USD President's Report 1985

responsible citizenry. The kinds of experiences to which I refer include the type of activities I mentioned earlier: serving in student government, working in political cam­ paigns, helping with food and clothing drives, tutoring immigrant students, providing counsel for the mentally ill or imprisoned, assisting in community clean-up campaigns, and teaching the handicapped or disabled. Problems of the poor, the ill, the aging, the addict, the homeless, and the illiterate are legion. Many college students seek out these opporcunmes and have gotten involved without prompting. There is no shortage of experiential opportunities and many colleges have recognized the educational benefits that relate to them. The efforts of these colleges need to be supported and enhanced; the barriers to more widespread participation need to be eliminated. The barriers to which I refer are structural-within educational institu­ tions and within the larger society. College education is expensive. The average total cost to the student in a private institution is somewhere around $12,000 a year. In the public sector that figure is about $8,000 annually. In either case, after receiving available federal, state and private aid,

Societal demand for comprehensive health care of individuals and families in a variety of settings was an influen­ tial factor in developing professional nursing education programs in univer­ sities in the early part of this century. Through the combined efforts of faculty and practicing professionals in the community, USO nursing students are afforded the opportunity to com• bine theory and reality in a variety of health care delivery settings. In addi­ tion to gaining experience in the more traditional health care delivery settings such as hospitals and schools, both graduate and undergraduate students visit families in their homes. They work with a wide range of family health issues such as integrating a new baby into the family system or assisting mature adults to deal with the issues surrounding care of an aging parent. Such efforts enhance the effectiveness of these nurses as practicing profes­ sionals and increase their ability ta pro­ vide a more humanistic form of care in an increasingly technical health care system.

i j

As part of his internship, political science major Steve Greene aids Katherine Holladay, district director for U.S. Senator Pete Wilson, in the senator's San Diego office. Students regularly serve in local, state and federal government offices.

Dr. Patricia Roth is an associate professor of nursing in the Philip Y. Hahn Schoo/ of Nursing.

Art major Lauri Devere applies her classroom training by serving as an intern at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts.

D I E G 0

10

U N I V E R S I T Y

O F

S A N

U N I V E R S I T Y

O F

S A N

D I E G O

11