Most students learn history from textbooks, but a few are in the classroom speaking from personal experience.

These students are not average sophomores going for their bachelors degrees. They are students in Program 60, a program in which enrollees who are residents of Ohio 60 or older can attend classes at Ohio State for free, on a space available basis.

Sarah Brooks, an assistant professor in the political science department, said she never heard of the program until a Program 60 student came up to her and asked for her permission to attend her class.

“I had no objections at all,” Brooks said. “These students have a real world experience that enriches the classroom.”

Brooks, teaching about a historical moment, was approached by a Program 60 student after class.

“He gave his personal account of the event,” Brooks said.

She said the student shared his knowledge, which was based on his own “personal experience versus my experience, which was only through books.”

Carol Shelton, a volunteer in the Program 60 Association and student in the program, said when she was taking a class on understanding the aging process she introduced herself as “Exhibit A.”

“It’s an opportunity to go into stuff we were always interested in but didn’t have time to take when we were in college,” said Charles Moulton, a Program 60 Association volunteer and student in the program.

Program 60 started at Ohio State in 1974 by President Harold Enarson. It was initially known as Program 65.

In 1973, President Enarson presented the idea of Program 65 to the OSU Board of Trustees after learning of a similar program at the University of Denver. The program began Winter Quarter in 1974 and had 185 men and women enrolled. The requirements then for the program were that the enrollee had to be a resident of Ohio and 65 or older.

Spurred on by successes at OSU, the Ohio Legislature passed Senate Bill 497, on April 29, 1976, requiring all state supported colleges and universities to permit Ohio residents who are senior citizens age 60 or older to attend classes on a non-tuition, non-credit, space available basis. The Ohio Legislature later added that for-credit classes may be offered as well, but did not mandate that the university had to do so.

After the state mandate, the age limit was then lowered to 60 and the program’s name changed to Program 60. The students in the program do not have to take placement exams and can take undergraduate and graduate level courses.

The only areas where they cannot take any classes are through the medical, dental and veterinary schools.

Mike Hoza, the Program 60 coordinator, said the program, although a state mandate, “is not funded by the state.”

In fact, Program 60 receives no funding at all. Most costs that the program incurs are absorbed by the Office of Continuing Education.

However, the costs are offset by the Program 60 Association, which handles the registration of the Program 60 students. The association volunteers at the OSU television and radio station fundraisers, ushers at OSU graduations and contributes regularly to the Scarlet and Grey Scholarship Fund.

The Program 60 Association was started in 1977 to help with the organization of the program. An annual fee of $3 is now incurred by all Program 60 students which, in 2002, numbered more than 350.

“The registration process is very informal,” Hoza said.

The Program 60 students go to the Ohio Union on the third and fourth day of the quarter to register for classes which have spaces available. They then take a permission slip to the professor teaching the course who ultimately has the say in whether or not the student can take the class.

Moulton took his permission slip to a film studies class.

“Every student seat was filled and there was a long wait list,” Moulton said. “I went to leave the classroom and the professor teaching it told me to sit down.”

“Although the class was full, my being there didn’t add any extra work for the professor,” Moulton said.

“Film studies wasn’t even offered when we were in college,” Moulton said.

“The class just didn’t exist, imagine going to college to see movies.”