News Scrapbooks 1977-1979
FEB 22 1979
SD s Tu sda ' 0 S ba~Ket hall • ag ln~t U of Alabama was cancl'lJr
I tof theroe Experiment,al program provides mental and physical stimulation • • • • to re1uvenate sen or citizens
Tor ro, p int Loma set lor hoop playoffs l7
me be-
Thursday night's
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tween Blola and SCC. W mont, which took the orth, em Division, will also wa unW Saturday be!or play• ing. Westmont wtll pla Thursday night's Oomln• guez Hills-Redlands winner Th Crusad rs scored 68 points In th second balf against SCC in the tit! game. "We played nawl ly .. Coach Ben Foster said 'tbe Crusaders ebrated a third straight division till .
By RICHARD LOUV NANETTE WISER Siar-Haw,Special Wrttuo
plained. "Our park-like campus, which 1s centrally located and on the city bus route, is an ideal setting for our senior citizens to mix with our undergraduates." Rafferty echoed Hughes' ob- ervations "It' e ntial tog t the elderly out of the high-rise en- claves, into an environment with other generaLions. In addition to encouraging this mix of students of different ages, we requested all
gave
their
time
to
lectures and
Rafferty. "The only reward was self-stimulation, not a grade,"), the program resulted m stimulating a continuing interest in community and education. As in France, where many retired people returned to politics in their local commun ty or went back mto business, the San Diego experiment stirred reactions beyond the administrator's ex- pectations, "We had people who had given up hope, had lost a partner and were going down hill, but by the lime they left USD, the process had reversed. Three have since returned to the university, two have come to tutor younger students and two an· out looking for a job," marveled Raf. ferty. Although education programs for senior citizens are not new, this program differs from most in that it encourages the mixture of younger and older students. Except for PACE (Public Access Cable television for and by Elders) in which UCSD undergraduates and seniors plan, write and produce documentaries and entertainment for the aging, the USD experim nt is unique. So unusual was the program that the university has since rPceived dozens of call, many prompt d by a half-hour documentary produced by Channel 39 in San Diego that aired in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Miami, as well as locally. Rafferty and Krulak have been busy explaining this program to other schools, including Boston University, University of Utah, University of San Francisco, Notre Dame and University of Southern California. NOT SURPRISINGLY, USD will repeat the program again this summer and is currently searching for private funds from two en- dowment sources. Last year's program was made possible by a grant from an anonymous Rancho Santa Fe philanthropist. The en- thusiasm of the graduates from last summer's program is evident in the $600 they raised to provide scholar- ships for those who can't afford the token fee. An expanded curriculum is planned covering the local, national and international political scene, ERA, medical problems of elders (including stress) and opportunities for business investments, but the program's goals and format will remain the same. Classes will begin earlier to accommodate the schedule of elders who get up "earlier than we do and go to bed earlier," running from 8: 30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. "We've also raised the minimum age to 60," said Rafferty. "Many of our students were people who had just retired and were still going to the libraries, still reading the papers, still getting around and not in need of the stimualtion. DESPITE the program's success, the university authorities are leery of seeking federal or state govern- ment aid because "too many strings are attached" to government funds. Yet whether the program will remam the property of USD as its success mounts is up in the air. "If the program is to grow to any magnitude, it will have to be taken over by the public colleges and universities. Small schools 'such as USD have neither the physical nor monetary resources to see it through," said one spokesman. 'We don't treat them like old people.'
discussion.
