The Reverend Herman J. Hauck, S.J., was appointed the 23rd president of Santa Clara on August 1, 1951, following the university's one-hundredth anniversary, succeeding the Rev. William C. Gianera, S.J. Fr. Hauck entered the Society of Jesus in 1929, and was ordained at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco in 1941. He graduated from Gonzaga University in 1935 and received an M.A. in English from Yale University, the university’s first president to have studied at a secular institution. Fr. Hauck taught English at Santa Clara from 1936 to 1938, and Religious Studies from 1942-1943. During his tenure, he served as both president and rector of the Jesuit community. Fr. Hauck was elected president of the Western College Association in 1955, and was appointed by the governor of California to be one of nine commissioners heading the state’s recently founded scholarship program. In 1958 Fr. Hauck became director of Education for the California Province of the Society of Jesus. Father Hauck died on June 13, 1978.

Santa Clara University was founded in 1851 by the Society of Jesus as Santa Clara College and is California’s oldest operating institution of higher learning. It was established on the grounds of Mission Santa Clara de Asìs, the eighth of the original 21 California missions. The college originally operated as a preparatory school and did not offer courses of collegiate rank until 1853. The institution became known as the University of Santa Clara in 1912, when the schools of engineering and law were added. For 110 years, Santa Clara University was an all-male school. In 1961, women were accepted as undergraduates and Santa Clara University became the first coeducational Catholic university in California. The number of students and faculty tripled over the next decade and the university began the largest building program in school history with eight residence halls, a student union, and an athletic stadium. In the early 1970s, the Board of Trustees voted to limit the size of the undergraduate population, an action that was intended to preserve the character and ensure the quality of the university for generations to come. In 1985, the university adopted Santa Clara University as its official name. Bibliography: Santa Clara University. “About SCU – History.” www.scu.edu/about/history.cfm (Accessed Nov. 23, 2010) McKevitt, Gerald, S.J. The University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1979.