In other words, SDSU truly touches the world through the lives of many San Diegans.
SDSU Month, an annual celebration of the San Diego State University’s extraordinary ties with the San Diego region, will return for its third year this March and mark the start of San Diego State’s 75th year on Montezuma Mesa.
“We invite the public to join our alumni, faculty, staff and students to take part in the SDSU Month celebration, which will include a great variety of entertaining and engaging programs and events,” said Theresa Mendoza, vice president of University Advancement. “We are showcasing the university’s role as a longtime producer of leaders in business, education, science, politics, the arts and more.”
SDSU Month 2005 will feature a broad array of academic programs, arts performances and athletic events, designed to welcome more visitors and alumni to campus. It will spotlight special partnerships with local businesses, a promotional campaign with local broadcast and print media partners, and the SDSU Month Scholarship Challenge, which raises funds to support some of SDSU’s most deserving students.
New for SDSU Month is the “When I Was at State” sweepstakes, which asks SDSU’s 200,000 alumni to share meaningful achievements, funny or interesting anecdotes about campus or campus life, and personally important moments from their time at SDSU. The grand prize is season tickets to SDSU football, basketball and baseball games.
San Diego State moved to its current location in February 1931, when the then undeveloped area was known as Mission Palisades. At the time it served 1,220 students. SDSU originally opened in 1897 as the San Diego Normal School, a teacher-training institute. The school first held classes upstairs from a downtown drugstore. In 1899, the school moved to its own 16-acre campus in University Heights, where it stayed until enrollment growth prompted the move to the current campus.
A few of the special events scheduled for SDSU Month 2005 include:
• The Kyoto Laureate Symposium, which honors the winners of the Kyoto Prize, lifetime achievement awards for scholars presented by the Inamori Foundation that are comparable to the Nobel Prize (March 2-4).
• The Aaron Copland/Martha Graham festival, sponsored by the SDSU School of Music and Dance and the La Jolla Music Society (March 2-12).
• The 34th annual Montys Alumni Awards Gala, which recognizes SDSU’s outstanding alumni (March 5).
• The KPBS Kids Walk, where parents and kids can participate in a fun walk across campus and visit a resource fair on parenting and education (March 12).
• A Women in Politics symposium hosted by the College of Arts & Letters, featuring appearances by local, state and national elected officials (March 17-19).
• A live version of the KPBS Radio’s “A Way With Words” program with hosts Richard Lederer and Martha Barnette, hosted by the SDSU Library, which will offer entertaining insights into puns, punctuation, pronouns and other linguistic issues (March 22). Lederer will also speak on “The Good Word About Libraries” at the Friends of the SDSU Library Spring Luncheon (March 19).
• A Padres/Aztecs exhibition baseball game at Petco Park, from which proceeds will support the Aztec Baseball program (March 30).
• Explore SDSU, a free, university-wide open house which last year attracted more than 12,500 visitors to campus (April 9).
