Students Call for Transparency from Santa Clara’s Next President

Presidential search committee collects student input at open forum

Santa Clara’s presidential search proceeded on Thursday evening with an open forum where students expressed the university’s need for a transparent, attentive leader — as well as more student representation in the search process.

The hour-long forum was hosted by WittKieffer, an executive search firm hired by the university in August to recruit presidential candidates. Students gathered in Charney Hall and took turns giving their input to two WittKieffer representatives, who were tuned in via Zoom.

“What I want in a president is someone who will stand up for the students and take swift action when something happens on campus,” one student said. “I’m pretty sure we're really tired of waiting fourteen, fifteen hours for some regurgitated message from the administration.”

Many students brought up their frustration with the current administration’s handling of campus issues.

Another student emphasized the need for transparency, referencing the email sent by Acting President Lisa Kloppenberg following the outcome of the August Campus Safety Services (CSS) hearing, in which she wrote that the university will “welcome back” the officers involved in the incident.

“A presidential quality that we definitely need to look for is transparency,” the student said. “Transparency looks a lot of different ways to different people. It could be interacting with students, like people mentioned about Father O’Brien.”

He continued, “It could be about not sending vaguely wording emails when scandals and problems happen at Santa Clara. It could be about not telling students they need to welcome back employees who have violated them and have violated other staff.”

Erin Kimura Walsh '98, director of the LEAD Scholars program and member of the presidential search committee, was also present at the meeting to listen to student responses.

The committee, announced on Aug. 11, consists of eight members of Santa Clara’s Board of Trustees, three faculty members and two staff members.

A senior student explained that she hasn’t seen much change in her three years as a student at Santa Clara and argued that there must be greater student representation in the presidential search and administrative process.

“Although the student forum is definitely needed and imperative, there should've been a student on the presidential search panel and getting to have a say in who the next president is every step of the way, because our input is what should matter,” she said.

These thoughts echoed concerns raised by ASG President Abby Alvarez and Vice President Angel Lin in an infographic uploaded to their Instagram account, @asgscuprezvp, on Aug. 12.

According to the post, Chairman John Sobrato and former Chairman Paul Gentzkow promised former ASG President Sam Perez that students would be included on the next presidential search committee.

“This promise was not kept,” Alvarez and Lin wrote. “Yesterday, an email listing the members of the new presidential search committee (consisting mostly of members from the board of trustees) did not include any students or recent alumni.”

A junior student was one of many who mentioned former university president Kevin O’Brien S.J. in the discussion. He highlighted O’Brien’s on-campus presence and spirited participation as traits that he would like to see in the future president.

“One thing that I really liked about Father O’Brien was that he was very present in the community,” the student said. “For example, he was very involved in the LEAD scholars program. I myself am a LEAD scholar, so knowing that he was involved in this program was huge for me.”

The final speaker articulated concerns not yet mentioned at the forum.

“What I really want for Santa Clara is stability,” he said. “This will be our third president in my fourth year, from Engh to O’Brien to whoever is next … it's a really bad sign that we keep having people who leave our university.”

Past Santa Clara presidents have generally served terms five to ten years. Paul Locatelli S.J., the longest tenured president, served from 1988 to 2009.

O'Brien's three-year term was the shortest stint from a Santa Clara president since 1857.

The search committee will soon shift into the recruitment and candidate engagement phase of their timeline, with candidate interviews being conducted throughout December and January, according to the Santa Clara Presidential Search website.

A recommendation is expected to be made to the Board of Trustees in February.

Photo Credit: Rikesh Mehta

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A previous version of this story included student names. The names of student sources have since been removed.