U Magazine, Fall 1987

PARK

ALCALA

Alcala Vista: the latest m on-campus comfort I magine you have an eight-lane swimming pool outside your living room . Just past the pool are basketball and tennis courts, weightlifting facilities and a softball field. Colorful flowers and graceful arches and columns greet you from your balcony . Sound like the latest housing development ? It actually descri bes the Un iversity's new Alcala Vista student apartments, located within a softball throw of the Sports Center . The $ 10.6 million 157, 000-square-foot complex, which took little more than a year to build, was completed just before students returned to campus

exceeded the number of rooms available. Last spring, for example, housing officials were forced to find off-campus accommodations for some 260 students who wished to live on campus. Simi– lar situations arose in previous years. Even with the new apartments, all of the University's student housing is full. The new units boost USD's total on– campus student population to near 2,000, including more than half of the undergraduate population, a fact that pleases Tom Burke, vice president for student affai rs and dean of students . "It certainly helps build a sense of cohesiveness among the student body and gives students more oppo rtunities to build friendships when that large a percentage lives on campus," he says. "I really believe the new apartments, together with the University Center (whi ch opened in J anuary) will improve the quality of student life on campus." One example of cohesive– ness already has occurred at the new apartments. Five of USD's Greek organ izations,

which do not have off– campus houses, as is common at some univer– sities, have moved en masse to various wings of Alcala Vista, according to Rick Hagan, director of housing. Each of the new apart– ment units contains a kitchen, dining area, living room with a balcony , and, in the two-bedroom units, two bedrooms and two bathrooms . Lounge areas, laundry facilities and vending machines are located in one of the buildings. Hagan says there is a comfortable feeling about the complex, in part because of the open, landscaped areas around the buildings, which reflect the Spanish Renaissance architectural style fou nd throughout campus. Students tell him they like the apartments, he reports, especially the new kitchen appliances, the walk-in closets a·nd the oak furniture. The San Diego arc hitec– tural firm of Schoell and Paul, Inc., designed the structure, whi ch was built by C .A. Larson Construc– tion Co. D Krantz announces resignation plans S chool of Law Dean Sheldon Krantz has announced his intention to resign after serving as dean since 1981. T he resignation will become effective after completion of his sabbatical during the 1988-89 academic year. "Although I will leave with mixed emotions," Krantz says , "it's time for me to move on to other challenges."

USD President Author E . Hughes praised Krantz's leadership . "Since Sheldon has been at USD, he has done much to improve the law school's stature, both in this community and nation– ally. We feel a real loss that Sheldon has decided to step down."

She/don Krantz

Since Krantz has been dean, recruitment efforts by the legal profession of USD law graduates has quadrupled. Interest in attending the law school is at an all-time high. This year's entering class of 403 students is the largest in the hi story of the law school, founded in 1954. Krantz also has given priority to improving the legal profession in the San Diego region. In 1981, he helped establish the San Diego Law Center with the San Diego County Bar Association. programs that have assisted the community, including neighborhood mediation, alternatives to litigation, the San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program and the San Diego Immigration Law Coalition . During his long-delayed sabbatical, Krantz is expected to devote much of hi s time to completing a book tentatively titled The Future ofthe Legal Profession for Oxford Press . D The Center has since spawned a number of

in September. The six buildings contain 135 two-bedroom and 2 1 one-bedroom units.

The need for the apart–

ments became clear to University administrators during the past few years, when demand for on campus housing consistently

The new 156-unit Alcala Vista apartments, located next to the Sports Center, opened to their first students in the fa//. The apartments boost the number ofstudents living on campus to almost 2,000.