Welcome home, Madame Secretary

By Brittany Benjamin

A year and a half ago, then-Governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano flew into San Jose aboard Southwest Airlines with one accompanying assistant.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security flew to San Francisco aboard Air Force One and arrived at Santa Clara with a police escort and the secret service at her side.

It was the first time Napolitano, '79, visited her alma mater since her appointment to President Obama's Cabinet. While at Santa Clara she spoke about the role of the Department of Homeland Security in a networked 21st century. Her speech kicked off the university's annual President's Speaker Series.

During her speech, Napolitano addressed such issues as terrorism, Hurricane Katrina, immigration, health care and even H1N1. She was recently appointed by Obama to lead immigration reform for his administration and expressed her desire to have new immigration legislature in Congress by the end of the year.

Napolitano, who has always politically advocated immigration reform, returned to campus after last appearing April 27, 2008 for a Markkula Ethics Center lecture in the Recital Hall.

"It's an honor to be back at Santa Clara where I enjoyed my time as a student, where I have visited as an alumni, and now as a guest speaker--all in different stages of my life," Napolitano said. "It always feels a little bit like coming home."

Home got a little bit more comfortable when other alumni from the class of 1979 arrived on campus to take in their classmate's speech. The graduates were on hand as part of the Grand Alumni event held over the weekend.

"She was always destined for great things," said Dave Boscacci, '79, who worked with Napolitano on The Santa Clara newspaper. "I expect she'll achieve even greater things."

Napolitano noted the difference between her years as a student here and returning as a speaker. "When my class graduated, Jimmy Carter was President of the United States," she said. "You can't make this stuff up. Thirty years ago, the first laptop computers appeared. They weighed eleven pounds and they cost $10,000."

Having mentioned the development of computers, Napolitano transitioned into discussing the increased networking created by cyberspace and its effect on national security.

She even discussed what it was like getting appointed to her post by Obama.

"My voice mail was beeping, and I hit the thing and it said, 'Hi, Janet. This is Barack. Give me a call. Here's the number,'" she said. "So I wrote down the number and hit the erase thing and went, 'I had just erased the President-elect on the phone.' I was not sure if that was a good move."

Napolitano described her focus as head of Homeland Security, stating that the agency has four major missions -- preventing another terrorist attack from occurring on American soil, securing national borders, updating and changing immigration laws for enforcement and the preparation for and response to crises, including terrorist attacks or attacks by mother nature like H1N1.

Before her speech, a reception was held for Napolitano, the class of 1979 and guests. Additionally, Napolitano met with faculty and political science students in Kennedy Commons for a question and answer session.

Major concerns for those in attendance surrounded issues of immigration, including one professor who asked Napolitano to personally review her citizenship papers after already waiting five years. The politician took the professor's papers and promised to personally review them. A student had a personal concern about the Texas border and asked Napolitano about Texas Governor Rick Perry's intent to send state troops to the U.S. border with Mexico.

"I don't feel that she answered the question on how she feels," said sophomore Michelle Luevano, who lives in El Paso. "It is a federal issue and for a state to have to step up and take control of it, it's sort of a letdown for me and my city."

Various other questions on national security and immigration clouded the session as well as personal questions on her experience in the nation's capital.

For her Louis B. Mayer Theatre speech, Napolitano was introduced by Janet Flammang, chair of the Political Science department, who also taught Napolitano in her senior thesis class.

"I asked my California Politics students who had attended the talk what they thought about what then (Arizona) Governor Napoliano said. Two people -- male and female, democrat and republican -- I kid you not said 'Why isn't this woman president?'"

Kurt Wagner, Christopher Woodhouse and Jesus Diaz contributed reporting to this story. Contact Brittany Benjamin at (408) 554-4546 or brbenjamin@scu.edu.