University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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Mhe Indians have left the streams of the valley. The Mission Bell no longer calls Spanish soldiers and Franciscan priests to worship. Rather, on week days, the Mission Bell sounds simultaneously with a nearby factory whistle. Two hundred years ago the natives called this place Thamien. In 1777 Fray Francisco Palou led a band of Spanish soldiers and their families here, and they quickly assembled a mission of mud and logs and named it Santa Clara, after St. Clare of Assisi. Seventy years later Jesuits Michael Accoiti and John Nobili, who had wandered through the streets of San Francisco to scout the possibility of launching a Jesuit ministry in gold rush California, came to the quiet cloisters of Mission Santa Clara. They converted the Franciscan mission into a school for local young Catholic men. Although they did not realize it at the time, Accoiti and Nobili had founded the first institution of higher learning in California. Today we enjoy the fruit of their labor at the University of Santa Clara. [1] What would those two Jesuits say of their college if they were to see it now? Imagine them walking through the Mission Gardens. Are there men and women out here with hardly any clothes on, Michael, or are my eyes deceiving meP No, John, I see them too. What is that they are throwing back and forth r ' It looks like a plate to me. Well, at least some of them have their books with them. Look at that fellow there, hie ' s reading a Bible. But John, it ' s the King James version! The two Jesuits continue walking until they

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come upon a dormitory. They enter, and are mildly embarrassed as they discover there are women inside. Where is the men ' s dorm? Father Nobili asks a young lady who is putting change into the Coke machine. Oh, this is, she says with a smile. Men live on the first, third and fifth floors. Women live on the second and fourth. Amazing, Michael replies. Nobili and Accoiti leave Dunne Hall and walk across Kennedy Mall. They stop to read an inscription on the wall: We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask Why not? hie must have been a Jesuit, Nobili says. No, John, it says here he was President. Alas! A Catholic President! They carefully cross the street, in awe of the automobiles parked at the curb. Do you have your meal cards? A friendly grey haired women asks as the men walk through Benson ' s cafeteria doors. No, Father Michael replies, we ' re just visiting. They move slowly between tables, dodging food and napkins that fly frequently from table to table. How can they waste their food? John wonders. It can ' t be any worse than the food we used to prepare. As the sun sets, the men continue their tour of the campus. What is this? they say, as they enter the Leavey Activities Center. For moments they are speechless. Look at that plunge! John exclaimed, eyeing the swimming pool. That ' s a far cry from the water hole we dug in the old mission orchard. They wander out to Buck Shaw Stadium, and sit and watch the baseball game, noticing that everyone is very excited about what is going on with the ball and bat, and that this strange game makes everyone happy. They decide the sport is good. It is late evening and all is quiet. The two founders of the University of Santa Clara are returning to the Mission Church for one last look at the building they had spent so many years in. But as they pass another dormitory, they hear loud noises coming from the basement. Is this an all male dormitory? they ask an older student who is leaning on the door jam. It is this year, he replies. They enter and slowly step down toward the commotion. They open the door and see the smoke and loud music, and smell beer and sweaty bodies and decide that Club 66, whatever it may be, is not for them. It ' s kind of like the days of the Cold Rush in this town, Nobili remarks. Some things never change, eh, John.