Retiring Back to School
By Richard Bambrick
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com
It is becoming more and more common for retirees to return to college after they stop working, but some are taking it to the extreme, and moving back on campus.
Retirement communities are springing up on college campuses across the country as many seniors seek to replace the happiest and most stimulating years of their lives, while colleges and universities hope to build new revenue streams and strengthen ties with alumnae.
It is certainly true that as Baby Boomers retire, the average age on campus is rising. Elizabeth Olson, in the New York Times that at Warren Community College in Washington, NJ “retirement-age students make up about 12 percent of the total enrollment, an increase of 30 percent from 2003 to 2006, and the number is expected to grow.” Considering there are more Baby Boomers than there are college-age students, that number could explode.
Warren, of course, is a community college, which provides retirement-age students with educational opportunities and a taste of campus life. It is on the mainstream college and university campuses where live-in retirement communities are blossoming. According to Ken Dychtwald and Daniel Kadlec, authors of “The Power Years: A User’s Guide to the Rest of Your Life,” report “Building is booming at universities across the nation, potentially rivaling anything seen since the 1960s and ’70s, when baby boomers first began crowding campuses as young students. This time, however, the schools aren’t adding chalkboards – they’re developing state-of-the-art retirement communities on or near campus, and offering specialized curricula that include courses in healthy living, entrepreneurship and career reinvention.”
Indeed, Tatsha Robertson reports in the Boston Globe that “college affiliated retirement communities have sprung up in 50 college towns across the country, linking the retired set with schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Michigan, and Lasell College…”
Perhaps the hottest fraternity or sorority on the campus of the future will be AARP.
Richard.Bambrick@gmail.com
It is becoming more and more common for retirees to return to college after they stop working, but some are taking it to the extreme, and moving back on campus.
Retirement communities are springing up on college campuses across the country as many seniors seek to replace the happiest and most stimulating years of their lives, while colleges and universities hope to build new revenue streams and strengthen ties with alumnae.
It is certainly true that as Baby Boomers retire, the average age on campus is rising. Elizabeth Olson, in the New York Times that at Warren Community College in Washington, NJ “retirement-age students make up about 12 percent of the total enrollment, an increase of 30 percent from 2003 to 2006, and the number is expected to grow.” Considering there are more Baby Boomers than there are college-age students, that number could explode.
Warren, of course, is a community college, which provides retirement-age students with educational opportunities and a taste of campus life. It is on the mainstream college and university campuses where live-in retirement communities are blossoming. According to Ken Dychtwald and Daniel Kadlec, authors of “The Power Years: A User’s Guide to the Rest of Your Life,” report “Building is booming at universities across the nation, potentially rivaling anything seen since the 1960s and ’70s, when baby boomers first began crowding campuses as young students. This time, however, the schools aren’t adding chalkboards – they’re developing state-of-the-art retirement communities on or near campus, and offering specialized curricula that include courses in healthy living, entrepreneurship and career reinvention.”
Indeed, Tatsha Robertson reports in the Boston Globe that “college affiliated retirement communities have sprung up in 50 college towns across the country, linking the retired set with schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Michigan, and Lasell College…”
Perhaps the hottest fraternity or sorority on the campus of the future will be AARP.
posted by Richard Bambrick at 11:02 AM
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