Last semester, people inside and outside the MSU community learned about everything — from cheese to ballroom dancing — through more than 75 Alumni Lifelong Education/Evening College noncredit courses. This semester, program changes have knocked that number down to four, a trend that might continue next fall, a program official said.
The target goal for the fall is to have about five original offerings, the usual online classes and a website with educational activities on campus, in East Lansing and in the surrounding area, said Lisa Parker, director of Alumni Career and Business Services.
“We may be down 70 fewer course offerings that Evening College is offering, but we will be finding more that the community can participate (in at) Michigan State,” Parker said.
Alumni Lifelong Education/Evening College’s courses are open to students, but most participants are alumni and community members, said Louise Cooley, director of Alumni Lifelong Education/Evening College.
Cooley said there only are a sample of courses being offered this semester partially because of changes in the registration system, and said the number of classes for next fall has not yet been finalized.
The college, through the MSU Alumni Association, is combining the Alumni Lifelong Education and Alumni Career and Business Services to take advantage of existing programs, Parker said.
The change allows the Alumni Lifelong Education/Evening College to share experiences year-round through web resources, rather than only in spring and fall semesters in a physical setting, Parker said.
There also is discussion about changing the name of the college to Professional and Personal Enrichment Center to reflect its evolving role, Cooley said.
Zachary Constan, outreach coordinator at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, plans to teach a class this spring and said he is glad his class was not cut because he loves the face-to-face interaction with the participants.
“I love hosting these people from the community,” Constan said. “They are just so excited to learn more about what’s going on here.”
Constan said he was asked to film the class for the website to make it more accessible, which he said is a good idea because not all alumni still live in the area. He said he prefers the face-to-face class time to online learning, an opportunity cut for some instructors in the program.
Theatre Department chairperson Kirk Domer helped teach a pilot class about play production that was not continued this semester.
“We went through the entire production process of putting on a play,” Domer said. “We are hoping in the future to revamp it with their online component, but not as an online class.”
Registration for classes, including Coffee with the Profs: Speaker Series and Italian for Travelers, is slated to begin in February.
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