Spring/Summer 2017

THE LIFELONG LEARNER

The Lifelong Learner newsletter promotes and provides information about the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Dayton (UDOLLI).

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S UPDATETwo Items of Special Interest for UDOLLI MembersThe University of Dayton Osher Lifelong Learning Institute welcomes you to another year of exciting learning! I look forward to our upcoming fall program, which offers a wide variety of seminars including many one-day or shortened seminars. Today, I want to mention two items of special interest.

First, I am honored to share with you that I have been selected as one of 12 people to participate in the 2017 Osher National Resource Center Symposium this October 9 to 11, 2017, in Chicago at Northwestern University. The Symposium represents 119 OLLI programs nationwide. I am very fortunate to be chosen for participation and grateful for this opportunity.

Critical to all we do in adult education at UD, and the core value of our Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, is the principle that the dignity of each person is enhanced through continuous education from cradle to the grave. As we are the largest single-campus based OLLI, I am excited to be able to share with my Osher colleagues UDOLLI’s rich tradition of adult education, our commitment to lifelong learning, and our legacy of transformative learning. I believe these are indeed the secrets to the success we experience on our UD campus as part of the Osher Network.

It is a privilege for me to serve the Osher National Resource Center in this capacity. I will be able to share my work over these last 29 years in the areas of strategic planning, curriculum design, board development, facility management, fundraising, and leadership training and mentoring. I can also share how I learn from my Osher colleagues as we work together to meet the need of OLLI members on our campuses and nationwide, while at the same time planning for a sustainable future. I appreciate all of your support in this regard and am blessed by our work together.

Second, over the next three years, UDOLLI and Associate Provost Paul Vanderburgh’s Graduate Academic Affairs have partnered together to cost share the expense of replacing the inoperable and damaged chairs in the rooms on the second floor, south wing of River Campus where UDOLLI hosts its seminars. To date, the UD Facilities team has installed new chairs in rooms S2060 and S2080, and redeployed the best chairs from those rooms to replace the chairs that were in worse condition in other classrooms. The new chairs are described as easy to clean and maintain, and proven to be very durable and comfortable. This is a huge expense; however, we’ve now completed Phase One, which included our two largest rooms. We will equip the remaining rooms with new chairs over the next two years. I believe many of you will be quite happy to receive this news!

As always, I thank you for your ongoing help, patronage, and dedication to our UDOLLI.

Office of Special Programs and Continuing Education Executive

Director Julie Mitchell

OSHERLIFELONGLEARNINGINSTITUTE

Sponsoredin part by the

Special Programsand Continuing

Education

FROM THE PRESIDENTThe Essence of Lifelong LearningThis is my first opportunity to write as president of UDOLLI. I have met many of you while moderating our Explore New Zealand classes. Others of you may recognize me as a liaison or enthusiastic student. If not, feel free to introduce yourself in seminars or lunch in the cafeteria.

I retired from Wright State University at the end of 2011 after 35 years of teaching in the Raj Soin College of Business. At Wright State, I helped start the Management Information Systems major, the Masters of Information Systems, led the ABET accreditation for the MIS program, and chaired the department for eight years. Education is in my blood so I was glad to find the UD Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning in the fall of 2012.

Taking seminars at UDOLLI has been a return to my liberal arts roots. I have been impressed with the variety of music, history, arts, literature, cinema, social studies, and travel classes. How fun to moderate without grading papers and to take seminars without tests!

My undergraduate alma mater, Denison University, had a traditional student population of 18 to 21 years old and, in the 1960’s, was fairly homogeneous. What I learned teaching and also attending graduate classes at Wright State and University of Dayton was that education isn’t just for the young. Classes with diversity of age, ethnic background, socio-economic background, work experiences, and life experiences are much more stimulating. Students and the faculty member learn so much from each other.

I have been excited to learn and share experiences with all of you and am looking forward to working with the terrific UDOLLI staff and volunteers as we begin our 23rd year. Lifelong learning is not only essential for growth in careers but continued growth as a person.

UDOLLI President Barbara Denison

Poet Betsy Hughes holds the drawing for the cover of her

new book, Bird Notes. The drawing was designed by Betsy’s granddaughter.

