Feature: Odyssey to Oxford Honors Founder
The MSUAA’s popular travel/study programs, including Odyssey to Oxford, were pioneered by Dr. Chuck McKee.
Travel-study programs, which combine tourism with cultural studies, are a relatively new offering by alumni associations around the country. They have become very popular in recent years. As these programs surge and proliferate, let it be noted that the travel-study concept was largely pioneered at MSU in the early 1980s. Indeed, one specific travel-study program—Odyssey to Oxford—might have been the pioneering pebble that started the avalanche.
Still a popular MSUAA program, now in its 17th year, Odyssey to Oxford quickly became the national model for all the others that have followed in its wake. “We were the first noncredit, alumni residential program at Oxford, and we were probably the first such program anywhere,” says Dr. Charles A. McKee, former director of Alumni Lifelong Education for the MSUAA, now retired and living in Green Valley, AZ. “We were the model for the alumni travel-study programs that are so popular now, like the Alumni Colleges offered by Alumni Holidays.”
The premise was simple. All participants would be housed at Rewley House, Oxford, home of the university’s Dept. of Continuing Education as well as Kellogg College. The two-week program included Oxford dons and tutors, who lectured about historic castles and many other fields, including British literature, politics and history. The morning lectures were complemented by afternoon field trips.
It was an instant hit. The Los Angeles Times soon ranked it as one of the nation’s top five alumni travel programs. Northwestern University, notes McKee, “was eager to join us, and I wanted another prestigious university to partner with us, so they have now partnered with us on 12 of the 17 programs.” Last fall, McKee was honored at the Odyssey to Oxford 2000 for his innovative work in pioneering travel-study for alumni.
In 1983, when he was hired by the MSU Alumni Association as director of Alumni Lifelong Education programs, McKee foresaw an outstanding lifelong learning opportunity at England’s University of Oxford, famous as a great center for learning since the 12th century. He was absolutely right. McKee traveled to Oxford and met with Dr. Richard Smethurst, now provost of Oxford’s Worcester College, who served as one of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s economic advisors. “Dick and I met one afternoon over tea and worked out all the details,” recalls McKee. “Since then, I worked with Dr. Michael Lockwood, Fellow of Oxford’s Green College, who serves as director of studies for the program, and Dr. Angus Hawkins, director of International Programmes, Dept. of Continuing Education. Give some credit to Chuck Webb, then executive director of the MSUAA, who made the decision to pursue this direction.”
Also instrumental was Geoffrey Thomas, current president of the University of Oxford’s Kellogg College. Both Geoffrey Thomas and Keith Williams, executive director of the MSUAA, paid tribute to Dr. McKee at the final dinner held at Kellogg College during the 2000 Odyssey to Oxford.
The Odyssey to Oxford program has taken more than 700 alumni and friends to Oxford during the 17 years that Dr. McKee directed the program. After his retirement from MSU and the MSU Alumni Association in 1997, McKee continued to provide his services as Director of the Odyssey to Oxford program. “When you travel, you change your place; when you study, you change your mind,” says McKee. “When you combine travel and study, you go on one of MSU’s travel/study programs in lifelong learning that convert the experience of world travel into quests for new horizons of the mind. Our idea of travel is a search for new knowledge and understanding. Those who go with us dedicate themselves to serious study in order to increase their knowledge of other cultures and their understanding of themselves as lifelong learners.”
McKee is delighted to note that Odyssey to Oxford “has attracted participants come from all over the U.S. and the globe, and that many are repeat students. One participated has attended 8 of the 17 programs. Participants have come from all over the U.S. and also such places as Japan, Germany and Hawaii.”
Many letters have poured in from past participants paying tribute to and thanking Dr. McKee for enriching their lives. MSU President Emeritus and past Odyssean Gordon Guyer paid tribute to McKee: ”Your ingenuity in developing the Oxford effort and providing the partnership with other institutions has certainly spoken well of your dedication and commitment and has made a very major contribution to the Michigan State University outreach effort.”
Louise Cooley, director of Alumni Lifelong Education/Evening College for the MSU Alumni Association and co-host of this year’s program, has been named the new Director of Odyssey to Oxford.
The 2001 Odyssey to Oxford will take place Aug. 25-Sept. 8. The 2001 courses include Historic Houses, Castles, & Gardens; The Rise and Fall of the British Empire; The English Detective Story; and Celts, Saxons, Vikings: the Archaeology of Early Medieval Britain.
For more information contact Louise Cooley or Brenda Haynes at 517-355-4562 or visit MSUAA travel programs at http://www.msualum.org/events/2001/oxford/.
ALUMNI TRAVEL OFFERS CHOICES
Besides its award-winning Odyssey to Oxford program, the MSU Alumni Association offers members a wide range of travel options, both international and domestic. “We try to appeal to all age groups and all income levels,” says Nancy Brent, associate director of the MSUAA and director of the travel program. “Every year we offer some 30 alumni tours, including travel-study, and they range from one week to three weeks. One very popular concept is the weeklong tour, such as our Alumni Colleges and Village Life series, which have an educational component and are typically around $2,000 a person.”
In the Alumni Colleges, travelers stay in one place and get to know the area intensively, combining morning sessions by local faculty experts with afternoon field trips, often to sites covered in the information programs. The “Village Life” tours include cruises along rivers like the Danube, the Rhone, the Po and Belgian waterways. “Adventure is something that’s becoming more and more popular,” notes Brent. “We’ve offered safaris in Kenya and such exotic places as Antartica, Nepal, the Amazon, and Patagonia.”
Not all alumni tours are international. Past domestic tours have included destinations like Alaska and Monterrey, CA, as well as cruises down the Mississippi and in New England in the fall.
For more information, visit www.msualum.com or send an email to crossreg@msu.edu.