"Too much time in front of the television, too little time in front of the volleyball net," grumbled the septuagenarian. "No wonder so many of my friends slow down in our later years." His junior companion, a robust white-haired lady of 65, chimed in, "Don't get enough physical stimulation, and the community centers don't offer us much besides ballroom dancing and hot lunches. It's just plain hard to stay alert on that diet." WITH S00,000 seniors living in the San Diego, Metropolitan area, what is considered a silent minority in many communities of the U.S. can't be so easily brushed aside here. And among the over-65 crowd has dawned the awareness that the fountain of youth is not made of water; it flows from the stuff of education and exercise. Thus the importance of programs that rejuvenate the aging was realized. Joie de vivre for the old as well as the young has characterized the French experience for years. At the University of Toulouse, a professor of sociology Pierre Vellas, recognized the importance of in- vigorating the aged, a concept he called "Le Troisieme Souffle," the "third puff" or the "third breeze." Vellas, an expert in geriatrics, suggested that the elderly who were content to stagnate in their rockers aged faster than their mentally and physically active counterparts. "We must," he decided, "get them on their feet - stimulating them mentally 1111d physically in an at- mosphere that would take them out of the past, reacquaint them with the 'The Sun City syn • drome is stultifying, and old people don't like the Sun Cities. They're ghettos.' presel\t and get them interested in the future." What better atmosphere than the university, he thought, an en- vironment devoted to stimulating new thinking while fostering respect for cultures past and ·foreign. On to the campus went the aging. Out went the stereotypes. While Vellas is not ready to document the results of his program, five years after he offered his original class, his enrollment has grown from 65 to 1,250. The govern- ment subsidizes the program, now thriving on 32 campuses in France. he concept has caught on in Switzerland, Belgium, Poland and Canada. LAST SUMMER University of San Diego, a small, privately endowed in ependent Catholic university gave the concept a try - on a very small and purely experimental basis. Some limited efforts, USD spokesmen said, had been made at American universities such as City University of New York, Notre Dame and Ohio State, but this program, unlike the other spin-offs, would mirror the French pilot program. As Victor H. I{rulak told it (he's a retired Marine general and former Union-Tribune exec), he was in- trigued b,1 Vellas' project. So he cancele a tour of the Far East and we France instead and became nvinced that California needs such a university more than France. "We're aging faster than the French. The Sun City syndrome is stultifying, and old people don't like the Sun Cities. They're ghettos." Krulak took Vellas' grand notion to the University of San Diego, which adopted it on an experimental basis with a 5½ week course that ran from July 24, to Aug. 30, aided by a private grant of $10,000. Both Malachi Rafferty , director of con- tinuing education, and USD President Dr. Author Hughes felt the project fit in with the university's holistic approach to education. "WE VIEW it as a social responsibility," Hughes ex-
"We brought
in doers ,
not
teachers," "For instance, when we did medicine, we br u£h in a prominen dietici n from one of the local hospitals, And to teach religion, we had a Catholic priest, a Presbyterian minister and a Jewish rabbi share their insights into ancient religion." said Rafferty.
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USD alumni plan ports
weekend
The weekend will be one of the last times the alumni will be able to see USD spor teams under their current Di\'l ion II ranking 'e t vear, USD ath· lettcs will be moving to
the West Coast Athletic Conference, Division I. For reservations and information about the Alumni Sports Weekend, phone the CSD Alumni Office at 291-6480 Ext. 4294.
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derbOll the Wondercoll at 8 p.m. Friday at SD's Caini· no '!beater. Soft rock by 2 Ambrosia at 8 p.m. Friday at San Diego State's Mon• tezuma Hall, and jazz v~ callst F1ora Purim at 8 and 10:30 p.m. next day at tbe Backdoor. -Rebert P. Laureace 1 /J.4:. .,/7'! Vti,CI\ _,,, .., • _
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I • USO will host ballet for lecture, demonstration
promote ballet to "un• famili r udiences." The troupe has been tounng various com• ~unity groups, shop- pmg centers and agencies, relating ballet hi tory, skills and company per• formance Whil tli company ha performed at evecal county ele·
mentary and seconc_lary schools, the USD per· formance is the ballet's first university per· formance. Under the direction of Keith J. Martin, the lect ure·demonstration will begin with a short narrati\'e hi tory of the ballet, warm-up exer· ci es, and excerpts from
the ballet's "The Nut- craker" and "Cannina Burana." The performance gives the public an opporturnity to view first-hand the intricate and complicated world of ballet. There is no admission fee, and the public is 1mited to attend. .p
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THIS FAMOUS PAINTING EPITOMIZES WHAT PROGRAM HOPES TO END USO project gets seniors out of the rocking choir - to stov.