Distinguished Moderator Publishes New BookBetsy Hughes, longtime UDOLLI moderator, has produced a new book of sonnets, entitled Bird Notes, which will be published in October 2017, by Finishing Line Press. Betsy and her husband Jim co-moderated 13 UDOLLI seminars between 1998 and 2013. During that span, Betsy also led four seminars of her own, one of them on the sonnet (spring 2012 “The Sonnet, A Moment’s Monument”). Both Hugheses have extensive backgrounds in literature: Jim taught for over 30 years in the Wright State English Department and Betsy for about an equal time at Miami Valley School (MVS).

Local poets David Garrison and Herbert Martin have both praised Betsy Hughes’s latest publication. Garrison calls it “a beautiful book of sonnets about birds and what they mean to us. . . . Each poem has a different perspective. . . . These poems are word paintings, Audubon in verse.” Martin, The Paul Laurence Dunbar Laureate Poet, extols the “marvelous and unexpected journeys” in these short works and concludes that “we are wealthier for her [Betsy Hughes] presence.”

Bird Notes is dedicated to Hughes’s father who died in 2006. An Episcopal minister, he was also a bird watcher, and in fact, one of the sonnets in the collection of 24 is called “Orni-theology” in reference to his two interests. Other inspirations that the author notes include nature, magazine articles, a phrase or image that might occur during a night of insomnia, and books which discuss such superstitions as our fear of crows. Not insignificantly, a group of crows is called a “murder.”

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Hughes’s sonnet called “A Murder of Crows” deals with the fascination and fear such a group might inspire:

I hear them utter their distinctive call

that summons others with a raucous caw,

then see them mob, descend to ground to maul

a little rodent, watch them eat it raw.

Soon air is shaking with the whir of wings

which cut through wind and flutter on my roof,

unloosing evil spirits, demon things

with glossy blackness, beak and devil hoof.

I tell myself they’re really only crows

but sense a wraithlike presence, dark perverse,

beyond the ceiling – there – which hovers, grows,

and causes me in fear and awe to curse.

My superstition may be more macabre

than bird behavior. Hear the murder throb.

Asked about the origin of her ongoing fascination with the sonnet, Betsy Hughes relates that her first contact with the form occurred when she was an undergraduate at Vassar. (Not coincidentally, the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is also a Vassar graduate.) After teaching creative writing at MVS and retiring in 1998, Hughes decided to try her own hand at the sonnet. Most of her work is in the traditional, 14-line Shakespearean format, but with a “modern voice.”

The balance of freedom and discipline that a sonnet provides appeals to Hughes. Her first collection, Breaking Weather, won the 2013 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies and was published by the NFSPS Press in 2014. “Poetry conveys truths in ways no other medium does,” Hughes concludes.

For more information or to pre-order a copy of Bird Notes, go to the publisher’s website at www.finishinglinepress.com or send $14.99 plus $2.99 shipping to Finishing Line Press, P. O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324

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Three Veterans, Including Two UDOLLI Members, Receive the Ford Oval of Honor AwardOn June 22, 2017, three local veterans received the Ford Oval of Honor award. Two of the recipients are UDOLLI members—former U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer James Miller and Air Force Brigadier General Paul Cooper. The third recipient was Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Paul Kari.

The Ford Oval of Honor recognizes the common people among us willing to step forward and serve our country. Sean D. Tucker, legendary world-champion aerobatic pilot and friend of aviator Bob Hoover, was the guest speaker and emcee for a ceremonial evening at the IMAX Theatre at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Sean presented the awards to the three honored veterans then introduced the featured movie, The Gift—a movie about the life of an American hero and aviator Bob Hoover, “the pilot’s pilot.”

Former U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer James Miller flew helicopters in Vietnam. He was awarded The Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism for actions “while participating in aerial flight in the Republic of Vietnam on September 9, 1967” while resupplying a Special Forces outpost on the top of a mountain that was occupied by enemy forces.

Air Force Brigadier General Paul Cooper (Retired, and UDOLLI’s ninth president) was an Air Force pilot with 34 years of airlift experience. He commanded three Air Force bases and served combat time in Vietnam, Bosnia, and the Middle East.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Paul Kari (Retired), an F-4 Phantom jet pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam and spent 2,795 days in captivity, which included the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”—well over seven years as a POW.

ITEMS GOOD TO KNOW:Unless otherwise noted, for additional information about the following items, call SPCE at 937-229-2347.

