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Ken Moran
Better Late: Fulfilling Educational Bucket Lists
One education option is the University for Seniors program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. From left, Jill Lakhan, Margaret Cleveland and Mark Johnson at one class. The not-for-credit program, built around study groups and social activities, is an alternative for older learners not seeking a degree.
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John Shibley / Lake Superior State University
Better Late: Fulfilling Educational Bucket Lists
David and Judy Walker’s fun-loving attitudes, shown in this portrait of the couple with artwork they created for their senior-year capstone projects, served them well when the 60-somethings returned to college more than 40 years after they started their degrees.
When David Walker took a seat for his first class at Lake Superior State University, he was “anxious and nervous, like a young child would be going to the first day of school,” typical feelings for a college freshman.
But unlike the other students in that Spanish course, starting new chapters in their young lives, David and his wife, Judy, were continuing one they started nearly 50 years earlier.
When the retired couple enrolled at LSSU in 2010, “it wasn’t to further a career or occupation,” says David, a 66-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
“It was a lifelong goal, but we hadn’t achieved it yet. … There’s no age limit on education.”
David started his degree as a chemistry major in 1965 at the University of Cincinnati, but after his freshman year was drafted into the Army.
He spent three years in the service, then went to work, got married, started a family and put his education on hold.
Judy went to Morehead State University in Kentucky for a year, in 1964.
They attended night school classes together throughout the ’70s, but weren’t able to finish their degrees.
“At the time, with the family obligations and monetary constraints, I wasn’t able to do it,” says David, who was an analytical chemist at Proctor and Gamble in Kentucky. “It’s not that I wasn’t smart enough, I just didn’t have the monetary backing to do it.”
In 2008, the Walkers, tired of the southern heat, moved north to Sault Ste. Marie, near one of Judy’s aunts. In retirement, they finally had the time and the means to finish what they started decades earlier.
Many universities and colleges around the Big Lake offer continuing education coursework and enrichment programs, and often allow seniors to audit courses – essentially to sit in on classes – for free.
The University of Minnesota Duluth, for example, runs a University for Seniors program with special lectures, study groups and events for adults 50 and older during three eight-week terms, covering topics as disparate as the geology of Minnesota and singing. The programs are often social gatherings as much as opportunities to learn, and participants need not have earned a degree. It’s similar in spirit to the community education classes that many school districts organize for adults.
David and Judy wanted more than enrichment, though – they wanted diplomas.
Non-traditional degree-seeking individuals like the Walkers aren’t separated from other undergraduate students, most of whom are young enough to be their grandchildren. They’re held to the same standards and take the same classes. (In other words, no extra credit comes with being older.)
The Walkers started as freshmen with just the handful of decades-old credits that LSSU accepted.
Each school has its own transfer policies, but “general education courses, writing, communications, the kinds of things that are very common among all programs, those courses are pretty evergreen,” says Peter Nordgren, who works in academic affairs and continuing education at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
An academic adviser can help returning students during the process and “identify the skills they need to get back in the saddle,” Peter says.
“We connect them with an adviser who can help them understand they won’t be the only one like them in their classrooms.”
Of the 2,500 degree-seeking students at UWS, 70 are over the age of 50, Peter says, and 20 of them are older than 60.
“A number of those have been people doing it as a life accomplishment thing.”
To further support older-adult education, a number of area universities offer reduced tuition to seniors, and some even waive tuition.
Early on, the Walkers fretted about their age and “getting more accustomed to classroom life,” says David, who also initially struggled with his graphing calculator, a powerful hand-held device that can display graphs – and certainly not an available tool when David last attended college.
“Trying to get back into a learning mindset is really tough. I had a hard time getting through math. I used to use math all the time as an analytical chemist.”
Judy, 67, made a change of a more physical nature. “I colored my hair. I didn’t want to be white-headed and make it so obvious.”
“It was definitely an experience, trying to compete with the kids,” says David. “And my wife and I are older than many of the professors. In the history courses, they’re teaching history that we were there for. ... My wife says we’re the college grandma and grandpa.”
Any concerns about their choice were quickly allayed, though.
Their college experience was no Rodney Dangerfield movie – the couple commuted from their home on Sugar Island and focused on their studies – but their classmates were fully supportive. “The kids told us they were inspired by us,” Judy says.
