Campus briefs

'Tearing Down Walls' to promote dialogue

A 4-foot makeshift plywood wall has been set up in the middle of the Santa Clara Mall all week, covered with colorful, informative signs and emotionally-charged messages. One bright yellow sign reads, "Every day more than 3,000 people from Latin America immigrate to North America. Less than 300 make it."

Tomorrow at 12 p.m., Campus Ministry's Santa Clarans for Social Justice is hosting a discussion on "Tearing Down Walls," where they will discuss physical and cultural walls as barriers to understanding and respecting human rights.

Sophomore Annie Rovzar, one of the wall's organizers, said its purpose is to "recognize the marginalized in our greater communities that we might not see every day and acknowledge them and their struggles."

"It doesn't matter if you're homeless or living in a third world country or living here -- you still deserve the same respect," said Rovzar.

The event is a part of Human Dignity Week, organized by SCSJ to explore issues of poverty, social justice and marginalized peoples.

In addition to the discussion of the wall, a group of about 20 students will sleep outside in front of Benson Memorial Center in the "Homeless Sleepout" tonight, and tomorrow another group will travel to downtown San Jose to interact with the homeless and economically poor in the "Urban Plunge."

Human Dignity Week was organized by Campus Ministry Resident Minister Matt Smith and student organizer Beth Tellman.

School of Engineering earns $68,000 grant

Santa Clara's School of Engineering was one of 42 colleges in the nation to receive a 2007 HP Technology for Teaching award that provides a $68,000 grant to improve wireless equipment.

The award may improve Santa Clara's chances at making it as a finalist in the 2007 Solar Decathlon competition because the grant money will enable students to wirelessly connect to its data systems when the solar house returns to campus in the fall.

As a recipient, Santa Clara will be able to use HP wireless Tablet PCs in engineering, math, science or computer science programs.

The award will also support Santa Clara's summer engineering seminar program and the Technology Integration for Diverse Excellence project for first year undergraduates and high school outreach students.

From staff reports. E-mail news@thesantaclara.com