• Registration for UDOLLI 2017 Fall Program

Online registration for the UDOLLI Fall Program began Wednesday, August 9, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. If you do not have access to a computer or email, the Special Programs and Continuing Education Office (SPCE) can help you! After August 16, you can still register by U.S. Mail (University of Dayton, Special Programs and Continuing Education, 300 College Park, Dayton, Ohio 45469-7011) or telephone (937-229-2347).

• UDOLLI Parking Permit Fees

Starting with the UDOLLI Fall Program, and for the first time in four years, the UDOLLI parking permit fee is increasing to $50 per program. This is due to UD increasing all annual parking fees campus-wide paid by its faculty, staff, and students. Parking permit fees go toward the costs of operations and lot maintenance, which includes renovation, regular repaving, sealing, snow removal, and salt application. The UDOLLI registration fee for seminars remains at $80, and covers as many seminars as you choose to take.

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UDOLLI member and former U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer

James Miller receives the Ford Oval of Honor award.

• New UDOLLI Board Members

Congratulations to our new board members who were elected by our UDOLLI members and have just begun their three-year terms. Shown from left to right are Gloria Chaverst, David Vomacka, Dave Borchers, and Jim Mattice.

• New: Medical Emergency Contact Information Cards

In the event of an emergency while you are at the River Campus facility, UDOLLI designed a Medical Emergency Contact Information card for you to fill out and put behind your name tag in your lanyard holder. The card participation is completely voluntary. UDOLLI members can pick up a card at the welcome table during the first week of seminars, along with a copy of your 2017-2018 UDOLLI Member Handbook and parking permit. We’ll also have copies of the card in the UDOLLI Resource Room.

• Another Connecting Generations & Cultures Venture

UDOLLI’s Connecting Generations & Cultures program connects UDOLLI to the Dayton area community using our highly educated, experienced, and talented members. In early August, UDOLLI added a new undertaking: UpDayton and The Collaboratory joined forces with the Dayton Metro Library and other small, community-based non-profits and individual difference-makers to open Dayton’s first Community Action Lab inside Dayton’s new Main Library. The Lab is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. We need people to work on the co-creation of this venture; staff the welcome desk; interact with Library patrons; and participate in community projects. For more information, contact Peter Benkendorf at peter@daytoncollaboratory.org.

• A Call for Moderators

UDOLLI plans its curriculum throughout the year. Our diversified curriculum is what makes UDOLLI a preeminent outreach program. We encourage you to consider moderating a seminar, as well as encouraging others to do the same, either now or in the future. You can send your proposed seminar information to Executive Director Julie Mitchell ( jmitchell1@udayton.edu, or 937-229-2605). If you’d like, you can start by just identifying a topic, and we will help you through the proposal process.

• Bus Trip to Keeneland

Due to the overwhelming popularity of our bus trip to Keeneland Racetrack, we are offering another opportunity on Wednesday, October 11, 2017.

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• The Dayton Celebration Chorus

The Dayton Celebration Chorus is planning its upcoming season(s). A community chorus serving the Miami Valley, the group’s repertoire includes sacred and secular choral literature, with an emphasis on American music. No audition is required. Dr. David Sievers, Artist-in-Residence of Voice at the University of Dayton, is the new chorus director.

• UD Bookstore’s Specially Designed UDOLLI Products

UDOLLI, partnering with the University of Dayton Bookstore, offers a collection of items that show your support of UDOLLI in a subtle and professional way. Proceeds from the sales support UDOLLI initiatives and programming. You can purchase items online or in person at the Bookstore. The online web store address is: shop.udayton.edu/store-partners. Click on the UDOLLI link to see what is available.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR … • UDOLLI 2017/2018 Programs

September 18–November 10, 2017: UDOLLI Fall Program

January 10, 2018: Winter Moderator OrientationJanuary 16–February 26, 2018: UDOLLI Winter Program

March 7, 2018: Spring Moderator OrientationMarch 12–May 4, 2018: UDOLLI Spring Program

May 10, 2018: UDOLLI Summer Program, includes Annual Meeting and Moderator Appreciation Luncheon

June 6, 2018: UDOLLI Summer Program

• UDOLLI Special Events—Bring a friend! More details to come.

