OCR Text |
Show &m OoEiiQEi: Mil T tf&nl I I : By ALISON GODDARD Mature women now consti-te consti-te the fastest growing udentbody in higher educa-)n. educa-)n. And an educator who Jilped pioneer this enomenal surge couldn't be ouder. 'I FEEL like the mother of all!" beams Rosalind K. ing, president-elect of the alt Education Association the United States. In the ly 1950s Mrs. Loring first ised that "women were inning to get restless." upported by a personal nt from the Ford Founda-1, Founda-1, she toured the few leges then offering con-ling con-ling education courses for nen. 'THESE programsin stern establishment ools-were for the woman ) was fairly well-educated, lted to redefine her goals, had enough money to do jiething about it." A look at programs across the country today reveals thai education is no longer the exclusive domain of the young, nor are adult courses the province of the well-to-do. ADULT students-men and women over 22 account for 48 percent of the total college enrollment of 10 million, and that number includes more than 600,000 women over age 35. "The term 'lifelong learning' learn-ing' was adopted at UCLA," says Mrs. Loring, outgoing associate dean of the university's univer-sity's extension school. "ROZ" Loring herself was a mature coed. Now 58, she graduated from UCLA with a BA in fine arts in 1940, but didn't secure her masters in adult education until 25 years later! Going back to the classroom didn't bother her-she her-she had been taking courses all along. Nor did she have to worry about her family. "MY VERY supportive husband, Mike, helped with our two children." But she recalls a few uncomfortable moments, such as "lining up for a physical with all the cute young freshmen. They've finally put an end to that! " Graduation day saw a doubleheader in the Loring family. "My son David was graduating from high-school. So I went to his ceremony and then he went to mine." DAVID, now 27, is an architect. Daughter Sherry Loring-Warren ("she's a new-fangled feminist who kept her maiden name. I'm more an old-fashioned feminist.") is 31. Even before getting her masters degree, Roz Loring had been involved in the education of adults in community com-munity organizations, public adult schools and the UCLA Extension School, where she initiated one of the first programs for women in 1964. NOW THE Extension school-dubbed "Show-Biz U" by Time Magazine has an annual enrollment of 128,000 students taking such courses as "A Psychology for Lovers" and "Baja California by Air." And it shelters a Center for the Continuing Education for Women offering intriguing one-day seminars on such topics as "The Joy of Money" and "Mothers and Daughters." Although some of these are "credit" courses, the school awards no degrees. "ONE REASON the UCLA Extension has grown so is , that the University does not really want older people in its degree programs," Dean Loring admits quite frankly. "It is not opening its heart of doors or classrooms. Mature students are accepted ac-cepted more readily as undergraduates, un-dergraduates, but it is almost impossible for someone over 45 to ever get accepted for a doctoral program. The powers-that-be don't feel it's a good use of the California tax dollar. Of course, no one's bothered to ask the taxpayers about that!" AFTER 18 years at UCLA, Dean Loring is leaving to take over the extension division at : the University of Southern : California. "I'm excited when ; I'm inventing something. : When I have to hold things together I am much less j interested, which is one of the : reasons, I suspect, that I am moving on." |