Santa Clara University

Investing in the College

The College of Arts and Sciences at Santa Clara University offers a humanistic, Jesuit education in the liberal arts and sciences.

An Investment in our Students

Your generous gifts make possible our goal to educate leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion who are actively engaged in the creation of new knowledge and its application to make a better world. Students in the College work one-on-one with faculty mentors in research and creative expression—an important dynamic and a unique opportunity and experience for undergraduates.

An Investment in our Faculty

The College of Arts and Sciences embraces distinctive programs driven by our faculty for the benefit of our students and our global community. Many of these programs are interdisciplinary and enhanced by strategic relationships in the community. They are catalysts for change.

Strategic Initiatives

Your investment in the College can be designated to one of the Dean’s top priorities:

The Department of Art and Art History - A new fine arts facility is being discussed in the new Master Plan. Classrooms, studios, and laboratory spaces will serve our students and faculty engaged in ceramics, sculpture, drawing, painting, and photography courses; there will be faculty studio spaces and offices, a computer graphics laboratory, gallery spaces, and a digital image and slide library, all intended to provide modern facilities for teaching, scholarship, and creative work for the benefit of our community. Our faculty are not only teaching scholars, but many of them are professional studio artists who have a passion for what they do and who are committed to inspiring others—especially our students—to develop and find their own passion for what they will do in their own lives. Students who participate in art courses enjoy richer personal lives and are more likely to further the visual arts in the public arena. Art historians forge rich connections with the cultures and societies in which they live, furthering appreciation and value of the visual arts in their communities.

The Gerald and Sally DeNardo Lectureship - Positioned to be the major and most effective lecture in the sciences at Santa Clara University, the Lectureship will bring out the best of a Jesuit education, featuring a dynamic and eminent speaker, inspired by purpose, to inform and enrich an intellectual dialogue across campus and in our community. The breadth of the speaker will also position the Lectureship to be one of the most important events for the Santa Clara University community, including a public lecture, a campus lecture, and other interactive on campus events.

Interdisciplinary Science Facilities and Science Education - A proposed multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science complex will bring together an exciting set of science and mathematics programs and position Santa Clara at the cutting edge of scientific teaching and research. State-of-the-art facilities and equipment will serve the departments of anthropology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science, the Environmental Studies Institute, Combined Sciences Program, Engineering Physics Program, and the Campus Archaeology Laboratory as well as interdisciplinary programs such as biotechnology, sustainability science, bioengineering, neuroscience/physics, nanotechnology, biochemistry and biological chemistry.

Justice and the Arts Initiative - The Justice and the Arts Initiative (JAI) begins its inaugural year in 2007-08 as an incubator for the arts and social justice on campus and in the community. The purpose of the JAI is to create an intellectual frame of reference for examining and fostering artistic processes that are critically bound to issues of social justice. The programs of the JAI will instigate and enliven a climate of inquiry, support practical experimentation and production, and create models for interdisciplinary projects of students, staff and faculty whose work is poised to both reflect and shape our world and address its most pressing needs.

The Environmental Studies Institute and Campus Sustainability - The Environmental Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary community of scholars—faculty, staff, and students, dedicated to understanding the interactions between humans and the natural world and serving local and global communities by addressing environmental issues through education, research, and leadership. Students are challenged to integrate knowledge and research in the natural and social sciences with ethics, service, and leadership to promote a sustainable world. As a Jesuit and Catholic University, we have the responsibility to provide leadership in developing a more sustainable way of living. By embracing sustainability, the University furthers its mission to act as a voice of reason, conscience, and service to society through environmental stewardship and education.