SCU Organizational Information 2011

Grounded in a 450-year Jesuit tradition of intellectual excellence, ethical awareness, and community engagement, Santa Clara University (SCU) pursues its mission to educate leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara regularly collaborates with corporations, research centers, and community organizations that are major actors in the U.S. economy.

More than half of SCU’s 78,000 alumni reside and work in the Bay Area, driving the innovative and pioneering spirit essential to high technology, biotech, and sustainable energy industries.   

Established in 1851, Santa Clara has the distinction of being California’s first operating institution of higher learning.

SCU offers rigorous undergraduate curricula in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering to over 5,000 students.

Santa Clara enrolls close to 3,500 students in nationally recognized graduate and professional schools in business, law, engineering, education and counseling psychology, theology, and pastoral ministries.

UNIVERSITY – RANKINGS AND RECOGNITIONS 

U.S. News and World Report ranked SCU #2 among master’s universities in the West for the 21st consecutive year.

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Santa Clara achieved the second-highest undergraduate graduation rate (85%) among master’s universities nationally.

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Santa Clara achieved the highest freshman retention rate (93%) of master’s universities in the West.

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Forbes Magazine ranked SCU’s undergraduate program 67th in the nation.

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES – RANKINGS AND RECOGNITIONS 

U.S. News and World Report listed SCU’s School of Law as the sixth-most-diverse in the United States and ranked its intellectual property program eighth nationally.

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Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Santa Clara’s undergraduate business program #35 in the nation.

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U.S. News and World Report ranked SCU’s graduate business program #75 among all business schools (part-time and full-time) in the nation.

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Santa Clara’s undergraduate engineering school ranked 21st nationally among programs that primarily grant baccalaureate and master’s degrees.

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SCU’s School of Engineering has the second-highest percentage of women on faculty among engineering programs nationally.

COMMUNITY & GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT – POINTS OF EXCELLENCE 

SCU was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for community service programs and student involvement.

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More than 1,000 undergraduates participate in service learning placements in the community offered through SCU’s Arrupe Partnerships each year.

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The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching chose SCU as a pilot site in 2006 for Institutions Committed to Community Engagement, a new category within the Foundation’s Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

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Santa Clara University’s School of Law supports several prominent public interest clinics, including the Northern California Innocence Project, the Center for Social Justice and Public Service, and the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center.

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Through the University’s Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI), 139 promising social entrepreneurs in developing countries have received intensive business mentoring, networking, and venture funding. More than 70 million people worldwide have benefited from their work.

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SCU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute engages more than 800 local senior citizens in thoughtprovoking coursework, activities, and outings each year.

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SCU’s Learning Commons, Technology Center, and Library offers access to 800,000 volumes and 650,000 government documents for students and members of the public.

SUSTAINABILITY – POINTS OF EXCELLENCE 

In 2007, Santa Clara University’s president became a signatory of the American College and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), committing SCU to climate neutrality.

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In 2009, the University’s Sustainability Council and Office of Sustainability completed SCU’s first Climate Neutrality Action Plan.

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In 2011, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) named SCU as having the third-largest rooftop photovoltaic array of any college or university nationally. This capacity will satisfy about 6% of the University’s total energy needs and 20% of summer daytime demand when stress on the power grid is highest.

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Undergraduate teams from SCU’s School of Engineering earned third place in both the 2007 and 2009 DOE Solar Decathlon competitions, which challenged the best engineering schools to design, build, and test off-grid solar houses. Numerous SCU team members have gone on to work in green technology startup companies after graduation.

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SCU now purchases 8,040 megawatt-hours (MWhs) of clean renewable energy from Silicon Valley Power. This is equivalent to the annual output of two-and-a-half large-scale wind turbines and makes SCU the largest purchaser of clean power in Santa Clara, CA.

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The School of Engineering launched a new master’s degree in sustainable energy, allowing graduate students to pursue careers in energy management, smart grids, and energy generation and distribution. The program features a heavy reliance on project-based learning, case analyses, and industrial practices so that coursework is immediately applicable to responsibilities in the workplace.

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For a third straight year, Santa Clara University (SCU) is using more green power than any other school in the West Coast Conference, making it the 2010-11 Individual Conference Champion in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) College & University Green Power Challenge.