PANA — As long as Jim Pride can remember, the radio broadcast connoisseur has had a burr under his saddle to write a Western novel.
But all the news stories he has written and put on the air, the radio stations he’s built and sold, and the two community magazines he started, one in Champaign and one in Bloomington (which still are being published), left him with no time to develop a plot or to establish a cast of characters.
But that was all about to change.
“When I retired, my wife, Michelle, and I moved to Pana to be close to her mother and mine,” Pride said. “I started playing golf with my new neighbor, Larry Ade, and one morning I mentioned that I still wanted to write a book, but needed to take a class or two. He then explained that his wife, Sue, would be teaching a class in fiction writing at Lake Land that fall and added that he thought that, as a published author, she would be able to help me.
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The 67-year-old Pride drove to the Pana campus of Lake Land College and enrolled in the class his neighbor mentioned, but when he took out his checkbook to pay for the class, he was stunned to learn it was free, no tuition, no fees, nothing. He had only to sign a waiver swearing that he was 65 years of age or older and that was it.
“I was shocked,” he said. “How do you go to college for free?”
It was then that he discovered that every public college in Illinois is, by law, obligated to admit senior citizens, 65 or older, tuition free as long as they meet established income guidelines.
“The law has been on the books since the early ’70s,” said Steve Morris, a spokesman for the Illinois Community College Board. “The Senior Citizen Courses Act applies to all public institutions of higher learning in Illinois. As long as the applicants can pay the applicable fees and book cost, and meet the annual household income threshold, tuition is free.”
If an applicant cannot afford to pay the fees, which, for example, amount to $1,655 at the University of Illinois, assistance is available that may help cover those costs.
Susan Dickey, who is the assistant director of financial aid at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said there are various kinds of assistance available to seniors who need it.
“There are many grants and loans available to help pay fees and other costs, which allow seniors, 65 and over, to enroll as part-time or full-time students and pay very little compared with a traditional students,” Dickey said. “Anyone with questions is welcome to call the financial aid department, and we will be happy to help them get started,” she said. “You can actually fill out the application on line.”
The fees for seniors at area community colleges are, of course, less expensive, on average about $50, which, at many institutions, includes books and some consumables for a three-hour course.
The problem is, not many people know about the program. Officials at various institutions of higher learning agreed that the benefits of the program are not well-known. Morris said he gets no more than three calls a year about the program, and many admissions officials at colleges and universities don’t know about it.
“It’s a great program for seniors,” Morris said. “I will be 65 in a couple of years, and I intend to take advantage of it.”
Going back to school seems to run in the family.
“My mother, who is 85, is still taking classes at the University of Illinois and has been for the past several years. She loves it,” Pride beamed.
