News Scrapbook 1986-1988

Jl.ll~rr '• P, c. B. En 1888

come volunteers Ex- ecutive tries to I orge state network

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'Universities are here to produce knowledgeable, responsible persons. Whatever they do (after they graduate) to earn a living is nice, but they are not here to be an engineer. We want to produce a fine, polished person to go forward and perpetuate culture.'

- Carl Emerich

Trtbll u S ACK m l'O . out blank horn 1 , , lad! up n a k1tch• en for th hungry and teach adults ho_w to read and write, all while pur- suing umv • lty degr Th e tud nts d fy the image, de. . rv d o~ not, of elf ntered, pk• lllg yuppl And the number of ltruishc tu• d nts Is growin . a r urgenc of the community crv1ce ethic at umversi• ti in , n I go and across the na• t10n Amajor re son for Iner d em• 1c1u ·nto Bu 'Ihey hand to San Diego's

"Universities are here to produce knowledgeable, responsible persons. Whatever they do (after they gradu- ate) to earn a living is nice, but they are not here to be an engineer. We want to produce a fine, polished per• son to go forward and perpetuate culture. We're broader than cranking out accountants and new attorneys. 'You're going to see across the Unitt>d States that it is not much fun being self-centered." Emerich cited a course in decision making and organizational behavior in which three-fourths of his students take the option of an "observation project" in the community instead of writing a research paper Bonnie Newman, undergraduate dean says this is the first semester SDSU has had lottery funds available and about $33,000 has gone to fund eight faculty proposals for communi- ty service credit related to students' majors. Thirty-one faculty members had submitted proposals. The proposals include opera work- shops in elementary schools, elemen- tary instruction of science, and help for community service agencies to use donated computers that come without the computer programs they need. Spanish a.11d Latin American Stud- ies majors have been working with federal public defender< nn cultural and language interpr·>t t on. San Diego State, ause it is so large and so many students work part time and commute to campus, has more of a "grass roots-up" ap- proach to volunteering. Th focal point is the Campus Y. Jim Nessheim, Campus Y director, says the YMCA and YWCA organiza- tion has been operating at SDSU for many years, reaching its heyday in the early 70s. "Then," he says, "there was kind of a decline. But through Bob (Choate) - we call him a Johnny Appleseed kind of guy for bringing us together - and some others, there has been a resurgence." Like USD and UCSD, there is an outreach to incoming students. Events on campus, such as Project Success, involving young Hollywood stars, drew 150 to 200 students. About 40 signed up fo1 the high school drop- out-prevention program. Volunteers go out to higlr schoob, particularly those with large minori• ty enrollments, and encourage stu- dents to stay in school and think of college. He says several hundred students take part in ongoing programs. Each residence hall, for example, is encouraged to adopt a particular project and stick with it for the school year, and most campus groups, including fraternities and sororities, have social service proj- ects. Andrea Heier, an SDSU graduate who is matching volunteers with agencies at the Campus Y office, says interest "has gone up dramati- cally over the last couple of months. .. . (The) numbers of volunteers are going up slowly but surely. They are not the giant numbers I'd like to see,

