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Retirees Heading Back To College
Tribune photo by Kelvin Ma
Ed Mansfield laughs with classmate Jim Thompson before their poetry class at USF St. Petersburg on Jan. 28. Mansfield and Thompson are auditing the class for their own personal enjoyment, taking advantage of a Florida university system policy that lets people over 60 attend classes for free.
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Published: February 1, 2008
ST. PETERSBURG - For fun in retirement, former car dealer Ed Mansfield plays golf, roots for the Rays and loses himself in prose, poetry and William Shakespeare.
"I got an appreciation way beyond what I already had about how unique that man was," says Ed, who moved to downtown St. Petersburg seven years ago, partly so he could take courses at the waterfront campus of the University of South Florida.
He and multitudes like him feed a growing trend in the housing industry: not-for-profit retirement communities connected to universities. They draw retirees who fondly remember college and want to reconnect with it, taking courses for free, using the library and recreation facilities, and attending cultural and sports events.
Oak Hammock opened in 2004 near the University of Florida in Gainesville. Westcott Lakes at SouthWood, which opened a model home last May, is affiliated with Florida State University in Tallahassee.
The St. Petersburg campus of USF is considering a linkup with a proposed retirement center nearby. Praxeis of Jacksonville is the developer on all three projects.
Scores of universities across the country have affiliated with retirement communities, among them Ithaca College in New York, the University of Central Arkansas at Conway and Penn State University.
Ed and his wife, Jeanne, both 70, live in Vinoy Place condominiums, within walking distance of USF-St. Petersburg. He can see the appeal of a retirement community that taps into campus life.
"There are a lot of people - even more with the boomers in retirement - who are not ready to sit at home and turn up their toes," he says.
Ed has a degree in history but wanted to dive into literature - when he's not golfing or watching a ballgame. He has taken about 10 courses under a program that allows Florida residents 60 and older to attend classes for free. Their work does not count toward a degree.
St. Petersburg Facility Envisioned
Karen White, regional chancellor of USF-St. Petersburg, is excited about the Praxeis proposal, its first for an urban campus. She thinks it would be an ideal setting, with Mahaffey Theater, the Dali Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts and USF within walking distance.
Praxeis is negotiating on a site in downtown St. Petersburg, where it envisions a $250 million complex with 270 independent living units and 100 units for assisted living, memory support and nursing care, company executive vice president Matt Weaver says.
The company works out individual agreements with each university. Some universities seek a percentage of the revenue; others, among them UF, don't. Praxeis earns its money from developing and arranging the financing for new properties, and managing them.
White sees benefits in injecting more older students into the generally younger campus population. More than 60 people age 60 and older already take classes and attend lectures at USF-St. Petersburg. In a number of cases, the older people have experienced in life what's being discussed in the classroom.
"Our senior scholars bring to the class not only lifelong experiences and learning, but a real energy about the quest for new knowledge. It keeps them intellectually alive."
Continuing Care Offered
At USF and elsewhere, Praxeis develops continuing care communities, allowing residents to move from independent living to assisted living to nursing or Alzheimer's care as the need arises.
But a number of colleges, such as the University of Arizona at Tucson and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, affiliate only with independent-living developments.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is working with Campus Continuum of Newton, Mass., to build an independent living center within two blocks of the campus. As with other Campus Continuum projects, it would be for people from their mid-50s to their early 70s.
Chancellor Richard Wells says it may be possible for the complex to contract for some in-house medical care, but he prefers a relationship with people vibrant enough for independent living.
"Ideally, they should be as fully integrated in the university community as possible," he says.
These communities aren't for everybody, says Gerald Badler, managing director of Campus Continuum.
"Those people who like the idea really like the idea very much. Those people who aren't interested couldn't give a damn. They don't see the sense of it."
Oak Hammock provides transportation to the UF campus less than two miles away. But the university also comes to Oak Hammock. Professors routinely give lectures and hold classes at the retirement community for a nominal fee. A number of residents, many of them retired professors, volunteer to tutor students.
Students also work in Oak Hammock's dining rooms; each year, residents award one of them a scholarship.
One-Time Entry And Monthly Fees
Residents pay a one-time entry fee and enter a contract for continuing care. Prices start at $140,000 for the fee and $1,775 a month for a 488-square-foot apartment. The average resident pays $330,000 to $350,000 initially and nearly $3,000 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
"We have more to do than we have time for," says Pat Collier, 71.
She and her husband, Don, 73, moved to Oak Hammock from Connecticut in 2006. Fluent in Spanish, Pat worked for the Latin American and Pacific Rim division of a medical equipment company. Don, an electrical engineer, worked for Norden Systems.
They play tennis, bike, go kayaking, attend the free lectures and more. Don took a course in German. Now he's studying German literature. "It's lots of fun, but it's very hard."
Both attended UF years ago, as did Anne and Robert Carlson, who moved to Oak Hammock from Lakeland in October. Not all residents are UF grads, though. Some, in fact, were FSU Seminoles.
The Carlsons like the lectures, but they really appreciate the medical care, with prestigious Shands Hospital nearby, plus the two swimming pools, gymnasium and beauty and barber shops. Anne, 69, is a retired teacher. Bob, 70, still runs his accounting business out of his home.
They take square dancing at Oak Hammock and attend sporting events at UF. Bob took a computer course, and he's planning to check out the campus golf course, where Oak Hammock residents get a break on greens fees.
The university activities are like icing on the cake, Anne says, but she came for all the other amenities.
"Life here is like being on a cruise ship that doesn't sail."
Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at (813) 259-7609 or pmorgan@tampatrib.com.
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