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participants to take part in an hour of exercise each morning. It wasn't confined just to the academic." Every student who registered got a health check-up. Depending on their fitness quotient, some swam, some jogged vigorously, while others simply walked or did jumping jacks, all under the expert en- couragement of marathon runner Ed Mendoza and Rene Regalot, the city's senior fitness mastermind. "We told them we would be satisfied if they could walk a mile a day after completing the program. And the results were amazing," said Raffert . "I think it was physical, but also psychological. It's like when a person gets despondent, it's hard to get up and go." ONLY FOUR qualifications were set for applicants, and previous education was not one of them. Candidates, had to pass the physical examination, be able -on their own steam - to reach the university by 8: 30 four mornings a week; be over 55, and pay a token tuition of $45. The USD program, dubbed "The University of the Third Age," in- volved 55 seniors, selected from over 400 applicants. USD originally nad attracted widespread local publicity in announcing the program and, according to Rafferty, "attracted over 600 cards and letters from San Diego people saying they were in- 'We had people who had given up hope, had lost a partner and were going down hill, but by the time they left USD, the proeess had reversed.' terested in being in the program. Our oldest person was 89, with the average age of 68." From 9:30 a,m. to 12:30 p.m. and2 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily, students listened to guest lectures from the community who spoke on health, religion, current affairs, law, medicine, language, art and music. Like Vella~·s faculty of volunteers drafted from the university staff and city of Toulouse, local faculty of doctors, lawyers and journalists
1HE STUDENTS also discussed cu!Tent affairs in roundtable dis- cwsions, a situation that forced members of different generations - an:I often conflicting viewpoints - together. The ratio of seven older st1dents to one undergraduate in- tern (most from the sociology department) fanned the dialogue ar.d encouraged the "older student, not the younger student, to lead the discussion." "Part of the stimulation process involved asking t4em to come up with a consensus viewpoint on controversial issues," Rafferty continued. "At first, the groups invariably chose males as their leaders, even though the class was two-thirds women. As the semester wore on, they began to experience a point of view their generation was not used to: That women can be leaders, and they began to choose female leaders as well as male." Field trips broke up the lectures and rap sessions, and the students chatted with each other between classes about why they had joined up. From ex-New Yorkers to native San Franciscans, all admitted that the University of the Third Age was a welcome diversion from the retire- ment routine. "I bicycle, swim and walk a lot, and I hope to funnel this energy and interest into one or two fields that will make me a productive part of the community. I don't want to be on the periphery." confided one woman. Another said, "I'm not a very communicative person. I find it difficult to make friends." ALTHOUGH no tests were given, ("We emphasized that the program was strictly voluntary," explained
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68 Sunday, February 4, 1979 T
'.t "l>t co Dunensions," a supper dance, will he pr sented by the m,e 1ty of San Dt o Women' Auxiliary f ruar) 28 at 8 p m in r'ound rs Hall on c· pu Chairwoman Mr . \\ tlliam Yancey has ked Donald BenJamm to teach the late l te to gu For information, hone '.\1r . Charle \lelv1ll • at 274-9893 USO off. rs midnight . . mov,esenes buff t and a var, ly or dance mu ·ic arc lx•mg planned,
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USD hosts exhibit of original art
The University of San Diego Fine Arts Depart- ment will sponsor an exhibition of original etchings, woodcuts and lithographs from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Feb 12, in the school's Founder's Gallery.
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conference
:xamining laY.ryers
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problems posed and businesses by the influx of foreign capital and workers into the United States will be held Feb. 23-24 at the Little America Westgate Hotel. It will be sponsored by the University of San Diego School of Law. for
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will MONQAY FEBRUARY12 1979
The
exhibft
feature hundreds of art
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SAN DIEGO DAILY I8ANSCRIPT
pieces.
68 Sunday, January 28, 1979 THE SENTINEL Art contest-exhibition opens Feb. 5 at USO
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Winners of the first bi· annual All·San Diego Student Competitive Exhibition of drawings, prints and photographs will be announced at the exhibit opening at the University of San Diego's Founder's Gallery at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb 5. The competition drew more than 100 entries from art students studying at colleges and
universities Diego County.
in San 'lbirty·
five were selected for final exhi• bition by Ms. Gerri Coats, assistant director of the SPACE Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibit will run through March 2 at USD. The first prize winner will receive the honor of a one-person exhibition at the university in February 1980. There also will be award mentions for the second, thiro and fourth place winners. For . more mforma- tion, phone 291-MSO, ex· tension 4296. pieces
Local Financing Debate 'Financing of State and Local Government: How Much and What Kind of Taxes Are Needed?" is the theme of a panel debate at the University of San Diego's Salomon Lecture Hall Thursday starting at 8 p.m. Panel members will be: ., As mblyman Larry Kapiloff, Ralph Flynn, executive director, California T achers .¼sn.: Atty. Ed Clark, 1978 Libertarian candidate for governor; nd rtmoth College Prof sot of Econ mic. Colin Campbell. FEB 1 31979
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How many grandmothers and 'grandfathers actually stay out of their rocking chairs is hard to predict without an extensive follow. up. Yet the need for evaluation fades in light of the images of the stud( nts herding in and out of cla•, r•s, arguing in the bright sunshine ur · · the eucalyptus trees. "We don't treat them like old people. If you could sec these •uy swinging around this campus, like any other stud!'nts, cocky, swinging through the library doors, you'd see why we'd do it again." /
J'tfl. ... / / I "Te;;{Cllain Saw M acre» and Mister Magoo and Pinlc Panther cartoons will be shown as part of the USD "Midnight Movies" series, Friday, February 16, midnight, USD Student Union, lower level Sena Hall, U D, Ale la Par\<.. 291-64 x4296. Thursday, February 22, 1979 and th .•. ._ l.1,
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