Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís which traces its founding to 1777. The campus mirrors the Mission's architectural style and is one of the finest groupings of Mission Revival architecture and other Spanish Colonial Revival styles. The university is classified as a "Doctoral/Professional" university.
The university offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its six colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and Counseling Psychology, Leavey School of Business, School of Engineering, Jesuit School of Theology, and School of Law. It enrolls about 5,400 undergraduate students and about 3,300 postgraduate students.
Santa Clara's sports teams are called the Broncos. Their colors are red and white. The Broncos compete at the NCAA Division I levels as members of the West Coast Conference in 19 sports. Broncos have won NCAA championships in both men's and women's soccer. Santa Clara's student athletes include current or former 58 MLB, 40 NFL, and 12 NBA players and 13 Olympic gold medalists.
History
California mission era
Inheriting the grounds of Mission Santa Clara de Asís, Santa Clara University's campus, library holdings, art collection, and many of its defining traditions date back to 1777, almost 75 years before its founding. In January of that year, Saint Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan friar, established Mission Santa Clara as the eighth of 21 Alta California missions. Fray Tomás de la Peña chose a site along the Guadalupe River for the future church, erecting a cross and celebrating the first Mass a few days later. The campus was built on the land of the Ohlone people who relocated after suffering a decline in population due to epidemics and a loss of natural resources in the area.
Natural disasters forced early priests to relocate and rebuild the church on several occasions, moving it westward and away from the river. Built of wood, the first permanent structure quickly flooded and was replaced by a larger adobe building in 1784. This building suffered heavy damage in an 1818 earthquake and was replaced six years later by a new adobe edifice.
Early college history
The mission flourished for more than 50 years despite these setbacks. Beginning in the 1830s, however, the mission lands were repossessed in conjunction with government policy implemented via the Mexico's secularization, and church buildings fell into disrepair. The Bishop of Monterey, Dominican Joseph Sadoc Alemany, offered the site to Italian Jesuits John Nobili and Michael Accolti in 1851 on condition that they found a college for California's growing Catholic population when it became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Two colleges were organized during 1851 in the small agricultural town of Santa Clara, at the height of the Gold Rush, less than a year after California was granted statehood. Santa Clara College, forerunner of Santa Clara University, was the first to open its doors to students and is the state's oldest operating institution of higher education. Shortly after Santa Clara began instruction, the Methodist-run California Wesleyan College (now known as University of the Pacific) received a charter from the State Superior Court on July 10, 1851—the first granted in California—and it began enrolling students in May of the following year. Santa Clara's Jesuit founders lacked the $20,000 endowment required for a charter, which was eventually accumulated and a charter granted on April 28, 1855.
Santa Clara bears the distinction of awarding California's first bachelor's degree, bestowed upon Thomas I. Bergin in 1857, as well as its first graduate degree granted two years later.
The California Historical Society, the official state historical society of California, was founded in June 1871 on the campus of the College of Santa Clara by a group of prominent Californian politicians and professors, led by Californian Assemblyman John W. Dwinelle (an influential founder of the University of California).
Modern era
In 1912, the College of Santa Clara became the University of Santa Clara, with the addition of the School of Engineering and School of Law.
In 1925 the Leavey School of Business was founded.
Women were first admitted in 1961 to what had been an all-men's university, making Santa Clara University the first Catholic university in California to admit both men and women.