Sunday, September 17, 2017: UDOLLI Fall Kick-Off

Thursday, October 12, 2017: Richard Prigozen: Classical Guitar Musicale

Monday, November 6, 2017: UDOLLI Legacy Writers’ Readings

• UDOLLI Food Drives—During the Fall, Winter, and Spring programs. Bins are in the second floor Resource Room.

Monday–Friday, October 9–13, 2017

Monday–Friday, February 5–9, 2018

Monday–Friday, April 9–13, 2018

UDOLLI REMEMBERS VIOLET LAVIGUEUR “The Hat Lady” and “A Classy Woman” were terms used to describe lifelong learner, Violet Lavigueur. A long-time member of UDOLLI, Violet died in June. She had been a “charter” member of the program since its pilot in March 1994. Violet loved life as she loved UDOLLI, “dressing up” to attend seminars, many of which she moderated.

Violet leaves two sisters to mourn her passing and a community of Lifelong Learners to remember her fondly. She was 93.

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2017 FALL PROGRAM PREVIEW OF NEW SEMINARSThe UDOLLI Fall Program, September 18 to November 10, 2017, offers a wide variety of seminars—many of which are new. Here is a sample of just five of the new seminars, one for each day of the week. UDOLLI mailed a program brochure to each member describing all of the fall seminars and registration procedures. If you did not receive a brochure, call 937-229-2347, or if you wish to view the seminars online, enter the search: go.udayton.edu/udolli and click on “Fall 2017 Seminars.”

MondaysA Gallery of Global Photo Images, 12:30–2:30 p.m.

We’ll look at seldom seen, if ever, photographic images from the famous, the not-so-famous, and the never-will-be-famous. We’ll also look at old masters of the classics, human situations, forgotten industries, war-torn conditions, social media, even snapshots, and glimpse behind the philosophy/perspective of the individual photographer.

Moderator Marvin Christian was a commercial photographer for 60+ years and a photo editor for six local history books. Since 2012, Marvin has moderated Dayton History and Famous Photographers. He is currently president of Aviation Trail, Inc., a Trustee on the National Aviation Heritage Area Board, past president of the Dayton Advertising Club, and recipient of the American Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award for Lifetime Achievement.

TuesdaysMah Jong for Beginners, 12:30–2:30 p.m.

If you are interested in learning how to play this ancient Chinese table game of tiles that involves skill, strategy, calculation, and luck, now is the time. The “table” game involves a competition among 4 players to build a winning hand with 14 tiles—great for keeping your mind flexible.

Moderator Kathy Trimeloni holds a B.A. degree in history from UD and has played Mah Jong for over 30 years. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and WPAFB contract specialist, and a retired computer teacher.

WednesdaysIntroduction to French Language and Culture, 9:30–11:30 a.m.

This seminar covers basic oral and written constructions for travelers in francophone countries, for readers who confront French expressions, or for anyone who wants to experience the fun of learning another language. Additional discussions will cover history, culture, art, and music.

Moderator Donna Griffith, who holds a B.A. and a master’s degree from UD, taught French and English both at the junior high and high school levels. She taught as Adjunct Professor at Wright State University for 10 years.

ThursdaysThe Case of the Real Perry Mason, 12:30–2:30 p.m.

This seminar looks at the creator of the popular mystery series and the force behind the long-running Perry Mason TV show, Erle Stanley Gardner. Also investigated will be six Perry Mason TV shows, a biographical look at the cast and characters, a discussion of how the books and TV show were created, and why the Mason movies failed and the TV show didn’t.

Moderator Terry Martin is retired from Coca-Cola USA. He majored in history and is a book collector and seller of used books.

FridaysEvaluating Information: How Do I Know What Information to Trust, 12:30–2:30 p.m.

In this interactive seminar, participants will develop or hone their information use and evaluation skills. Bring an iPad, tablet, or laptop to each session as we will look at evaluating online sources. You may also share a device with a fellow attendee. We’ll discuss “fake news” and CRAAP criteria (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose).

Moderator Mary Lou Baker Jones has master’s degrees from UD and Indiana University and has presented information literacy topics at local, state, and national conferences. Retired from Wright State University as a Reference and Instruction Librarian for 19 years, she taught courses in information literacy and in chemical information. Earlier she taught in the Religious Studies Department at UD.

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Photo GalleryUDOLLI MODERATOR ORIENTATION, CAMARADERIE, AND MORE!

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