St. Edward's University [Newsletter] (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 24, No. 1, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 1, 1980 Page: 4 of 15
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: St. Edward’s University Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the St. Edward’s University.
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3
New College Into the 21st Century
Gift Tip: Endow Brother Simon’s
science fiction collection for $5,000.
ACTION Interns Focus on Community Involvement
By Jim McDermid
J
)
periences," Dr. Meyer said.
The colloquium is both cross disci-
plinary and multi-disciplinary and is
designed to help learners both explore
and integrate many areas of study.
Because of the emphasis of the
course, students are expected to come
prepared to each session. Five weeks
prior to each colloquium, registered
students are mailed a “preparator”
sheet which gives data as to the topic,
the presenter, the format, time and
place. The sheet also provides a list of
readings and other materials to enable
the student to prepare for the learning
opportunity. Additionally, it suggests
questions for reflection and discussion
as well as possible learning outcomes
and competencies to be achieved.
The 1980 theme colloquiums will deal
with such topics as “Toward the Year
2000,” economic systems of the future,
“Should Life Begin at 140?”, coping
with the world of scarcities, new life
styles, management of the environ-
ment, the national legislative agenda
and new knowledge of Jupiter.
The first colloquium in the series
featured Dr. Meyer and Dr. Jean
Burbo, both longtime futurist scholars
who taught courses relating to the
future prior to coming to St. Edward’s.
In that colloquium they tried to estab-
lish a framework in which one could
tage of other activities on the site.”
“New College students are in a posi-
tion,” Dr. Meyer said, “to help direct
and manage change in the future. In
order to do this, they need more
background.
“There are so many questions—
technology and how it will impact on
social values; choices of unintended
consequences—if we had one half the
gas for $3 a gallon, what would we do?
What are the questions concerning
limited resources and quality of life?
What about the abundance that seems
to be resulting in the new scarcities?
One of New College’s goals is to
provide learning opportunities which
are future oriented. New College has
addressed this goal in a special way by
redesigning its colloquium sessions to
focus on exploring alternative futures.
“The point,” Dr. Meyer said, “is to
make students aware that they do have
some control over their future and
how it affects their values.”
Alumni and others interested in
obtaining a guest ticket for an upcom-
ing colloquium should call the New
College Office at 444-22621, Ext. 284.
Requests will be honored on a first-
come first-serve basis.
Resume preparation is emphasized.
Senior citizens also get some atten-
tion. Three volunteers work with the
Retired Senior Volunteer Program
(RSVP). RSVP, an offspring ACTION
program, recruits prospects and
places them in meaningful volunteer
positions. Volunteer roles include
helping deliver meals to the elderly to
coordinating tutoring programs bet-
ween senior citizens and elementary
school students. Retired professionals,
particularly medical people, and any-
one with skill are needed and can pro-
vide meaningful help to the community.
Efforts to enhance the physical as-
pects of the target neighborhood are
the concern of John Callis, an envir-
onmental studies student assigned to
the South Austin Citizens Advisory
Board. Revitalization of homes and
parks in the South Austin area has
Callis researching and developing
sources and means to make possible
the upgrading of neighborhood
dwellings.
Callis is now working to match in-
terested home owners with revenue
sources leading toward the revitaliza-
tion goal. A ten-year veteran of the Air
Force, Callis once worked as a secur-
ity police officer, voluntarily manned a
crisis intervention center, assisted the
physical and mentally retarded, and
worked with Boy and Explorer Scout
units in community activities.
In addition to experience and know-
ledge, the student interns have a man-
date in common. Involvement must be
on a basis that perpetuates the effort
and impact on the target community.
“We don’t want projects and pro-
grams to die at the conclusion of the
University Year for Action,” said Bill
Parr, assistant project director for the
program.
“We want the interns to structure
their efforts by involving the commun-
ity people, thereby heightening the
longevity and impact of their work.”
the close relationship between service
and learning according to ACTION
director Ruth Bounous.
“The fifteen individuals involved were
selected for their past experience as
well as learning accomplishments to
date. Most.have served in the com-
munity for years so they are not new-
comers to the challenges they will
surely encounter in the year ahead.
They are taking to the community
good skills tempered by experience
and know-how—factors essential to
our goal which is to improve the lot
and life styles of peoples of the target
neighborhood,” added the director.
Youngest of the interns is 28. The
most senior is considerably older. So
the interns reflect St. Edward’s com-
mitment to the non-traditional, older
than average student.
Committed to grass roots social re-
form, the interns are working with
projects such as a recently completed
community education assessment dur-
ing which hundreds of South Austin
homes were visited and solicited for
data pertinent to neighborhood edu-
cational needs.
With concentration on youth and its
problems, an extension of the South
Austin Boys Club was established at a
neighborhood housing development.
The boys club provides a welcome,
supervised place for dozens of young-
sters who, until January, had few other
places to play. A wall poster beckons
the youngsters to attend school and
promises reward for perfect class at-
tendance.
Four interns work full time on at-
tendance problems of a neighborhood
school. A project of the South Austin
Youth Bureau, the “Buddy Program”
pairs good attendees with those hav-
ing difficulty. The students having at-
tendance problems are met each
morning and encouraged to go to class.
