The MSUAA's Odyssey to Oxford

There’s a reason why alumni lifelong learners continue attending the MSU Alumni Association’s annual travel-study program in Oxford, England. The program continues to excel as one of the nation’s finest.

Why Oxford? Twenty-seven years ago, the MSU Alumni Association first launched the Odyssey to Oxford, a forerunner of alumni travel-study programs throughout the nation. I asked one of the first Odysseans to describe his experience in two words.

“Just two words?” he responded. “Unalloyed pleasure.”

And that’s essentially what you will hear today from Helen Cunningham, Alice Markam, Sudie Moseley or Roberta Fischer, who just completed their 13th Odyssey to Oxford. Or from Ed Howard or John Dobrosky, who just completed their 10th journey.

Many of this year’s 49 travelers who went to Oxford in late August were repeat customers. And some of the two dozen “newbies,” myself included, signed on because of word-of-mouth recommendations.

The MSUAA’s Odyssey to Oxford—a partnership between MSU and the University of Oxford—has clearly established itself as one of the nation’s premier alumni travel-study programs. Indeed, the Los Angeles Times once ranked it among the top five in the nation. It remains top-ranked because of the passion of Louise Cooley, MSUAA director of alumni lifelong education programs, who has helmed the Odyssey this past decade.

“We are constantly offering new courses and tweaking the program with suggestions from our travelers,” explains Cooley, who works closely with Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education to develop the curriculum and the two-week program of excursions and activities. “There is a rich source of material from history and archaeology to literature and the arts, so we never run out of material that is of interest to our travelers.”

Originally the brainchild of Dr. Charles McKee, who retired in 1996 as director of MSU’s alumni lifelong education programs, the travel-study program was designed to take advantage of the availability of Oxford tutors with the market for adult learning among MSU alumni and friends seeking an alternative to the normal sight-seeing excursions that typify international travel.

The Odyssey to Oxford program fits with the vision of Scott Westerman, executive director of the MSU Alumni Association. Westerman is positioning the MSUAA as alumni’s “personal network for life.” He wants the MSUAA to help at every stage of one’s life cycle. Interestingly, at some point in a Spartan’s life cycle, one comes full circle and becomes very interested in what connected them to MSU in the first place—education and learning for life. The travel-study program perfectly meets the lifelong learning needs of alumni at any stage in life.

For the past six years, MSU has invited the University of Iowa as a program co-sponsor. “Iowa is a great fit,” says Cooley. “Their travelers have very similar interests and backgrounds as MSU alumni and they love the MSU Odyssey to Oxford program.”

This year’s Odysseans had a choice of four areas of study: the Rise and Fall of the British Empire; King Arthur: Myth or Realtiy; Shakespeare and His World; and From Churchill to Thatcher: A Nation in Decline. Learning takes place in morning class sessions, which are supplemented with course-specific field trips. Students in the Shakespeare class, for example, visited Stratford-Upon-Avon and London, where they saw a play in the Globe Theatre. Two plenary trips are included as well; this year’s were to Westminster Abbey and to Hatfield House, a location where Queen Elizabeth spent much of her childhood. An optional weekend excursion took participants to Wells, England’s smallest city. Travelers receive reading assignments before the trip, and by the time they arrive in Oxford, they and other equally passionate learners are ready for the exchange of ideas with their tutor. Participants all tout the intellectual frothing that prevails in the classroom and in the supporting site visits.

“I find this experience to be addictive,” says Ed Howard, ’49, a former publisher and journalist from East Lansing. “I love the tutors, the learning that takes place, the people, the atmosphere, and Oxford itself. In short, I like the entire experience.”

Echoes Sudie Moseley of Louisville, KY. “If I can only make one trip a year, it will be the Odyssey to Oxford,” she says. “And I’m someone who loves to travel. This shows you how much I appreciate all the work that goes into this program.”

One Odyssean has degrees from both MSU and from another university that offers a similar program. One year he traveled with the other university, but quickly returned to the fold. “There’s no comparison,” he says. “The MSU program is so much better. It’s more complete and provides for many more experiences. Now I’ll only travel with the MSU program.”

