SCU president promises respect for diversity during tenure.
Rev. Kevin O'Brien aims to ‘enkindle the mind, stir the heart' during inauguration
SANTA CLARA >> In the old-world traditions of Jesuit universities and with a blessing from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe that was here first, the Rev. Kevin O’Brien was inaugurated Friday as Santa Clara University’s 29th president, promising to nurture a commitment to truth and a respect for diversity.
“Together, at this moment in our nation’s history, we will demonstrate the enduring value of encounter over confrontation, dialogue over dismissiveness and engagement over division,” O’Brien, who turned 53 this week, said in a speech on a fern-covered dais at Leavey Center.
The former Georgetown University vice president takes over from the Rev. Michael Engh, who retired last summer, as leader of the 167-year-old Catholic institution built around the historic Santa Clara Mission.
With the university’s symphony orchestra playing, O’Brien donned the formal black robe of the late Rev. Paul Locatelli, a beloved former president. John M. Sobrato, chairman of the board of trustees, bestowed around his neck a heavy gold chain and medallion bearing the university seal.
O’Brien begins his tenure in the midst of a billion-dollar capital campaign, which has raised more than $600 million so far, and during a divisive political era in which universities have been attacked as biased bastions of liberalism.
The theme of collaboration and finding common ground was repeated in several speeches, including from Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, who delivered the invocation.
“In this time of great polarization and distrust, Santa Clara can be a beacon of mutual understanding, rooted in learning,” Lehmann said. He called on O’Brien to bring a “renewed commitment to pluralism, a cornerstone of our democracy, which is in need of constant cultivation.”
The Rev. Scott Santarosa, a 1988 SCU alum and provincial of the Jesuits West, encouraged O’Brien to be a “bridge builder” at a time when “the gap between the rich and poor increases, the divide between political ideologies widens and the cost of higher education steadily increases to unsustainability.”
As if to test that commitment in real time, about 10 people quietly stood up during the ceremony’s musical interlude, carrying signs protesting the university’s resistance to faculty unionization and its acceptance of $4 million from the conservative Koch brothers. A muted grumble and a few thumbs-down signs rose from the audience of Santa Clara boosters and alumni.
The protesters quickly exited, and O’Brien didn’t mention them during his speech. As part of his prepared remarks, however, O’Brien said he has learned to create environments for diverse voices.
“We are at our best when we make room for encounters that both enliven and challenge and for conversations that enkindle the mind, stir the heart and prod feet and hands to action,” he said.
One of his goals as president of Santa Clara, he has said, is to raise $180 million for financial aid to attract students who couldn’t otherwise afford tuition, which costs $50,000 a year.
Born in Canada and raised in Florida, O’Brien graduated from Georgetown and the University of Florida law school, working as a corporate lawyer for two years before becoming a priest at the age of 29. In an interview with this news organization last summer, O’Brien said his law career “wasn’t fulfilling me deep down. I felt restless to give back in a different way.”
He spent much of his career as a Jesuit priest advocating for migrants and refugees and connecting with people living on the margins of society. He has spent time working as a chaplain at immigrant detention centers in Los Angeles and has brought students to the Arizona-Mexican border. He has ministered in Bolivia, Mexico and Guatemala and at inner-city schools in Syracuse and Baltimore and worked at a leprosy hospital in India.
O’Brien has been a significant presence on campus since the start of the school year, delivering cookies and chocolate to freshmen as they moved into dorms and signing a steel beam on the new science and innovation building rising on campus.
Tricia Davoren, a Santa Clara alumna who attended the celebration, said she’s impressed by the new president.
“He’s open-hearted and open-minded and warm and approachable,” she said. “It’s important. We feel he’s going to walk the talk.”