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Sep 06, 2023

In the Know column: Alexandria Senior College offers insights

By John Stone Sixty-two years ago, I was a senior wandering around the halls of Jefferson High School near the shop area in the back of the building where Vern Maack was working with a vocational

By John Stone

Sixty-two years ago, I was a senior wandering around the halls of Jefferson High School near the shop area in the back of the building where Vern Maack was working with a vocational program that would grow into what is now Alexandria Technical and Community College.

Little did I think that 62 years later I would be attending classes in what has become a college as a student in the school’s Senior College.

Senior College offers six-week sessions in the fall and spring and a shorter session in January. The fall and spring programs have a dozen speakers, two per week, with two-hour programs on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:15 to 5:15.

We pay a modest tuition, the school books speakers. Each class is on a different subject and the subjects can be quite varied. The January session is all on one subject, which means much more depth.

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A few years ago our January session was on DNA and it turned out to be very timely since it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing the difference between DNA and mRNA actually gave us comfort in getting vaccinated for COVID.

Last week, for example, was a class on Little Golden Books that most of us grew up with. That seems like a silly subject but was actually quite interesting because the discussion veered into how books like that can reflect the culture of the times.

Tuesday’s program this week was Tom Hanson from UMD talking about current international relations issues, certainly timely with the things going on in Ukraine and Israel right now.

Hanson and Louis Johnston from St. John’s and St. Ben’s are among the regular speakers and among the most popular. Johnston talks about economics.

Johnston spoke earlier this fall and always enjoys his appearances here. First, he says, most of the people in class have been around long enough to see a variety of economic shifts and changes so he doesn’t have to explain their significance to us. His normal classroom of 18 to 22 year-olds has a much more limited economic history experience.

Johnston also likes the questions from an “experienced” audience. He said recently that a number of questions asked at senior college have caused him to go back and take another look at a subject because a question gave him new insight into an issue.

For a couple of years, Minnesota Public Radio recorded its annual economics forecast program hosted by Gary Eichten at Senior College here in Alex when Johnston was one of the panelists along with Chris Farrell. That was very interesting watching it being recorded for broadcast later that week. We heard it first!

Senior College is also a regional attraction. As a current resident of Glenwood, I see more than a dozen of my fellow Pope County residents in attendance each week. This session we are sitting behind a couple who come each week from Melrose.

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There are also a number of people attending Senior College who I remember from my days at Jefferson those 60 plus years ago.

Here’s one senior citizen who has been happy to see ATCC grow over the years and especially happy that it makes a place for those of our age group!

John Stone is the former mayor of Glenwood and former publisher of the Pope County Tribune and Starbuck Times. In the Know is a rotating column written by community leaders from the Douglas County area.

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