SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Reverently, Santa Clara University junior Ryan Smith enters the church of Mission Santa Clara de Asis for Sunday Mass. Dipping his fingers in the bowl of holy water, Smith crosses himself and enters the church’s sanctuary.
Smith attends Mass at the church, located on SCU’s campus, every Sunday. By all appearances, Smith is a practicing Catholic. But he’s not. He simply started attending Mass out of convenience — it was close to his residence hall — and decided he liked the way it felt.
Such inclusion seems to be the status quo at Santa Clara University, one of the eight schools in the West Coast Conference. BYU is leaving the Mountain West Conference and joining the WCC in July.
Founded in 1851 by Jesuits, the university has a long religious tradition. There are currently 47 Jesuits in SCU’s Jesuit community, and about half of these are active faculty. The student population is also about 50 percent Catholic. However, the school still maintains a religiously open atmosphere, Smith said.
“My background is a [Protestant] background, not a Catholic background, so I was wondering if Catholicism would be pushed on me coming to this school,” Smith said. “But that really wasn’t the case at all. It’s really open to all religions.”
Briana Britton, the organizational development vice president for SCU’s student government, said SCU students are required to take at least three quarters’ worth of religious classes, but many of the university’s resources for spiritual education and growth operate outside the Catholic tradition.
“The religion classes here aren’t strictly Catholic teachings,” Britton said. “There’s definitely that offer to grow as a person through religion, but it’s not in any way excluding.”
SCU Student Body President Chris Mosier said the Jesuits are actually the best professors, because they are considered the intellectuals of the Catholic Church.
“Having that presence there, it’s more so reinforcing the Jesuit tradition of social justice [rather] than the Catholic teaching,” Mosier said. “If you learn anything at this school, [it’s] social justice.”
Social justice — the concept of a society based on equality and solidarity — was taught and promoted by previous Catholic saints and Jesuits, and is at the forefront of SCU’s administrative and educational efforts. Smith, Britton and Mosier all mentioned this feeling of oneness among its almost 9,000 students.
Smith, Britton and Mosier also said most students either live in on-campus housing or places directly next to campus.
“Off-campus housing is a two, maybe three-block radius around the campus,” Britton said. “It’s not a commuter school.
That definitely reinforces a sense of community — that everyone is here in the same area all the time.”
Smith said SCU provides many resources to help students feel included, and specifically mentioned on-campus Jesuits as being helpful and supportive. He said these kinds of inclusionary efforts have changed his mindset and made him more community-focused.
“I never really thought of myself as someone who wants to … bring a community feel to others,” Smith said. “But the school has changed my way of thinking, that I want to be there for other people.”
