Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 6, 1991                   TAG: 9103060141
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: JOE TENNIS/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

PROFESSORS ENJOY CHALLENGE OF RADFORD'S ELDERHOSTEL

Maybe that's why 44 people, ranging in age from 53 to 73, will join Radford University's Elderhostel program Sunday through March 15.

Coming from as far away as Ohio and Massachusetts, participants will stay at the Best Western Radford Inn and join Radford professors for discussion classes exclusively designed for seniors.

Attending classes with no threat of a test or final exam often leads to a relaxed atmosphere and opens the door on education for education's sake.

Radford history professor Ed Jervey taught a course at Radford's first Elderhostel program four years ago. Since then, he has taught courses at nearly a dozen more Radford Elderhostels.

This month Jervey will lead a three-session course on famous court cases in American history, exploring the trials of Leo Frank, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Scottsboro Boys, Bruno Hauptmann and Alger Hiss.

It's the spark older students ignite that leads Jervey to teach at Elderhostels, he said.

"I think exciting is about the best word I can use to describe it. These people ask a lot of questions and keep the instructors on their toes," Jervey said.

Joel Hagen, an assistant professor of biology, agrees that teaching at an Elderhostel session is a challenge.

"The students are less inhibited about expressing their views. Sometimes they criticize the instructor. It's refreshing," he said.

Hagen will teach "The Cutting Edge: Ethical Issues in Medicine and Biology," focusing on medical experimention, the use of animals in biological and medical research and environmental rights.

Ray Penn, an assistant professor of speech, will present "The Rhetorical Battle of the 1960s."

Included in Penn's class will be an examination of the 1960 Richard Nixon versus John Kennedy presidential campaign debate through a videotape of the televised event.

"I lived through the '60s," Penn said, chuckling. "It's a delight to talk to people who've actually been there."

The March session will be Penn's fourth as an Elderhostel instructor. "I always come out of there pumped up," he said.

"If teaching regular students is meat and potatoes, this is my dessert. It's all fun and no agony.

"These people tend to be highly motivated. And they have hundreds of hours of experience to talk about," Penn said.

For Jervey, who will be retiring at the end of this semester, the enthusiasm at Radford's Elderhostel seems to be contagious.

"When I retire, I'm hanging it up and will probably go on the Elderhostel circuit myself," he said.

Participants in the Elderhostel must make reservations with the program's international office in Boston several months before the program begins. The $295 fee includes meals, lodging and nightly entertainment.

For more information, call the Radford University Continuing Education office at 831-5483.