SF State’s gerontology department reopened its doors for graduate enrollment, after a two-year suspension saved their graduate program from discontinuance due to budget deficits in fall 2004.

The department received a memo on Feb. 15 from Academic Affairs approving open admissions for fall 2006.

The approval came after an interdisciplinary faculty task force completed a proposed new curriculum as recommended by the university, the College of Health and Human Services, and gerontology department. Its purpose is to restructure and strengthen the study of the aging program as opposed to cutting it, according to gerontology faculty.

“I think that we will be a model of the West Coast. It will allow us to attract more external funding. We will have a larger presence within the university and work in collaboration with interdisciplinary faculty,” said Anabel Pelham, the gerontology program director.

Key changes in a new gerontology program would include an interdisciplinary core and three emphases, including a new emphasis, “Health, Wellness, and Aging.” The curriculum would integrate classes from various departments and colleges, such as “Counseling the Older Adult” from counseling, “Physical Dimensions in Aging” from kinesiology, or “Managing Budgets in the Public Sector” from management, according to proposal documents.

Pelham added that the proposal would not change their budget or the number of department faculty.

The department sent approximately 300 letters to applicants who had inquired about the program during the two-year suspension, Pelham added. Prior to suspension, nearly 300 letters poured in urging President Corrigan to keep the program.

“(There was a) tremendous amount of interest. Phone calls, emails, and letters - it never stopped,” Pelham said.

The gerontology graduate program, created in 1986, is the first program of its kind in both the California State University and University of California systems.

At the time of suspension, about 90 students were enrolled in the program. Currently, there are approximately 20 students remaining.

“It's hard to predict because we have been closed for two years,” Pelham said in regard to the number of students to be admitted. “So it's going to take a while to get back up to where we were. We were the largest (gerontology program)."

Wendy Ginther, a recreation and leisure coordinator for seniors at The Arc of San Francisco, a nonprofit agency that serves clients with development disabilities, said she had been waiting for the program to open.

Ginther applied for the gerontology program in fall 2004 but shortly after, she heard about possible cuts to the program. Later, she received a letter and her check (returned tuition) in the mail, she said.

“I thought it was silly to cut a program like this,” Ginther added. “We are going to be at a place where there will be more older people than young. The baby boomers are in their 50s now. There are not a lot of gerontologists in the field.”

According to National Institute of Aging, the 65 and older population will double in the next 25 years and by 2030, one in five people, or 72 million people, will be 65 years and older.

Ginther looks forward to joining the field of gerontology by next semester.

“I think it is great,” she said about the program’s reopening. “It sounds like the program is going to be better.”

Other developments in the gerontology department include six new $800 scholarships, a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, called Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education that would facilitate students’ study abroad and exchange between six European and American universities to develop gerontology training worldwide, and an ongoing research on grief and bereavement funded by the National Institute of Aging, with SF State’s emphasis on ethnic, racial gender, and sexual diversity.

In addition, Pelham said that a proposed, “New Center for Intergenerational Studies,” would centralize aging related academic programs and community services on campus.

Those who study aging are not the only ones who think a gerontology program is important.

“People send their elders to have other people take care of them,” said Khristina Bates, a 23-year-old psychology major. “So there is a need in society. Our lives are so busy to take care of the elderly. People are counting on others to do it for them.”

And cultures have different methods of caring for their elderly, as one student explains.

Marketing and finance major, Uyen Nguyen, 25, said about her Vietnamese and Chinese values, “Putting elderly in a home is sacrilegious. It’s unheard of in the Asian culture. Grandma would kill you for sure.”

However, she said that there should be geriatric care to address all elderly needs, even if it is in small numbers.

“I think it is important that elderly are taken care of regardless of a growing baby boom market,” she added.

The proposed program is scheduled for final review in April. Applications for the gerontology program are due May 31.

“It’s come into full circle,” Pelham said about the gerontology department’s birth, near discontinuance, suspension, restructure, and reopening near its 20th anniversary.