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Dear Students:
A letter for the USD Yearbook for 1 975 is a special opportunity to express to our 1 975 gradu
ates from al l of us who are the permanent or the remaining community at the University of San Di ego,
our most sincere congratulations upon your graduation and our sincere best wishes for a happy a nd
rewarding future.
The past several years during which you have been stu dents at USD have been ones of dramatic
change b otli within our Un iversity and our country. In fewer than the traditional four years of under
graduate education the University has evolved from two separate liberal arts colleges for men and
women resp ectively to a coeducation University with breadth beyond the arts and sciences and toward
pre-professional and professional education within the University community have shifted as students
have expressed increasing concern for their future work opportunities within a mean ingful TOTAL life
experience. The University has also changed in its attitude toward credit, students and non-tradition
al programming, in its development of the Evening College and i ts acceptance of accomplished learn
ing in non-classroom experiences.
Evolutionary changes in our country have surfaced in the forms of major shifts in our pol itical
system, resulting for the first time in the nation's history the resignation of the President. Econom
ically, the nations's prolonged enjoyment of prosperity has come to a dramatic slow down resulting in
disturbing levels of unemployment and drops i n the nation's productive output. In addition,
the countiy has been brought to the realization that it is no longer, and may never be aga in, self-
gaining in the p roduction of its own consumption requirements for energy. World competition and
Mid-Eastern oil cartels have spurred here and throughout the world a rate of inflation which flashes
danger s ignals to the world peace. Although our country has disengaged itself from war i t has far fro m
resolved its many co ld war conflicts.
Change, however, has not affected the basic purpose of the University. It was and still is direct
ed
to
wara the pursuit of truth through intellectual and spiritual formation of each student who choo ses
to study here. If, in the educational process, you have begun to question life's meaning and are cap
able of formulating reasonable and humane thoug ht to your solutions to life's problems w e, in your
case, are successful. To the extent you in dividually and collectively are not, we must intensify our
efforts to strengthen our work as educators.
Our hop e i s that you have learned and have enjoyed learning, and that you have made friends
whose friendship will be li felong. Our effor ts will continue to make the University of San Diego a
University in which you will have increasing pride.
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h of you with a life of health, of happiness, and peace of
mind, and that you may be th e source of wisdom in marshalling the changes of your generation.
Sincerely,
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