Santa Clara Snapshot 1989

By the numbers

Santa Clara Snapshot 1989
Glasnost and grins: A troika of Soviet militsiya pose with an SCU student on her first visit to the U.S.S.R. Photo from The Redwood

3 members of the Africa Peace Committee visit Santa Clara’s Multicultural Center in April to increase awareness about the social and political problems in South Africa. In August, P. W. Botha resigns as president of the country and F. W. de Klerk takes office.

12 students and three faculty members from Donetsk State University (now known as Donetsk National University) arrive in January for a nine-day exchange program at Santa Clara. It inaugurates a bilateral exchange of teachers and students with this city in eastern Ukraine, a nation that is part of the Soviet Union until August 1991.

33 hours of nonstop reading during the English Club’s first book marathon, which includes reading 842 pages of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.

300 students participate in a schoolwide game of tag, using plastic spoons to tag their assigned targets.

1,400 tons of rock used to fill in the area excavated at the beginning of Casa Italiana’s construction.

$25 million to reroute The Alameda, a process that is completed in Apr

Spin Masters

In searching for patterns that would differentiate one species of webspinners from the next, Professor Janice Edgerly-Rooks wondered: What if you put their steps to music? Would you be able to hear the differences?

A Strong Red

Santa Clara’s signature red has been around since the late 1800s. Before it was made official, though, we were almost the blue Broncos.

Unspooling Stories

Art historian Andrea Pappas explores the sneaky feminism woven into colonial embroideries.

The Pope, AI, and Us

Santa Clara’s Markkula Center joins the Vatican in contemplating—what else?—the ethics of AI and other disruptive tech.