Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Opens Spring Classes to University of Arkansas Students

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arkansas – known for its continuing education for people age 50 years and older – is opening many of its spring 2011 non-credit classes to University of Arkansas students. Spring offerings include a Dalai Lama lecture series and an art exhibit featuring Tibetan cultural items and related paintings.

Students can pre-register and pay $5 per class to attend any of the institute’s spring courses where there is no enrollment specified or a maximum enrollment of 300 or more. Students can register at the University of Arkansas Global Campus, 2 East Center Street, Fayetteville, by visiting with Claudia Cochrane in GLBL 506 or by calling her at 479-575-3458 or 800-952-1165. Students must show their student identification cards or provide their student identification numbers to pre-register.

The institute’s full list of spring courses and enrollment capacity information is available online, or call Kathleen Dorn, institute coordinator, at 479-575-4545.

The institute and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences are partnering to provide five sessions in Fayetteville and three sessions in Rogers that focus on the Dalai Lama and related topics.

The Fayetteville classes include “Looking up: Tibet and the World,” 6:30-8 p.m. Thursdays, Feb. 24-March 10, GLBL 204; “Buddhist Principles, Practices & Precepts: Approaches to Religious Life & Identity in Tibet,” 6-8 p.m. Thursday, March 31, GLBL 204; and “The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dalai Lamas: Hard Lessons in Leadership,” 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 14, GLBL 204. Sessions at the Global Campus in Rogers, 3300 Market St., Suite 402, include “Looking up: Tibet and the World,” 9-11 a.m. Mondays, Feb. 28-March 14, Room 405.

Professor Sidney Burris, director of the honors program in Fulbright College, was instrumental in the development of the institute’s lecture series. The Dalai Lama will be speaking on the Fayetteville campus to speak May 11, an event sponsored by the university’s student-funded Distinguished Lecture Series.

The art exhibit featuring Tibetan cultural items and paintings will be open free of charge to visitors from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday from Friday, Feb. 4, through April at the Global Campus gallery in downtown Fayetteville.

Other institute classes available to university students include “Brush Up on Your Art Appreciation,” 3-4 p.m. Tuesdays, Feb. 15-March 8, GLBL 409, Fayetteville; “Digging Into Egypt’s History: The Amarna Period,” 1-3 p.m. Wednesdays, Feb. 16-March 2, GLBL 107, Fayetteville; and “Understanding how to be a Good Host for Birds,” 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursdays, Feb. 24-March 3, GLBL 405, Fayetteville.

The Osher Lifelong Institute at the University of Arkansas is part of a national network housed at 119 institutions of higher education and is supported through program fees and grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation, based in San Francisco. The institute provides engaging learning and enrichment opportunities for people age 50 years and older.