Michael Eric Engh (born December 14, 1949) is an American

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest,

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He was the 28th President of

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

from January 5, 2009 to June 30, 2019.

Biography

Engh is a third generation

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

n. He is a historian specializing in the history of California and the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

and previously was a professor of history at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He was also the

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of Loyola Marymount's Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts before becoming president of Santa Clara University.

President of Santa Clara University

Engh was appointed president of Santa Clara University in 2008, succeeding Father Paul Locatelli, who had been president from 1988 until 2008. Engh officially became the 28th President of Santa Clara University on January 5, 2009. His inauguration was held on April 24, 2009, at Santa Clara's Leavey Event Center. The ceremony was attended by approximately 1,500 guests, including the leaders or representatives of more than 100 universities and colleges. He was re-elected to a six year term in November 2013, a post he held until June 30, 2019. Kevin O'Brien, S.J., the 29th President of Santa Clara, succeeded him on July 1, 2019. In October 2013, Engh made the decision to drop health insurance coverage of elective abortions for the Catholic university's faculty and staff. He wrote a letter to the university's faculty and staff stating that he and the university "studied how the school can structure its medical insurance plans in 2014 to be compliant with federal and California laws and regulations while representing its values as a Jesuit university". Neither the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

or California law mandate employers to cover elective abortions. The faculty senate of the university took a vote and declared Engh's resolution invalid, but the final decision rests with the board of trustees of the school. The decision to drop coverage for abortions violated the California constitution and was overturned by the state of California's Department of Managed Health Care in 2014.

Works authored

Engh has written on the role of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in the settlement of colonial California by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. He has also authored works on the history of

. One of his best known works is ''Frontier Faiths: Church, Temple, and Synagogue in Los Angeles'', published in 1992.

References

External links

Santa Clara University: About the President
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engh, Michael Presidents of Santa Clara University 20th-century American Jesuits 21st-century American Jesuits 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of the American West Loyola Marymount University faculty Living people 1949 births 21st-century American male writers