U Magazine, Winter 1987

comes from the experiences we gain during volunteer activities. Acouple ofyears ago we noted that the interest of college students nationally in volunteerism was on the decljne - at a rather rapid rate. To counter the trend here and to work toward a rein– forcement of that value, we established the Volunteer Activity Program. First, though , we took an inventory of all of the purelyvolunteer activities occurring on campus. We looked at all of the areas of involvement and realized there were a lot of people out there, a lot of organizations and individuals who needed help, that we didn't know about. We also had a lot of people on campus willing to provide help who didn't know about those who needed it. What we have in the new person we've hired , Judy Rauner, is a coordinator who will put together the needs with our capabilities. She'll also try to stimulate the spirit a Ii ttle bit. Q: What about the "big, big picture" and the University's mission? Say for the next 10 years? A: I mentioned to you the four facets ofour character we think are essential. They are critical to the kind of experience we provide. We're new at providing three of those facets. The liberal arts tradition has been with us for a long time. We 've stressed values orientation and holistic education more recently. The desire to provide an international perspec– tive is still more recent. We can improve in all four areas. We're very good now. But I know we can be better. That's going to take some time. So in a sense, the mission of the University is tied to developing delivery systems for achieving success in the areas I've described. A second part of our mission is to be of even greater service to the Church to which we relate. The Catholic Church has some difficult situations to work through. In education, for example, the problems associated with funding and staffing church schools are horrendous ; perhaps we can help. Their resources are much more limited. They are really strapped in many cases. Their teachers need support. The administrators need support. We are willing as a separate but allied force to be of service to the ongoing educational interests of the Church. We also need to look at, very seriously, the involvement of minorities in this institution - especially Hispanic students. Why? Because Hispanics are a rapidly growing part of our community. They are also tremendously underenrolled , not only here but elsewhere, at colleges and universities across the country. We've got to develop some kind of outreach program to make college more attractive - socially, culturally and financially - to Hispanic students. Q: How do you go about broadening the University's stu– dent population? A: We 're committed to increasing the number of stu– dents who come from different areas and from different backgrounds - both ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The hurdle to more rapid progress is that many of the students we would like to enroll come from economically disadvantaged homes. So we have a tension between our desire to broaden the demographic base and the decreas– ing financial aid pool for students. There are ways to work through the problem and over– come the hurdles. And we are pledged to do that. One way

is to build an endowment that will help address this prob– lem.

Q: Among the University's goals are to enrich and expand science and science-related programs. Already, marine studies and electrical engineering have been added to the curriculum. What's the rationale behind the addition of science-related programs to a liberal arts campus? A: The concern over and interest in science and science-related areas came as an offshoot of our strategic long range planning efforts. It became obvious as we

"We enjoy complete autonomyfrom any kind of inte,jerence by any outside group at the University of SanDiego ..And neither I, nor our Board ofTrustees, nor Bishop Maher ... is interested in inteifering with that traditional relationship."

planned that the campus had certain strengths and certain weaknesses. We looked at the overall composition of the liberal arts, particularly. As we did, it became apparent that we needed to reinforce what we already were doing in the sciences. We have strong chemistry and biology departments , for example. And a sizable and very good mathematics department. We thought we've done well as far as we've gone, but that we should consider some expansion in science and science-related areas. That desire tied in with the observation of faculty that the rigors of science help to attract a more rigorous student body. So we combined what we know about the strong academic background of entering science and engineering students with our interest in expanding our offerings in the sciences. We then talked to some people from the industrial community and found there was a lot of interest in and need for engineering, particularly electrical engineering.

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