Former Vice President Al Gore returned to UCLA on May 10 to discuss the evolution of his initiative on family-centered community development with students and faculty in a series of sessions held at Covel Commons.

Gore, now a visiting professor in the School of Public Policy and Social Research, was back on campus after teaching a pilot course based on his initiative at Fisk and Middle Tennessee State universities in Tennessee. Faculty here and at Columbia University helped him shape the curriculum; a few even went to Tennessee to serve as visiting lecturers.

With the course still evolving, Gore, during his second visit to UCLA, sought input from faculty and 150 undergraduate and graduate students chosen by more than 40 faculty from the schools of Public Policy and Social Research, Public Health, Medicine and Law, and The Anderson School.

"As Mr. Gore said, 'We're building this plane as it goes down the runway,' " said Arleen Leibowitz, chair of the Policy Studies Department, who has been working on the initiative. "We will be holding a number of planning meetings and symposia throughout the summer to develop this idea further. Our hope is to have some version of this course offered at UCLA with the former vice president involved as a lecturer."

Through his course, Gore hopes students will envision families as complex systems and will assess what constitutes strong families and communities. The course follows a life-cycle path - from prenatal to gerontological stages - focusing on public policy and drawing from multiple disciplines. Gore has been developing the curriculum with a number of UCLA faculty, led by Neal Halfon, professor in the schools of Medicine and Public Health, as well as with university-affiliated community leaders. Halfon directs the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities.

During the session, which was closed to the public, UCLA students prodded Gore to weave into the course more on the issues of diversity, nutrition and health, and the impact of housing and the environment.

Overall, students and faculty said they were impressed with the former vice president's depth, commitment and wit.

At one point, in answer to a student's question about distance learning, Gore quipped: "That's the Internet? I know something about the Internet. It's a long story. I'll tell you sometime." At another point, he told students: "In life, you win some, you lose some. And then there's that third category..."