After three years of study, culminating in a senior art project displayed at the LSSU library, the Walkers donned caps and gowns this spring to receive their diplomas. They both majored in liberal studies, with a minor in the arts and humanities.
“You never want to get into a status quo type of situation,” David says. “You’ve got to set goals in your life and achieve them. … My grandson said at our age he thought we’d be door greeters at Walmart.”
Now that they’re done with their undergraduate studies, the Walkers say they’re looking for a new challenge.
“Life is like a stepladder,” David says. “What’s going to be your next step up?
“My wife and I are thinking of going back to get our master’s now.”
Bill Baxandall did just that in 2005. At age 70, he returned to his alma mater of Michigan Technological University in Houghton for his master’s degree in civil engineering. He earned his bachelor’s degree from that university in 1959 and then worked for more than 30 years as an engineer in Alaska.
In 2010, he graduated alongside classmates that he says “treated me just as one of the students.”
Although he’s still working, Bill wasn’t looking for a chance to improve his job situation with an advanced degree.
“I just had the realization that it would be nice to get my master’s,” Bill says. “I’m a great believer that you’re never too old to learn. The way to stay young is to keep the upstairs working.”
Turning 79 in August, Bill now teaches design at Michigan Tech as an adjunct professor and serves as faculty adviser for the school’s Concrete Canoe team.
Going back to school “was a very delightful experience,” he says. “If I had the chance to do it again, I would. It can be a little bit of a challenge, but that’s what makes life interesting. You’ll certainly be welcomed. ... I never felt like I was an outsider.
“And I guess the other highlight was, if you want to get young again, get around a lot of young people.”
After the Walkers’ graduation ceremony – which David calls “the culmination of all that effort” over all those years – an older gentleman came up to the couple and asked why they went back to school. Maybe, David says, they inspired the man to finish his own degree, the way they hope their dedication has inspired their children and grandchildren.
The grandson who made the wisecrack about Walmart, now a high school sophomore, plans to attend LSSU, too – on one condition, David says.
“He wanted to make sure Grandpa and Grandma were done before he came.”
Good to Know
Appreciate that senior menu? Senior discounts can save a bundle on an education, too. Many regional colleges offer tuition breaks; a few even waive tuition completely.
Non-traditional-student scholarships, like the one Judy Walker received to study at Lake Superior State University, can also make a degree more affordable.
Contact the schools’ admissions departments for details. Students paying full tuition are typically given priority when registering, so class availability isn’t guaranteed on the senior menu.
- Wisconsin residents 60 and older can audit classes at the University of Wisconsin-Superior for free. Resources for older students are available at the school’s Veteran’s and Non-traditional Student Center. 715-394-8230, www.uwsuper.edu.
- For students age 62 and up, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College waives 50 percent of program fees for community services classes. Vocational adult courses are free. 715-468-2815, www.witc.edu.
- Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College offers a non-credit College for Seniors program, taught by community members and instructors at the college. 218-879-0846. www.fdltcc.edu
- The University of Minnesota Duluth’s not-for-credit University for Seniors program offers three eight-week terms, built around small study groups, to students older than 50. 218-726-8000, www.d.umn.edu.
- Minnesotans age 62 and older pay only $20 per credit at Lake Superior College in Duluth. 218-733-7600, www.lsc.edu.
- For Minnesota residents age 62 and older, Vermilion Community College in Ely charges only a $20 administrative fee per credit. Auditing classes is free for seniors. 218-365-7200. www.vcc.edu
- At Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, half of the regular tuition fee is waived for students 65 and older. 807-343-8110, www.lakeheadu.ca.
- Students 60 and older can register for some continuing education courses at a reduced rate at Thunder Bay’s Confederation College. 807-475-6110, www.confederationc.on.ca.
- Most courses at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, are tuition-free to students age 60 and older. 888-254-6628, www.algomau.ca.
- Michigan residents age 60 and older can audit classes for free at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. 906-632-6841, www.lssu.edu.
- At Marquette’s Northern Michigan University, students 62 and older receive a full-tuition scholarship. 906-227-1000, www.nmu.edu.
- In Houghton, Michigan Tech University waives tuition, for up to two courses per semester, for students age 60 and older. 906-487-1885, www.mtu.edu.
- Residents age 60 and older in Gogebic County, Michigan, can enroll in for-credit courses at Gogebic Community College free of charge. 906-932-4231, www.gogebic.edu.