At UCSD last summer, Choate, after conferring with Chancellor Richard Atkinson, couldn't wait for new fall students to arrive. He got a list of campus leaders and started calling them at random, forming a core of about 10. As a result, the new UCSD Volun- teer Connection Office, directed by Ellen Caprio, a senior communica- tions major, was ready to go when the fall quarter began. "It's growing every day," she said, adding that there are about 200 ac• live student volunteers. "We have about 80 non-profit agencies that we're helping, and the San Diego Uni- fied School District." During the cold early January weather, a shelter for the homeless called, and Caprio mobilized an emergency delivery of blankets, using access to fraternities, sorori- ties and service groups such as Cir• cle K. On a regular basis, she says, the office tries to get students working with non-profit organizations three hours a week for eight weeks in a 10- week quarter. They tutor Hispanic children and conduct adult illiteracy programs. Tb.ey go to Tijuana with students from other campuses and build hous- es for the poor. Others go to hospitals and play with children or work with elderly patients. Tom Tucker, UCSD assistant vice chancellor, is a member of the UC Human Corps Planning Committee. "Students are concerned about the total educational process and what happens to them outside the class- room as a total individual," he says. The Associated Students at the uni• versity allocated between $8,000 and $10,000 for the volunteer program. "This is part of a citywide effort with a goal of having the three insti- tutions communicate, form a consor- tium and generate 1,000 or more stu- dent volunteers in San Diego in any given year," he says. "We're very pleased, because it is a student initia- tive. The administration should be very supportive, as we are, but it should be led and coordinated by the students." A mandate for all students would be " nrealistie," he says. "There 11re a number of students who cannot af- ford, because of academic loads or •performance, to allocate the time." Besides the Volunteer Connection, the university has a wide-ranging program of internships and academ- ic credit courses that involve com- munity service. • • • University of San Diego President AuthorRu~ Volunteer Program Office on campus and, says Judy Rauner, director of volunteer services, "Students are the front line in new project development. "There's been quite a tradition of community service here, but up until six months ago there was no coordi- nation," she said. "There's much more community service now." She said hundreds of students are ''

Personal Responsibility. Vasconcellos says community ser- vice could be required of graduate students who receive student loans. Vasconcellos, Choate and others have suggested that college tran- scripts list community service, so that potential employers would have an additional element upon which to judge job applicants. Even without legislation, Vascon- cellos says community service inter- est on university campuses "is hap- pening. It's on a roll.... This thing is happening nationwide." Choate, who gained a $25,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation for the Sao Diego coalition, has used the funds to help pay for volunteer cen- ter staff at the campuses. "It takes about $10,000 to plant the seed am' water it," he says. "I'd love to see students running the whole thing, but they graduate. We need continuity. We try to find a recently graduated student who is familiar with campus turf. At UCSD, students run the whole show, but they still have to hke a coordinator." Choate says a statewide program could be launched for Jess than $1 million. "We have to get the attention of the governor in a manner that is not antagonistic. This is not a liberal or

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made his "Human Corps" proposal last year and it was considered con- troversial because it would mandate community service of college stu- dents. Gov. Deukmejian vetoed Vasconcellos' provision from the state budget, but the Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill for the current .es ion of the Legislature that also calls for mandatory ser• vice. Choate and educational leaders generally don't want to force stu- dents to perform community service aod would prefer a bill that is volun• tary. Vasco.icellos says he is aware that educators "ha've qualms about the mandate" and he would be willing to compromise if university officials grasp the Human Corps proposal and nm with it - and there is evidence that they are. He says he has an understanding with California State Universities Chancellor Ann eynolds that if the system want to take on a communi- ty service prog, am or. its own, as she says it does. a mandate would be un- necessary. Either way, Vasconcellos says he ''

phasls on commu• nlty service at three an Diego universities is Rob- ert Choate, a re tired bu In man who has devoted much of his pa$t 30 years to mun ty scrv, nd d rstanding among ' races. He h be-

come th "Johnny Appl eed" of uni• vers1ty community volunteensm 10 San Diego. Choate was the prime mover about l¼ years ago In the formation of a coahtion for volunteerism that links th_e USivers~~; Diego, San Diego late m and the Uni• vers1ty of California at San Diego. The San Diego Committee on Univer• sity-Community Servic is an unu• sual network of volunteer efforts. Choate wants it to serve as a model for the tate, and plan.~ to pend many pring days in the Capi• tol knockmg on doors as coordinator of the ne ly formed California Coali- tion on University-Community Ser- vices, based Ill San Francisco. Choate says that two years ago he aw the combined enrollment of 65,000 students at thr San Diego universities "a an untapped pool of pparenUy laid•back, dismterested students." H met with university leaders and ·tudents to e tablish volunteer centers, places for contact between stud nts and non-profit community agencies. Hr says he found tudents who wanted to participate but who need• the nudge of organization, direc• two and contacts. "In San Diego, the seed (of volun- t r1SI11) eems to· have lain dor• mant" as federal budget cuts m reve• nue haring and bloc grants in the 19 made non-profit social service ag ncies feel a pinch. creating both a need nd a void, he say Coinc1d ntally, he says, ~mbly• man John Vasconcellos f San Jose Plea e see VOLUNTEER .A.-6