Alan Toxopeus, ’57, of Virginia, originally attended because of his passion for Winston Churchill. But after participating the first time, he developed an appreciation for the whole program. He and his wife Marge, a medical doctor, have now made five trips to Oxford. “Louise Cooley does a great job developing and running this program,” says Al. “Make sure you let people know this.”

Larry Pinson, M.A. ’74, a retired economist from Texas, is a newbie. He was recruited by Glenn Corliss, M.A. ’63, PhD ’68, from Minneapolis. Both had met at MSU when they were graduate students. Corliss, who developed a best-selling artificial sweetener, was persuasive in recruiting Larry.

“I tried to get in last year, but they were filled,” says Pinson. “So I was finally able to get in, and I hope this will be the first of many trips. When I was at MSU I took (the late) Walter Adams’ Econ 444 class, which was probably the toughest challenge I’ve ever had in college. So I like challenges. I like to be intellectually stimulated. That’s one reason I really like this program.”

Beyond the program, of course, lies the wonderful environment that is Oxford—the “city of dreaming spires,” as poet Matthew Arnold described it. Founded in the 11th century, Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and arguably the most prestigious worldwide. Henry James called it “the finest thing in England.” Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “It is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it.”

Oxford is very familiar to one group of Spartans—the 16 MSU graduates who have gone on to study at Oxford as Rhodes Scholars. Three of them—Molly Brennan, Claudena Skran, and Judith Stoddart—have written stories in this magazine extolling their experiences in Oxford (Summer 1984).

The University of Oxford consists of 38 separate and autonomous colleges, each with its own unique history, along with dons, fellows, dining halls, quads, and in many cases chapels and towers.

“The University of Oxford is the way it is because of how all the colleges were established historically,” says Chris Day, an Oxford tutor who lectured to the Odysseans one evening. “If we were to design a university from scratch, we might design something along the lines of a modern American university. That would probably be a more efficient way of organizing things.”

More efficient, perhaps, but certainly less charming. Every corner of Oxford boasts fascinating, perhaps quirky, histories and traditions acquired over many centuries. Brasenose College, for example, is named after a door-knocker that went through a Perils of Pauline trek before coming to rest, finally, in the college’s dining hall. For every arch, cobblestone or whimsical grotesque you see, there is an equally amusing historical anecdote. Many of the stories relate directly to some milestone in the history of Western civilization.

The tales behind each Oxford college are as varied as the architecture of the buildings, which range from Gothic, Palladian and Jacobean to the polychromatic brick exterior of Keble College. Iconic buildings include the Radcliffe Camera, the Tower of Five Orders of the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre (Christopher Wren’s first major design), the Magdalen Tower, the Great Hall and cathedral of Christ Church, and the Pembroke Chapel.  A “Bridge of Sighs,” reminiscent of the one in Venice, connects two parts of Hertford College. My favorite is University College’s St. Mary the Virgin Church Tower—an ornate tower with a panoramic view of the town.

Every college has its own dining hall, and each dining hall has portraits of its most distinguished alumni. As a longtime alumni magazine editor, I’m always cognizant of famous alumni from other universities. Many Oxonians will sound familiar to you as people you studied in a history, literature or humanities class.  For example, renowned Oxonians include  such world-transformative figures as Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Christopher Wren, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Wesley, William Penn, Albert Einstein, Jeremy Bentham, William Morris, T.E. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Cecil Rhodes, William Gladstone, Edmund Halley, and Jethro Tull—to name just a few. 

If you ever studied English literature, how many of these names were in your reading assignments—Oscar Wilde, T.S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, W.H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Donne, Jonathan Swift, Evelyn Waugh, Samuel Johnson, C.S. Lewis, Grahame Greene, William Golding, Desmond Morris, John Galsworthy, Joseph Heller, Percy Shelley, V.S. Naipaul and Kingsley Amis?  All are Oxonians.

Oxford has actually produced more than 50 world leaders, 47 nobel laureates, 26 British prime ministers—including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron—20 Archbishops of Canterbury and 12 saints.  World leaders include such people as King Olav V and King Harald of Norway, Zulfikar Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Prince Naruhito and Indira Gandhi. 

