Never too old to feel as if you're gladly in college again.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

If you've been out of school long enough that the idea of learning for fun no longer seems like a contradiction in terms, the University of Oregon may have just what you're looking for.

Called the Life of the Mind Insight Seminars, the college-level classes offer adults a way to stretch their intellectual legs without having to stumble over the trappings of conventional university courses. That means plenty of reading and discussion but no tests, term papers or grades.

The series kicks off Saturday with a four-hour introduction based on "Great Books" by David Denby, about going back to college as an adult. The class starts at 10 a.m. and costs $35.

After that will come six seminars, each running over four successive Saturday mornings at the Stadium Club at Autzen Stadium. Each seminar costs $75 and will examine the theme "Peace and War" through a close reading of classic books such as "The Iliad," "Henry V" and "War and Peace."

The series was inaugurated during the 2003-04 school year, and the new seminars have been retooled to offer more focus and give participants more of a classroom experience. UO English professor James Earl, who helped develop the program, said one thing that came out of the first year's experience is that people aren't turned off by the more traditional lecture class.

"I think in the first go-round, we missed that lecture angle a little bit," he said. "People need it. And when they go back to college and there's a professor in the room, they kind of want it."

Earl will lead the first two classes in each seminar and then have other experts from the UO faculty come in for deeper discussions. Professors of literature, religion, philosophy and music are among the invited faculty.

Another difference is the location. Instead of the Knight Law Center, all classes will be in Autzen's Stadium Club, and the series is being called the Stadium Seminars.

Earl helped launch a national effort by university faculty to curb the spending "arms race" in intercollegiate athletics and was prominent in an effort to lower the emphasis on sports. He developed the Stadium Seminars as a way to focus attention on the academic strengths of the university, and he said holding them at the football stadium seemed fitting.

"I like the win-win of the stadium," he said. "Obviously, the community loves the stadium and I want to capitalize on that and allow the stadium to house a really nice academic program as well."

Earl said the classes will give participants an opportunity to get something from great works of literature that they might not have been prepared for when they were younger. They also let the university reach out to an audience that might otherwise feel little connection to campus.

"They can come out on Saturday morning for six straight months to get a real education on a very important topic by reading a lot of great books and discussing them with both experts and fellow readers," he said. "In some ways, it's like the ultimate book club, the way higher education would structure one."

The series starts with "The Rage of Achilles," centered on Homer's "Iliad." So far, the seminar filling the quickest is the second offering, "Culture of Tolerance," which looks at the co-existence of Jews, Muslims and Christians in medieval Spain.

While seminars are aimed at older adults, they are open to anyone and the idea is learning for learning's sake.

That's why the classes are noncredit and the only assignments are reading. But Earl said participants should come prepared to learn.

"I really think of it as college-level classes," he said. "They're meant for real learning and trying to capture the intensity of what college was like, or what college should have been like if you'd done it right."

STADIUM SEMINARS

Six four-session seminars at the UO will tackle war and peace through a discussion of great books

Cost: $75 per seminar; $35 for a four-hour introductory class this Saturday

Location: Stadium Club, Autzen Stadium

Registration: uoinsight.uoregon.edu or call 346-3475