial aid, helped by a recent $100-million scholarship campaign.

Financial aid has been increasingly important for students amid tuition hikes. Tuition has increased in private schools by an average of 28 percent since 1998, according to 2003 data published by the U.S. Department of Education.

When the current sophomore class entered as freshmen, the class hovered around 900 enrolled students, then a nine-year low in enrollment.

Locatelli said the university has made adjustments to prevent future enrollment shortfalls, citing the higher number of students for the new freshman class and the hiring of a new vice provost for enrollment management.

The president also said that in a quest to be a top school, however, he'd like to see undergraduate enrollment capped at 4,500. He says this, combined with additional faculty, will in theory lower class sizes.

Student life

Locatelli said that the current Residential Learning Communities implemented several years ago are ideal to integrating "learning and community" among undergraduate students.

But when asked if certain RLCs -- which remain in designated residence halls -- promote unfairness in the quality of housing amenities, he acknowledged that it is a problem the university is trying to address. He could not, however, provide specifics.

The structure of RLCs will most likely change over the years, he said.

Locatelli believes that RLCs are, in fact, inclusive and shrugged off concerns of greek popularity rising off-campus, particularly with the addition last year of a new sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta.

Locatelli said the greeks did not pose a threat to the RLC system. When the university became unaffiliated with the greeks in 2001, the university was concerned that money would benefit 10 percent of the undergraduate population.

"It doesn't develop a sense of community," Locatelli said.

Santa Clara has tried to be inclusive in diversity goals, Locatelli said. He points to the newly-created Bridge program, which brings together and helps support first-generation college students.

Locatelli said that diversity training and education is an ongoing process. But, he says, he's "not sure how you can get to the few" who propagate hate.

He was responding to questions surrounding an anti-gay e-mail sent to several undergraduate students last year. Some recipients had said that they felt unsafe on campus.

On academic standards, The Santa Clara reported last week that the university has yet to analyze grade inflation among its schools, even though other universities -- including some in the Ivy League -- have done so.

Grade inflation occurs when students receive higher grades than their performance merits.

While Locatelli said he had no specific remedies, he said he would relay inflation concerns to various department deans.

* ààAlexander Aragon, Liz Weeker and Koren Temple contributed to this report.
* ààContact Jack Gillum at (408) 554-4849 or jgillum@scu.edu.