Keene State’s educational program for seniors will be on hold for the fall semester following the departure of its longtime leader, according to college administrators.
The news has upset people who say it is a lifeline for socialization and provides an affordable option for lifelong learning, and has prompted some concerns about its future. But President Melinda Treadwell said the college administration is committed to bringing it back for the spring.
Launched 30 years ago, the Cheshire Academy for Lifelong Learning, or CALL, offers non-credit courses to older adults living in the area. The program had more than 800 people enrolled last year.
Marge and Sherman Lovering attend a class in the CALL program in Rhoades Hall at Keene State College, during the fall semester in 2023.
Kathy Shanks
Heather Jasmin — formerly the program coordinator for Keene State’s extended education department, which includes CALL — took a job as the new director of Keene Community Education for N.H. School Administrative Unit 29.
Jasmin had been in her Keene State role since 2005, coordinating CALL, as well as the Kids on Campus summer program. She started in her new position at the SAU this month.
Treadwell and Kirsti Sandy, the college’s interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, sent a letter to CALL participants and supporters on Aug. 16, announcing the program’s pause.
“We have realized that it is not possible for us, in such a tight timeframe, to provide the quality programming and service you have come to expect of our CALL program,” they said in the letter.
Jasmin announced her departure in an email to CALL’s newsletter list of more than 2,500 people on Aug. 1, saying her last day would be Aug. 13.
“I left because the college was going through a lot of changes,” she said in an interview Thursday morning, referring to the recent decision to disband the office of graduate studies and extended education. The CALL program will shift to the office of academic affairs, and graduate studies is now under the purview of the director of admissions.
“Existing departments will assume the varied functions of Graduate Studies and Extended Education as opportunities to identify and align resources continue,” college spokesperson Paul Miller said in an email Friday afternoon.
The college is still working on how the Kids on Campus program will be managed in the short- and long-term, according to Miller.
“I had been there a long time, … and with those changes, I decided it was time for me to make a change, too,” Jasmin said. “I love working here already, but I loved working at the college too.”
Jasmin said that with the departmental downsizing, she knew there was no one with the experience to carry on the CALL program in the same way she had.
“It doesn’t surprise me and makes sense they would choose to pause it,” she said. “But I’m sad for them, though. It is sad.”
Many of CALL’s participants, like Joseph Antosiewicz of Swanzey, say the program is a lifeline for seniors in the greater Monadnock Region.
“Sociability is a really important thing for older folks like me,” Antosiewicz, 80, said. He said he’s unsure if he’ll have the same opportunities to connect with other seniors if the program doesn’t continue.
“We’d meet at the student center together after classes — there’d be six, eight, 10 of us at a table — and we’d just talk about anything and everything,” he said. “The college loses something when they don’t have the CALL program.”
Bob Tortolani drove from Brattleboro almost every Friday for the CALL program. He’s been retired for seven years, taking the classes on campus every Friday for six of them. Fridays were known as his “fun day,” he said.
“Even though I’m retired, I have lots of other responsibilities, like volunteering. That was my day for myself,” Tortolani, 83, said. “I would drive over in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and spend my whole day on campus taking those courses and learning so much. … It’s a loss, a big loss.”
Treadwell said the program is critical to the college’s mission as a public liberal arts institution.
“We’re a steward of place and community engagement,” she told The Sentinel Wednesday. “I’m sad for the anguish and immediate fear that came from our announcement of the pause. This program is the embodiment of our mission for lifelong learners. But when you have a leader who is a big part of a program like Heather was, … it’s hard to imagine delivering the same quality program as she did.”
Treadwell said her administration is in the final stages of forming an advisory group to consider the mission and goal of CALL, imagine new partnerships and opportunities and provide recommendations for the program’s future.
“If we have to pause, let’s make it meaningful and practical,” she said. The advisory group consists of previous CALL participants, community partners, and leaders from the city and the college. Treadwell said the advisory group will meet over the next two months and is expected to share its recommendations by November. She said the college plans to reinstate the CALL program in the spring.
“We cannot turn our back on this program.”
James Rinker can be reached at 603-355-8569, or jrinker@keenesentinel.com.
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