I have to admit, it’s exciting to study at a place where footprints have been left by so many historical giants of the past. For example, when I visited the Eagle and Child Pub on St. Giles Street, I was able to sit in the Rabbit Room—a small room where a literary group called the Inklings would gather to exchange ideas and manuscripts.  The Inklings included such writers as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Other Oxford pubs were frequented by people ranging from Winston Churchill to William Shakespeare.  Of course, most Oxford pubs receive visits from Inspector Morse, whose creator Colin Dexter lives in Oxford and is said to have a penchant for cryptic puzzles and cask ale.

 Not all famous Oxonians are historical figures from the past.  Contemporary Oxonians include the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Hawking, John Paul Getty, Hugh Grant, John Le Carre, Kate Beckingsale, and Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Such accomplished individuals help maintain Oxford’s allure as a place of great intellectual ferment.  Indeed, Anita Cote, ’73, who recently retired as a school teacher in mid-Michigan and made her first trip as an Odyssean, said her experience brought up many memories about her teaching career.  “I'm reminded every day of the thrill of teaching and learning,” she notes.

Much of the Odyssey’s formal learning takes place in morning classes in Rewley House, near Wellington Square. All meals are served in the dining room.  Those who think the English cuisine is a bland, spiceless experience, will be shocked to learn how creative and international today’s British chefs are.

“Rewley House is part of Oxford’s Kellogg College, which handles Oxford’s continuing education and serves the needs of adult and part-time students,” notes Cooley.  “There is a direct link to Michigan State.  What made the college possible was support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which also funded the creation of MSU’s Kellogg Center.”

Indeed, longtime Kellogg Foundation CEO Russ Mawby is both an MSU alumnus and a former MSU trustee and also a fellow of Oxford’s Kellogg College.  The Mawby Pavillion, a room in Rewley House where receptions are held, is named after Russ Mawby. The current president of Kellogg College is Jonathan Michie, who is delighted with the success of MSU’s Odyssey to Oxford, as is Angus Hawkins, director of Public and International Programs for Oxford’s Dept. of Continuing Education, and Charles Boyle, the department’s director of British Studies—both of whom work closely with Cooley to develop the annual program.  All pay homage to Mawby, who is regarded as a visionary in lifelong education.  Incidentally, in the mid-1980s Mawby served as chairman of the MSU Alumni Association’s national alumni board.

The first day that Odysseans arrive at Oxford, they are greeted by Cooley, who gives them this thumbnail sketch of the program:

“For the next two weeks, we will nurture your spirit of discovery and lifelong learning,” she says.  “You will be living in the heart of historic Oxford—a place where the traditions of town and gown, learning and community, come together.  It’s an opportunity to understand and respect other cultures, civilizations and individuals.  It’s an opportunity to adapt to an international environment where we all become part of an international community.”

In so many words, the Odyssey to Oxford remains one of MSU’s—and the nation’s—most noteworthy lifelong education programs.

2011 Odyssey to Oxford courses:

* Espionage, Politics and Diplomacy in the Courts of Renaissance Europe will explore the transformation in European diplomacy during 1450-1650, show how intelligence was gathered by the states, and elaborate on the role of the spy.

* Art and Industry: William Morris and William Morris of Oxford will explain how two men connected to Oxford reacted differently to industrialization—the nineteenth century William Morris, father of the Arts and Crafts movement and the 20^th century William Morris who introduced America’s Fordist methods of mass production into his car manufacturing plant.

* The High Middle Ages:1200-1500, will explore the transition of England from a feudal to a modern nation and will address the economic and social changes during this time with an emphasis on the War of the Roses and the emergence of a new powerful Tudor monarchy.

 * History of the British Broadcasting Corporation—As the largest, best loved, most controversial cultural institution in Britain and a major global media player, this course will explore the BBC’s diverse and often turbulent history.

            ? For a brochure or to receive more information, contact Alumni Lifelong Education at 517-355-4562 or e-mail haynesb@msu.edu.  Registration for the program begins Jan. 15, 2011.