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The
Old Man On Campus Adjusting To Dormitory Life
By
KORKY VANN
The
Courant,
August 5, 2003
Ron
Mazzoli has just completed a crash course in Dorm Living 101. When he
arrived at his student apartment last week in Lowell House on the Harvard
University campus in Cambridge, Mass., he found the spartan space
outfitted with two beds, two desks, a few chairs and not much else. His
phone and computer weren't hooked up, and he hadn't yet been assigned a
mailbox.
He quickly learned to carry a large bag for any purchases with him
whenever he went out (it cuts down on all those trips up and down the
stairs), make friends with the dorm staff (good sources for extra
furnishings) and to accept dinner invitations (his apartment doesn't have
kitchen facilities). Those are typical conditions for college housing,
perhaps, but Mazzoli is not a typical college student.
The 70-year-old former U.S. congressman, who is enrolled in the Mid-Career
Master's Degree Program in Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy
School of Government, is the oldest student to attend the school. If he
completes the yearlong program, he'll get his graduate degree exactly 50
years after receiving his bachelor's degree from Notre Dame. He and his
wife, Helen, are also the university's oldest dorm residents, and their
presence gives a whole new meaning to the term "college
seniors."
"We're probably the only couple on campus who were celebrating their
44th wedding anniversary as they were moving in," says Mazzoli, who
represented Kentucky's 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives
from 1971 to 1995. "I have to admit, as I was hauling things up the
stairs, I said, `Am I crazy to be doing this at my age?' But when we were
considering leaving home and coming here so I could do this program, we
decided to go for the total experience."
Mazzoli is no stranger to the world of higher education. He serves as
senior distinguished fellow in law and public policy at the University of
Louisville's Brandeis School of Law. Last spring, he was a visiting fellow
at the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, teaching some of the
students he is now studying beside. These days, however, his college
experience includes mystery-meat meals in the dining hall, late-night
pizza deliveries, earplugs to drown out the party noise and term papers
rather than staff meetings.
And he's not the only Old Man on Campus. According to the U.S. Department
of Education, the number of individuals with college IDs as well as AARP
membership cards is growing. Close to 80,000 students over 65 are
currently enrolled in college degree programs - up from 61,00 in 1995.
Statistics aren't available on how many of those live in campus housing,
but experts estimate the number is small.
"It takes an older person with a very unique perspective to both
return to college and adapt to life in a dorm," says Dr. Harry S.
Morgan, director of the Center for Geriatric and Family Psychiatry in
Glastonbury. "They've got to be lifelong learners, enjoy new
experiences, be flexible and enjoy the company of people much younger than
themselves."
He should know. His mother, Dorothy Morgan, 84, has lived in dormitories
on the Iowa State University campus in Ames for the past 15 years.
"After she was widowed, she went back to school and got an
undergraduate degree in math," says Dr. Morgan. "She loved it
and decided to give up her home, move on campus and continue her studies.
Over the years, she's essentially completed a master's degree in
anthropology and a master's degree in math and lived in student housing
the whole time. Now she's studying philosophy and religion.
When Dorothy Morgan first arrived on campus, she used a bicycle for
transportation. These days, mobility problems have made cycling difficult,
so she calls the local senior center's Dial-A-Ride program when she needs
a lift to classes.
"For the most part, the experience has been extremely positive,"
says Harry Morgan. "Her first housing assignment was a dormitory of
international students. My mother was from another nation called old age,
and other residents valued her for that."
Older students bring wisdom, experience and a unique perspective to the
college environment, agrees Joseph McCarthy, senior associate dean at the
Kennedy School.
"Diversity of all kinds, including age, creates a rich learning
environment," he says.
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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