Thursday, October 6, 2016
WHAT’S INSIDE Reverse the Curse
Electric Feels
Defining Solidarity
Red Sox and Cubs set to clash in the fall classic
Santa Clara senior drops EP
Prioritizing human experiences
SPORTS, PAGE 8
OPINION, PAGE 6
SCENE, PAGE 4
President Fr. Michael Engh, S.J.
Mass of the Holy Spirit
An Honest Conversation
as RLC residents,” Datar said. In spring of this year, senior Kasim Shaikh lived in a home that was converted to a Neighborhood Unit over the summer. He said that he has not noticed an increased amount of Campus Safety patrol so far, despite the fact that his house has thrown parties. “We’ve thrown down already this year,” Shaikh said. “We just had 20 to 25 people over and we kept it low-key and inside the house. Campus Safety didn’t bother us at all.” Jane Barrantes, assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services, said that the university collected a list of student contacts from each house to be given to Campus Safety. If anyone calls with a complaint, Barrantes said, Campus Safety will call them rather than immediately knock on their door. “They will not be patrolling the area and per say, ‘dreaming up things.’ They will be responding to calls that will be submitted to their office,” Barrantes said.
As with many of us in the University community, I was saddened and troubled by the recent vandalisms of the memorial of the 43 missing students along the path in front of St. Joseph’s Hall. Such an act violates everything we stand for as a community. Let me be clear: the denigration of this memorial, and of any aspect of campus, physical or otherwise, is unacceptable and reprehensible. This act only divides us, harms others and defeats the educational intent of such displays. There is value in these types of public installations: they open us to issues and topics, sometimes controversial, we may have never known previously. When these types of displays are met in this way, their creators are discouraged from continuing them and that is harmful to everyone. What does it say about us as a community when we treat the work of others with contempt and disregard? As members of this University community, we have all committed to the ideals of mutual respect and integrity. That means we stand up to injustice when we are confronted with it. It means that we hold ourselves and each other accountable. And it means that we allow all persons to express themselves without fear of retaliation from others. Some members of the community have expressed the idea that this act is symptomatic of a larger problem surrounding inclusion at Santa Clara. Regardless of motivation, we cannot allow this destructive behavior to continue. The violation of the work, ideas and property of others diminishes trust within our community. Instead, we must support one another in our individual expressions of who we are and what we value. This mutual support and celebration of one another reflects an important Jesuit goal of social justice: solidarity. We are one community that seeks to invite everyone to participate and express themselves as equals. To realize our potential as an inclusive and diverse community requires that as individuals and as a group we work hard to make this dream a reality. The student-initiated Unity 4 program exemplifies the hard work that goes into creating a climate of inclusion and mutual respect. Working together with faculty and the administration, Santa Clara students identified the manifestations of systemic injustice on campus and developed specific recommendations to affect positive change. This collaboration led to the development of Ethnic Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies programs into full academic department status with stand-alone majors, as well as the creation and recent launch of the Diversity and Inclusion Series for each student’s first year. Such progress must continue, and there is still much work yet to be done to live up to our ideals of inclusion and solidarity. The way forward begins with integrity, integrity in which we hold ourselves and each other accountable for our words and actions. We must all remain vigilant against attacks
See OFF-CAMPUS, Page 2
See A MESSAGE, Page 6
KEVIN BOEHNLEIN — THE SANTA CLARA
In keeping with the Jesuit tradition, Santa Clara University hosted the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at Mission Church. Hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students showed up to participate in one of Santa Clara’s oldest and most profound religious traditions.
Life in the Neighborhood Units
Administration keeps firm but fair hand on off-campus houses Sophie Mattson
The Santa Clara Santa Clara wants its students to know that it’s all good in the ‘hood. Last October, the university announced that they were converting over 20 off-campus homes, mainly south of campus, into university-operated Neighborhood Units. In the spring, students applied to live in the homes through the Housing Office, the units were renovated over the summer and are now monitored by Campus Safety.
Campus Safety’s New Role After the policy was announced, students flooded university forums to voice
Since 1922
their shock, outrage and disapproval of the new policy. Since many fraternity satellite houses were set to be converted into neighborhood units, some feared that the offcampus party scene would be destroyed due to increased Campus Safety surveillance. According to ASG senate chair senior Neil Datar, the Associated Student Government conducted a poll of nearly 600 Santa Clara students last school year that revealed 90 percent of them disapproved of the new Neighborhood Unit policy. “Hopefully a productive partnership between administration, students and Campus Safety can help bring that number down significantly,” Datar said. Datar said that he would like to see a “deeper acknowledgement” of the Neighborhood Units as houses instead of dorms, and wants a “clearer definition” in how Campus Safety will police them. “They differ from the Residential Learning Communities in important ways and student residents of the Neighborhood Units have an expectation of being treated judicially as residents of houses rather than
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