Consider goals when restructuring LEAD

By Editorial

The Santa Clara would like to commend the university for its integral role of supporting first generation college students.

As a Jesuit university that prides itself on inclusive excellence, it is important that we do all we can to ensure that this is a good place for all who attend.

It is not enough to simply admit students of diverse backgrounds. It is the university's responsibility to be sensitive to the particulars of those backgrounds and take care of all its students.

To the student community, we feel like it is important to remember that not every student has the same typical Santa Clara experience. Thursday and Friday nights are not synonymous with The Claran and The Hut, respectively.

And while this is normal for many students, for many it is not.

We commend the Leadership, Excellence and Academic Development (LEAD) Scholars Program for giving first generation students a safe space to help with the transition process.

While we all remember the shock that came with first attending college our freshmen year, this transition is more challenging when you are the one pioneering the trail for your family. And these students should be congratulated on the accomplishment, not alienated by it.

What is important to understand is that this program is by no means remedial, but rather, an honor.

The tradition of LEAD extends back to before any of our time at Santa Clara to when an English professor taught writing classes for students who needed more training than typical incoming freshman and applied for a grant to sponsor a program dedicated to this.

Years later, after the program morphed from BRIDGE to what is now the LEAD Scholars Program, is still captures the same strength in a Jesuit tradition.

A new coordinator was hired this year, Dr. Cheryl Brown. The program has also been moved from the Drahman Advising Center to the Honors program.

The structure for the LEAD program will change so that students will take more classes together over the course of their time at Santa Clara, as opposed to the traditional English 1 and 2 and summer education.

And as the LEAD program reorganizes itself to resemble the honors program more, we ask that the administration consider the intentions and aspirations of students on a case by case basis, not assuming that these students all want the same things.

After all, the beauty of our liberal arts education is the choice we have to pursue the education we want.

It is also important to recognize that the hardships faced by first generation students are not only the result of their newness to the collegiate system.

They are also caused by issues that are often tangential for these students, such as being ethnic minorities and coming from low-income backgrounds. And these are issues that can be faced by any student, no matter what his or her family background is like.

We hope that the university continues to invest in the program and lives of these students because an institution can only benefit from a community with several differing perspectives. But perhaps that's the catch-22.

We hope that every student has the opportunity to share a different but equal perspective.