Granting sustainability

Locatelli knows an opportunity when he sees one.

Santa Clara's second chance to enter the prestigious Solar Decathlon competition is a way for the university to be known worldwide as an energy-savvy campus.

The university got lucky when Cal Poly San Luis Obispo dropped out of the Solar Decathlon, allowing our school the chance to be one of 20 in the international competition.

Our university is the only school on the West Coast and one of the smallest involved. In addition, Santa Clara had to start three months behind everyone else, leaving the task of fundraising $600,000 that much more daunting.

But University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., gave the project a $50,000 boost this week when he announced he would provide a challenge grant to the project. This means that if the engineers raise $50,000, Locatelli will match that amount using his annual fund.

Jim Briggs, assistant to the president, said the gift is supposed to "inspire others to donate." He added that another reason the university wants to support the project is that it's another way the university can focus on sustainability.

It was fitting that the Locatelli announced the challenge grant just before Sustainability Day, which was Wednesday.

With the construction of Kennedy Commons, the university's first "green" building and Locatelli's grant to help fund a solar powered house, the university is showing that it is committed to sustainability.

There were 160 schools that applied to be in the Solar Decathlon, and initially it must have been disappointing for the university to get so close to the competition without getting in.

The university still needs about $403,000 in fundraising for the project, but Locatelli is trying keep fundraising from being something that prevents Santa Clara from succeeding in the Solar Decathlon.

Supporting sustainability is a precedent that the university should continue, even on projects that don't have the same prestige.