When they show up at school, the
buddies are met by St. Edward’s in-
terns who sign them in and place a
star beside their names on a huge
poster. As the school year progresses,
the buddy scoreboard begins to spar-
kle with gold and silver stars stretch-
ing across the eight foot display in the
main school hallway.
“It’s a great scene and gives you a
good feeling,” said Sybil McDade, a
social work major and buddy program
worker.
“The Buddy Program cut absences
in half last year,” said McDade, who,
with her co-workers, meets with stu-
dents, teachers and parents to keep a
good flow of communication going in
the effort to limit absences.
Intern McDade is relatively typical
of the ACTION intern. Presently un-
dertaking classes in social research
and macrosystems, McDade entered
the program from a full-time adminis-
trative job with the State Insurance
Board and the responsibility for a
home, husband and young daughter.
“It was tough going back to the
classroom plus taking on a full load
with ACTION,” reports the buddy
program worker.
“It’s also frustrating, exciting, and
exhausting. By the end of the day I
can look forward to going home to
take care of my own family. But I’m a
lucky one. I get lots of help at home,”
said Mrs. McDade.
“Help for the not so young is also
part of the program. One intern,
Jeannette Wood, serves with the Re-
directed Homemakers, a community
project that helps women at the
crossroads where homemaking meets
the need to earn cash—inflation pro-
viding ever increasing pressure on the
problem.
For monetary necessity or other-
wise, women participating in this pro-
ject get help finding jobs to suit their
needs, talents and experiences and
receive support through classes to
enhance self esteem and assertiveness.
St. Edward’s University is adding
another ribbon to its tradition of
community involvement with the es-
tablishment of a force of 15 students
doing year-long service-learning-intern-
ships in the South Austin area sur-
rounding the university.
The project, begun in January,
focuses effort on assisting people in
low-income neighborhoods of South
Austin through direct support to citi-
zens’ organizations, community
schools, neighborhood councils and
various other agencies.
Each of the St. Edward’s students
average two classes per week on
campus, attend seminars and training
sessions and devote the balance of a
40-hour week to projects funded
through the University Year for Action
program, an off-shoot of VISTA.
Known as ACTION Interns, the
students earn 19 credits through the
year for learning obtained in the com-
munity setting and receive $299 per
month for their full time service partic-
ipation. They are taking their intern-
ship courses in one of five areas: Eng-
lish, environmental studies, sociology,
psychology or social work.
Each intern meets regularly with a
faculty member who provides guidance
and assistance and helps structure and
conduct pertinent training sessions and
seminars.
“The interns are presently exploring
and judging a variety of circumstances
and situations and meeting a great
many different people with wide rang-
ing needs and levels of esteem,” re-
ports Sister Madeleine Sophie Weber,
Chairperson, Behavioral and Social
Sciences and instructor for the sociol-
ogy and psychology interns.
“Learning outcomes will develop
quickly as the interns intensify their
efforts to involve other people toward
the goal of positive change. The change
will occur,” Sister Madeleine assures.
Project aims include documenting
New College students in 1980 will be
exploring alternative futures for hu-
mankind in colloquium sessions which
will focus on the theme “Into the 21st
Century.”
According to New College Dean,
Dr. Jean Meyer, liberal arts education
has too often emphasized society’s
human heritage and ignored the future.
“A major weakness of most college
curriculums is that there is very little
or no emphasis on exploration of the
future. Yet the future is where most of
us will be living,” she said.
A Title III grant for curriculum de-
velopment is assisting in the funding of
the project. It will provide some travel
funds to bring in speakers from a dis-
tance as well as provide ten guest
“tickets” for each session. Guest tic-
kets will be available at no charge to
St. Edward’s faculty, staff, New Col-
lege alumni, friends and relatives of
New College students, and prospec-
tive New College students.
Dr. Meyer feels the colloquium,
which is required of all New College
students, is an ideal curriculum vehicle
to assist students in a serious study of
the future and future possibilities. “Not
only does it provide for reading, reflec-
tion, integration and interaction, it is
also designed to increase students’
abilities to utilize lifelong learning ex-
study and learn about the future.
Another colloquium offered earlier
this year was presented by Sister
Amata Miller from Michigan. Sister
Amata, a member of the St. Edward’s
Board of Trustees, who is well known
to New College students, spoke on
“Sharing the Economic Pie.” Another
colloquium was presented by Dr.
Thomasson Jannuzi, Director of the
Center for Asian Studies at the Uni-
versity of Texas. Dr. Jannuzi, an
economist who has specialized in
Bangladesh, spoke on “Hungry Pea-
sants in Asia: Development Policy
Choices.”
New College was on the road to
Houston for a session on managing
the environment at the Armand Bayou
Nature Center and for a session on
“New Knowledge About Jupiter” at
the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
in Clear Lake. A future session will be
held in San Antonio.
Dr. Meyer said the Houston collo-
quiums drew as much response from
Austin students as from New College
students who lived in the Houston
area.
“We have tried to make the out-of-
town colloquiums family educational
experiences,” she said. “While one
family member may be attending a col-
loquium, the others can take advan-
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St. Edward's University [Newsletter] (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 24, No. 1, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 1, 1980, newspaper, April 1, 1980; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1528657/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Edward’s University.