Fr. Engh Discusses Community and Values

By Matthew Rupel

On Monday, President Michael Engh, S.J., sat down  with the staff of The Santa Clara to answer questions about sustainability, religion on campus, the prevalence of alcohol on campus and what makes him proud to be part of the Santa Clara community.

The Santa Clara: How would you gauge the community reaction to the death of Daniel Strickland?

Father Engh: At a time like that a lot of people step forward who probably didn't even know him because they wanted to show support for the staff and faculty and the students that did know him. So it's one of those things that pulls the community together because one thing that is very strong at Santa Clara is a sense that when someone is down or someone is hurt or there's some kind of catastrophe, people pull together. Faculty and staff rally. Students come together, and they want to support one another, and the reports I got back from that day were more evidence that yet again this has happened.

TSC: Why is it important to you that the university be carbon neutral by 2015?

FE: How do we, as people, at Santa Clara become more conscious of the needs of others and then react in ways that are responsive to the needs of others?  This one particular program in terms of reducing the carbon footprint is one of those means to take it easy on the environment so that sustainability is possible as sustainability in the three dimensions is sustainability that the United Nations adopted. Basically it's part of doing our part. There's also a whole Christian dimension to this as well because the Catholic Church in the last 20 years has moved very strongly in the direction, you might say, a green theology in terms of being more conscious of this.

TSC: How do you try to maintain religious values on campus while providing an experience that appeals to college-aged students?

FE: There is a spiritual dimension that a conversation about ultimate values and about spirituality, about God, about religion, can take place here where it can't take place at a public institution. It can take place here. And, not only can it take place, it has to take place, because this is where a lot of important thinking goes on around these issues and I would say every student on campus has some kind of spiritual question, even if it's questioning what they grew up with or questioning what their parents said or questioning what they read in the paper, everybody has questions. And this has to be a safe place for people to explore that.

TSC: How do you balance the influence of the Catholic Church and Jesuit values?

FE: We have slightly different emphases. I'm not the Pope. He's got to emphasize certain things. I'm the president so I emphasize others. I don't turn a deaf ear. I do listen to what he has to say. But then, because we're an educational institution, we're finding what's the best way to let people learn and bring people to discover their potential, their intellectual strengths are and how they can impact the world.

TSC: If there was one issue on campus that resonated with you particularly, what would it be?

FE: I guess one of my biggest concerns, I will put it that way, is the alcohol consumption on campus. I read the Campus Safety Reports, which are filed every 12 hours, and I'm concerned about the number of alcohol transports to the hospital and it's the beginning of the year there's always a lot more, but then as it goes on it can continue as well. There are just certain weekends where there can be three or four people transported to the hospital, and who knows how many others that are just totally wasted. And that combines in with other substances, but the write-ups are generally only alcohol transports, and on behavior that results from people being inebriated or less in control of themselves.

TSC: What was your shining moment at Santa Clara?

FE: One of my proudest moments was actually right after  I first got here we had about 190 students who were in danger of dropping out of school  because of the recession – their parents had lost jobs, their homes were being foreclosed, their business were in trouble, and so we began a special fundraising campaign to raise money to keep those students in school, especially seniors. This was the winter quarter and I didn't want anybody to have to drop out before graduation because they couldn't pay tuition. So we began then a year of fundraising to keep students in school. So in that year, 190 students we raised $2 million extra on top of all of the other fundraising to keep students in school.

Contact Matthew Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849.