There is quite a resurgence. I've seen students come in and say, 'Ob, I've been looking for this.' They need guidance. The underlying interest is there, but this makes it easier for them to get involved. - Author Hughes ____________ ,,

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conservative program. Having my child helping in a senior service cen• ter JS appealing to me no matter what {philosophical) coloration I have," Choate says. Gaining legislation is important, he says, "but it is not the whole ball game.... The idea is timely, and it may go with legislative 00mph, or without." Students should have a "real, al- most-mandated social-service ethic," he says. "Let us make the ethic so obvious, so palatable, that to not pick it up would be an embarrassment." The 62-year-old Choate, who calls himself "half-retired" from the world.of construction and condomini- um development, has lived on Crown Point since 1982, although he recent- ly moved his base of operation to San Francisco to be closer to Sacramento for legislative hearings on volunteer- ism bills. In the early 1960s, Choate, then a Phoenix businessman, said he no- ticed that job opportunities are hid- den "from those who grow up on the wrong sides of the track." Io his spare time, he launched Careers for Youth, a "compensatory education program," and worked with 2,000 of them over six years. He said the volunteerism bug bit him in 1962 when he was a consultant for President John F. Kennedy's Ju- venile Delinquency Prevention Com- mittee, which sought to adapt the overseas Peace Corps to domestic purposes. He also worked on hunger programs during the Johnson admin- istration and the White House Con- ference on Food, Nutrition and Health during the Nixon administra- tion. He had a Ford Foundation grant to bring civic leaders from El Paso, Omaha and Nashville to Washington to give them 14-day experiences and "broaden their horizons." ''Between 1958 and 1961, I had a new mental philosophy," he said, and, despite the Democratic adml!lls- 1 tration in Washington, "this liberal Republican found a niche for his thinking." • • •

is determined to see, within five yea • volunteering for community service as a "part of the CSU culture. . . Students would come expecting to do community service." After Deukmejian's 1986 veto, Vasconcellos introduced a resolution passed by the Senate and ~mbly requesting the two public university systems, through the California Post- secondary Education Commission, to study student community service and report to the Legislature. The commission report was issued earlier this month, concluding that the commitment of a university pres- ident makes "a significant difference to the campus effort." While some programs have diffi. culty attracting volunteers, the com- mission says the "revitalization of student public service appears to be evident in the increased participa- tion rates of students on most cam- puses." The University of California re- sponded to Vasconcellos' resolution by creating a Human Corps Planning Group representing all main cam- puses. Surveys were conducted and, while systemwide results were not avail- able, the UCSD survey found that the 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students there average 7,639 hours of community service per quarter, says Ellen Caprio, a senior communica- tions major who is director of the UCSD "Volunteer Connectior." office. Chancellor Reynolds created a task force on commnnity service and reported that more than 15,000 Cali- fornia State University students - about 5 percent of the student body - participate regularly in some form of community service program related to their study_ The CSU system is spending $500,000 of its 1986-87 funds from the state lottery to develop new student internship programs and. expand ex• isling ones, some involving "mentor- ship" activities in high schools with large minority enrollments as envi- sioned in Vasconcellos' Human Corps proposal. Vasconcellos, whose 1987 legisla- tion is scheduled for its first hearing Wednesday in the Assembly Educa- tion Committee, is quite pleased with responses to his resolution so far. "They're thinking of ways they could generate a cultural change," he says. "That, to me, is always the best change, rather than a mandate." Vasconcellos, the 54-year-old chairman of the powerful ~mbly Ways and Means Committee, is a lib- eral whose legislative proposals have made him one of the nation's fore- most politicians in the field of human relations.

