Amidst a throng of young collegians on campus, a few ambitious faces of the middle-aged and elderly can be found browsing through Howe Library, the Collis Center, Dartmouth Hall and the Rockefeller Center.
Clutching volumes of books and casually entering and exiting the academic building within the ivy walls of this typically youth-dominated college, these few older faces are the students of ILEAD -- the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth.
Roger Smith, the public relations head of the program and adjunct professor of environmental studies, describes ILEAD as a non-profit, volunteer organization that runs under the sponsorship of the College as a self-supporting member of the Elderhostel Institute Network, a federation of 262 institutes for learning in retirement.
Smith said that the program currently enjoys the participation of nearly 1,000 members, many with past or present Dartmouth connections. The institution is open to people of any age, and draws people from all over the Upper Valley. As most classes are held during the day, the institution is primarily composed of retirees.
Although ILEAD is not financially funded by Dartmouth nor is it directly affiliated with the College, the institution shares a corresponding academic calendar in addition to the academic buildings throughout campus, Smith said. Similar to Dartmouth's trimester system, ILEAD offers classes each term that run from six to eight weeks.
Most classes are discussion-oriented rather than lecture style, and their sizes vary from as small as eight students to as large as 25 students, with most classes averaging 20 students. The classes last two hours and usually meet once a week.
The institution often plans special events and day excursions that provide academic opportunities. Smith reported that last month, several ILEAD members went on a day outing to the Boston Museum of Science for a program called "The Mysteries of Egypt." The institution invited the College's Fall term Montgomery Fellow, Dr. Endel Tulving, to conduct a day lecture on "What is Memory?"
The institution frequently arranges study/travel programs as well, providing adult students the opportunity to explore and enjoy a week to 10 days of cultural and language exchange. Last spring, 40 ILEAD members made the excursion from Pamplona to Santiago de Campostela in northwestern Spain.
Each summer ILEAD offers a lecture series on a singular theme that varies from year to year. This allows participants to seriously ponder the given theme discussed by various speakers each week. Smith said this past summer's theme of "Ethical Issues in the 21st Century" lasted six weeks and attracted more than 300 people.
Membership to ILEAD requires an annual fee of $40. Twenty-five courses are offered this term, ranging from "Order and Chaos or Please, Not the 60s!" to "God's Own Time: Time, Eternity and the End of the World." This term, a course will be offered in "German Survival Vocabulary," to prepare those members who will be participating in the study/travel program to Obermmergau, Germany this May.
According to Smith, ILEAD is the sixth largest institute of its kind in the nation, and as are the remaining such institutions at other colleges and universities across the nation, it is the product of the effort to emulate the 1962 establishment of The New School for Social Research in New York City.
This year, ILEAD celebrates its 10th anniversary since its establishment in November 1990 by 38 members of the Hanover community, who desired to actualize the idea of adult continued learning, Smith said.
The institution was first launched on the part of these 38 members who desired to put together opportunities for thought-provoking discussions that would be self-administered and peer-taught.
