Kirjahaku

The Gates Unbarred traces the evolution of University Extension at Harvard from the Lyceum movement in Boston to its creation by the newly appointed president A. Lawrence Lowell in 1910. For a century University Extension has provided community access to Harvard, including the opportunity for women and men to earn a degree.In its storied history, University Extension played a pioneering role in American continuing higher education: initiating educational radio courses with Harvard professors in the late 1940s, followed by collegiate television courses for credit in the 1950s, and more recently Harvard College courses available online. In the 1960s a two-year curriculum was prepared for the U.S. nuclear navy (“Polaris University”), and in the early 1970s Extension responded to community needs by reaching out to Cambridge and Roxbury with special applied programs.This history is not only about special programs but also about remarkable people, from the distinguished members of the Harvard faculty who taught evenings in Harvard Yard to the singular students who earned degrees, ranging from the youngest ALB at age eighteen, to the oldest ALB and ALM recipients, both aged eighty-nine—and both records at Harvard University.

The Gates Unbarred traces the evolution of University Extension at Harvard from the Lyceum movement in Boston to its creation by the newly appointed president A. Lawrence Lowell in 1910. For a century University Extension has provided community access to Harvard, including the opportunity for women and men to earn a degree.In its storied history, University Extension played a pioneering role in American continuing higher education: initiating educational radio courses with Harvard professors in the late 1940s, followed by collegiate television courses for credit in the 1950s, and more recently Harvard College courses available online. In the 1960s a two-year curriculum was prepared for the U.S. nuclear navy (“Polaris University”), and in the early 1970s Extension responded to community needs by reaching out to Cambridge and Roxbury with special applied programs.This history is not only about special programs but also about remarkable people, from the distinguished members of the Harvard faculty who taught evenings in Harvard Yard to the singular students who earned degrees, ranging from the youngest ALB at age eighteen, to the oldest ALB and ALM recipients, both aged eighty-nine—and both records at Harvard University.

The Third Age at Harvard is the first history of the HILR, and it has the distinction of being written by the founder, Dean Michael Shinagel, who established it in 1977 and watched it evolve over the years into a Harvard institution and a national model of excellence among learning-in-retirement institutes. At his retirement in 2013, Dean Shinagel was acknowledged as "the longest-serving dean in the history of Harvard," and in 2019, he was invited to join the HILR as a member by the current director/dean, Tess O'Toole. In writing his HILR history, Dean Shinagel had the advantage of a dual perspective, both from above as the longtime dean and from below as an active member participating in HILR study groups. The scope of his history covers the genesis of the idea for the Institute in 1976 until its move to new quarters under a new dean of continuing education and a new director/dean of the HILR in 2015. The history of the HILR is a story of the exceptional women and men whose dedication from the early years was matched by the directors who served them. From the 92 charter members in 1977, the HILR grew steadily to the 550 women and men who attend today, representing career fields in education, law, medicine, the arts, engineering, government, finance, science, business, the military, and public service. More than two out of five have Harvard affiliations through degrees, careers, spouses, or children, but the majority have undergraduate and graduate degrees from colleges and universities throughout the United States and several foreign countries. The HILR is diverse and cosmopolitan in every sense of the word, and the members are sui generis: they epitomize the motto that "learning never ends."

The Third Age at Harvard is the first history of the HILR, and it has the distinction of being written by the founder, Dean Michael Shinagel, who established it in 1977 and watched it evolve over the years into a Harvard institution and a national model of excellence among learning-in-retirement institutes. At his retirement in 2013, Dean Shinagel was acknowledged as "the longest-serving dean in the history of Harvard," and in 2019, he was invited to join the HILR as a member by the current director/dean, Tess O'Toole. In writing his HILR history, Dean Shinagel had the advantage of a dual perspective, both from above as the longtime dean and from below as an active member participating in HILR study groups. The scope of his history covers the genesis of the idea for the Institute in 1976 until its move to new quarters under a new dean of continuing education and a new director/dean of the HILR in 2015. The history of the HILR is a story of the exceptional women and men whose dedication from the early years was matched by the directors who served them. From the 92 charter members in 1977, the HILR grew steadily to the 550 women and men who attend today, representing career fields in education, law, medicine, the arts, engineering, government, finance, science, business, the military, and public service. More than two out of five have Harvard affiliations through degrees, careers, spouses, or children, but the majority have undergraduate and graduate degrees from colleges and universities throughout the United States and several foreign countries. The HILR is diverse and cosmopolitan in every sense of the word, and the members are sui generis: they epitomize the motto that "learning never ends."

Michael Shinagel's inspiring memoir, Holocaust Survivor to Harvard Dean, traces the highlights of his remarkable career from childhood in Vienna, Austria, to his family's terrifying exodus from Hitler's Europe (19381941), refugee life and public school education in New York City (19411951), a false start in agriculture at Cornell University (19511952), service with the US Army in Korea (19521954), college on the G. I. Bill at Oberlin (19541957), doctoral studies on a national fellowship and academic administration at Harvard University (19571964), and a fifty-year academic career of teaching and administration at Cornell University (19641967), Union College (19671975), and Harvard University (19752013).At his retirement in 2013, he was acclaimed as the longest-serving dean in Harvard history and as one of the transformative leaders of the university. The memoir shows how Shinagel's entrepreneurial management style enabled him to innovate with new initiatives and new academic programs for the benefit of both the internal Harvard community and the external community of adult learners in Greater Boston. With the advent of distance education, the reach of the Harvard Extension School became global.He spends his retirement years as a distinguished lecturer in Extension at Harvard, teaching graduate seminars on satire and the English and American novel, directing Extension masters theses in literature, and participating in professional development workshops on leadership and decision-making in the Division of Continuing Education. He continues to serve as a lecturer and study group leader on Harvard Alumni Travel Tours around the world.