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Dally Transcript (Cir. D. 7,415)

/\PR 30 1987

We have to get the attention of the governor in a manner that is not antagonistic. Having my child helping in a senior service center is appealing to me no matter what (philosophical) coloration I have. - Robert Choate __________ ,,

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SD law prof K~nth Davis ice to aid its dec181on making proces. . Davis, who wrot • the nation's first com prehenR1ve treatise on ad min~trativc law m 1951, sugge•ls a statute to allow the high court ac ce to the Congrc~sional Research Service, already set up with 587 researcher and 273 support staff He details tht• proposal at 6 p.m at the I " school's third Nathaniel L. Nathanson M••mor1al Lecture •ri •s, in th Grace Courtroom. / . .. / - : figures he U.~d, ' me Court needs a re~eard(.l./;

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but they keep increasing." • • •

participating. About eight go to a soup kitchen each week to help feed the hungry, others work in a "latch- key'' program for children in nearby Linda Vista. "This program has high visibility and leadership from the top is im- portant," she said. "There is quite a resurgence. I've seen students come in and say, 'Ob, I've been. looking for this.' They need guidance. The underlying interest is there, but this makes it easier for them to get involved." "We link people here with agencies that need help. li the student has to knock on doors {to get involved), he or she might be discouraged," Last month, USD volunteers were referees at a Southern California basketball tournament for retarded children, while members of the cam- pus Spanish Club provided torpedo sandwiches, using Mexican breads. "It's fun. Students socialize and have positive learning experiences. So many have never had any contact with retarded citizens," Rauner said. • • • Carl Emerich, associate vice presi- dent for student affairs at San Diego State, said he hopes there will be leg- islative encouragement and funding. "Students at colleges and universi- ties are saying they've gone through the doldrums and scrambled for what industries want, what the 'big world' wants. We were getting too ar afield

The community service ethic is being promoted nationally by the 2· year-old Campus Compact, about 120 college or university presidents, and COOL, a Washington, D.C.,-based stu- dent organization founded by a for- mer Harvard volunteer, with the full name of Campus Outreach Opportu- nity League, a network of more than 250 campuses. Besides the Vasconcellos bill, other pending legislation includes a bill by ~mblywoman Maxine Wa- ters, D-Los Angeles, to require uni- versities and community colleges to create programs for students to help illiterate adults. Choate says he is concerned that the bills reflect what universities and students deske, because the commu- nity service program must show suc• cess within a few years. To go too fast, too soon, or to mandate a stu• dent curriculum, could be counter- productive. For one thing, he says, if more than about 5 percent of all the stu- dents in California colleges and uni- versities were to volunteer, the char- itable or non-profit agencies would be unable to accommodate all those who want to participate. These agen- cies also would not be expected to be receptive to students who come be- cause they are required, not because the want to.

Have students really become more selfish and materialistic since the so- cially conscious 1960s and early 1970s? Stanford University President Donald Kennedy, whose campus has developed what Choate and others considers to be an outstanding com• munity service program, says the current generation of students has received a "bum rap." Today's students are not passive and materialistic, Kennedy says, calling the situation a classic case of blaming the victim of a system that stresses academic achievement to meet the needs of future employers and to succeed in the world. "Have we somehow contrived to spoil a whole generation of American youngsters or are we simply seeing some predictable responses to the messages we've been sending?" he asked. These messages have been en- couraging an individual's concern for the individual, a fear of self-survival.

Vista, CA (San Diego Co.) Morning Preu (Cir. D. 7 ,676) (C ir. S. 7,967)

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PR 30 1 7

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First elected to the ~mbly in 1966, Vasconcellos has been promot• ing a Human Corps concept for stu• dents at public colleges and universi- ties for the past two years He also is bringing together leaders from all segments of society to attend semi- nars and retreats to mold a "caring" corps of leaders for the future. Be became internationally known recently as the author of the bill that c!'f'ated the California Task Force to s . J