SCCAP proposes move

By Christopher DaCosta

The Santa Clara Community Action Program put forth a proposal to transfer advising responsibilities from the Center for Student Leadership (CSL) to the Arrupe Center.

It is believed the proposed move will help maintain the growing number of SCCAP volunteers and the resurgence of its advocacy sector.

Currently one of the CSL's eight chartered student organizations, SCCAP facilitates activities which serve the needs of the community while engaging in advocacy and reflection.

"SCCAP is striving to be a community of compassion and hope," said SCCAP director Blair Thedinger. "We want to break down the notion of hierarchy and decision-making, we want to seriously advocate for social justice through questioning structures of society, questioning the status quo and advocating for social change."

In recent years, SCCAP's advising model, provided by the CSL, has also come into question.

The two primary purposes of the CSL are deeply rooted in leadership development, according to Jonathan Gray, director for the CSL. The center offers conceptual and theory based classes as well as offering the implementation of those concepts.

"We give students the opportunity to practice their leadership skills by advising the eight chartered student organizations," said Gray. "We advise all of those organizations as they produce their products but more importantly, develop their leadership competencies."

Yet, many feel the CSL's mission and approach diverge completely from SCCAP's goals and intentions.

Junior Logan Gee, a SCCAP program coordinator, noted some structural contradictions when comparing the CSL, SCCAP and other chartered organizations.

"We operate quite differently from other CSL organizations like Associated Students and The Santa Clara," Gee said. "We do not like to emphasize job titles that imply the appropriation of higher stipend payments. In other words, we feel there should be no SCCAP hierarchy, but the CSL model is a tiered system."

This tiered system is an example of a "notion of hierarchy" which Thedinger said SCCAP was attempting to deconstruct.

While leadership remains an important aspect of SCCAP's operation, being advised by a body centered

"It would be, in some ways I think, difficult to progress our organization in a way that we are serving our community in a meaningful way and also offering service opportunities and advocating opportunities to students," said Thedinger.

SCCAP Department Coordinator, junior Lindsey Lockwood believes that the CSL advising approach does not complement SCCAP as well as the Arrupe Center's approach would.

"[The] CSL has a model that is really about student leadership. It works on a level of supervision in an organization," Lockwood said.

According to Lockwood, SCCAP provides supervision on a non-hierarchical level by giving guidance to one another.

"Arrupe's model is based more on an egalitarian kind of structure where everyone has a voice in every decision that is made that affects the organization," Lockwood said.

The Arrupe Center strives to incorporate people's ideas and opinions while seeking "to advance the Jesuit tradition of the service of faith and the promotion of justice, uniting and transforming both university and community in a common effort to respond compassionately and self-critically to those most in need," according to its mission statement.

The Arrupe Center provides both Santa Clara students and teachers with placement that promotes community-based learning through various projects. Many of the Arrupe Center's offerings and contacts overlap with SCCAP's.

"There are several agencies that both SCCAP and the Arrupe Center work with," said Laurie Laird, a program director at Arrupe. "I think SCCAP and Arrupe have similar missions and our approach in working with the community is quite similar."

The parallels between Arrupe and SCCAP do suggest that the organizations would provide more compatibility than the current pairing.

"I think what SCCAP is looking for is some increased synergy around the issue of volunteers and the issue of community-based learning, the issues of advocacy, reflection, and activism," said Gray.

Gray continued, "some of that is happening in Arrupe and some of that is happening in SCCAP, and I believe SCCAP is under the opinion that if they were to connect closely with Arrupe that there would be a better synergy."

Similarities are not the only factor dictating the proposal, advocacy has regained footing in SCCAP's social agenda.

Gray believes that the shift towards advocacy is expected due to the nature of SCCAP's work. "[When] people enter into a service, that informs their knowledge and their being, and they often want to do something about it," he said. "The leaders of SCCAP are interested in the advocacy piece because they have already done the entry level service piece."

Advocacy is becoming more of a focus for SCCAP, providing new activities and opportunities. According to SCCAP's proposal, the Arrupe Center has played a large role in assisting SCCAP members with issues of advocacy and social concern for almost two years, greatly supporting SCCAP's proposal for formal advising from the Arrupe Center.

Another concern of SCCAP is the amount of advising time and resources allotted with their affiliation to CSL.

"We are not supported enough by the university; we don't have enough resources and we don't have everything we need," said Thedinger. "It is one of my personal goals to expand the amount of resources SCCAP has access to - including advising."

Gray explained that SCCAP's constant growth makes things more difficult for allotting advising time.

"As SCCAP has grown, the organization has become more complex. In addition to that growth, some of the programs themselves have become more complex," Gray said. "Unfortunately, the staffing time that I am able to commit to advising SCCAP, remains consistent. So the organization is growing in numbers and complexity but yet the amount of time I am able to commit is fixed, and that is part of where the challenge is."

Gee who worked with the Arrupe Center for a class added that "if SCCAP worked alongside the Arrupe center, more students would understand the possibility of doing something similar to what I did, and the amount of community outreach would significantly increase."

The logical affiliation between SCCAP and Arrupe is furthered by many students' opinions.

"I think that it would be a good move to go towards Arrupe," said sophomore Jen Musty. "I think SCCAP already has a strong following among the student body, so it's not necessary to publicize themselves as a leadership organization."

However, sophomore Senator and Current University Issues Chair, Shaunda Brown believes that the move towards Arrupe may not be necessary.

"It seems like right now that SCCAP is doing a really great job getting people involved," said Brown. "I think that if they move towards Arrupe, not many people know what that is, they might not reach as many students perhaps."

The decision for SCCAP's proposal will be made by the provost, Denise Carmody, and president, Paul Locatelli S.J. An exact date for the decision is unknown.

"We might see some resolution before the end of this academic year. It might be less, it might be more, depending on the process," said Gray.

"The reality is that we work in an administrative bureaucracy and I think that it's going to take longer than [SCAPP] or I would actually like."