Showing gratitude for 20 years of service

By our opinion

During his 20 year tenure, University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., has gotten to hear plenty of student complaints.

There's not enough parking available. Tuition is too expensive. We need a football team. The list goes on.

Many of the complaints are valid, and many are not being adequately addressed by the university.

But after Locatelli's March 14 announcement that he will be stepping down as president to take on a job in Rome, it's time for our president to hear something else from the student body that he probably doesn't hear nearly as much.

Thank you.

In the 20 years of Locatelli's presidency, Santa Clara has undergone dramatic changes. A new library, academic buildings, residence halls and athletic facilities stand where parking lots, roads or out-of-date buildings used to be.

A student body that used to consist nearly exclusively of white students from California has shifted to one where almost 40 percent of students are students of color, and 40 percent are from outside of California.

An Athletic Department that was once characterized by a fading football program is now nationally dominant in both men's and women's soccer, and has had consistent recent success in other sports as well.

And Santa Clara has grown from a regional university to one that attracts top students from all over the country, with a statistical profile that improves every year.

Though it would be excessive to exclusively credit Locatelli for all of these accomplishments, his leadership and vision have been invaluable to the growth of this university.

And while many of us have disagreed with some of his decisions, his dedication to this university is unquestionable.

As president, Locatelli has worked tirelessly to raise money, expand the campus and bolster Santa Clara's academic and humanitarian credentials. This university's commitment to social justice is thanks in part to Locatelli's commitment to activism.

Through all this process, he has made Santa Clara a more prestigious university, made all of our degrees more valuable and helped make this university a place that we can all be proud to be a part of.

As the search begins for a new president, we hope that someone will be selected who will build on the foundation Locatelli has left.

We have an amazing new library and learning commons. The key now will be to fill the library with the same resource materials that are available to students at any research university.

We have a campus full of energized, dynamic students. As we continue to attract this kind of student body, Santa Clara must expand its academic programs and offer more majors and opportunities for students to discover their passions in the classroom.

And we have taken admirable strides on diversity, by both attracting and retaining more students of color. Still, much more remains to be done. Re- directing some of the funding that has gone to building projects in recent years toward financial aid and scholarship endowments would increase Santa Clara's ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, making this university more representative of the multicultural community and globalized world we live in today.

Locatelli has dedicated a lifetime of work to Santa Clara, and for this, it's time we all pause and thank him as he leaves behind a community that is forever indebted to him.

We wish you all the best, Father.