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March Brings a Return of Continuing Education Programs

Valley News - 3/7/2017

Valley News Staff Writer

When the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth starts its spring term on Monday, March 20, it will offer more than 50 courses in literature, natural science, finance, film, politics, writing, painting and health, among others.

Osher, which began its life as the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD) in November, 1990 with 38 people enrolled, now boasts between 1,500 and 1,600 members in the Upper Valley, said Steven Tofel, who is on the organization’s leadership council.

It takes its name from businessman Bernard Osher, whose foundation has funded more than 120 Osher institutes around the country, of which Dartmouth is the most recent, Tofel said.

In addition to the spring classes, Osher will also offer a summer lecture series with such guests as former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, the deputy director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Chris Englis and retired Admiral James Stavridis, the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

The classes, which are taught by local residents with a particular expertise or interest, are the heart of the Osher curriculum, which is geared toward the retirees who are Osher’s core demographic.

There are four courses of particular local interest:

“Early Wildflowers of the Upper Valley,” taught by naturalist Victoria Jas, teaches students to identify both native wild flowers and invasive species that threaten their habitat. Mondays, six sessions, April 10 through May 15, 2017.

“The Emergency Room: Behind the Scenes.” Taught by Bob Christie, an emeritus professor of pathology at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, the class offers a doctor’s eye view of a trauma center’s ER. Fridays, five sessions, March 24 through April 21, 2017

“Into the Weeds: Exploring Natural Landscapes,” taught by Jim Kennedy, a landscape architect and wetland scientist, and Alice Schori, a field botanist who has done botanical surveys for conservation organizations, the town of Hanover, and the White Mountain National Forest. Thursdays, six sessions, April 20 through May 25.

Kennedy, who also teaches for the New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, takes classes on field trips to New Hampshire and Vermont habitats in the Upper Valley. The goal is to give students a general overview of different natural communities, from flood plain and wetland to hillier landscapes.

This spring he will take students to the Mink Brook Natural Area in Hanover, Lyme Hill and a farm in Etna to study different plant communities and soils. Schori will introduce students to early flowers and ferns, while Kennedy looks at grasses.

The class is filled, but there is a waiting list, Kennedy said.

“Drug Courts and Crime: Drug Courts End the Revolving Door,” taught by Robert Gasser, a former prosecutor in New Jersey and the founder of the Grafton County Drug Court. Wednesdays, five sessions, March 22-April 19,

Gasser began teaching the class as a way to introduce people who had little exposure to the workings of the criminal justice system beyond what they saw or read in the news. This will be the fourth time he has offered the course.

As a lawyer who has served as both a public defender and, for the last eight years of his career, as a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J., Gasser said, “I saw I was prosecuting the same people over and over. I was prosecuting their children and grandchildren. The solution is not locking them up necessarily. There has to be a different solution.”

One of the ideas Gasser came up with was a drug court. Every state in the country now offers drug courts to non-violent felons who are “high risk and high need: High risk, meaning that they’re a threat to the community through their actions; and high need, because they’ve probably been an addict since they were 13 or 14,” Gasser said in a phone interview.

It’s a complicated, grueling, 18-to-24-month process but in brief, the way it works is that a non-violent felon who is accepted into the program goes through intensive rehabilitation and treatment with a team of law enforcement and health professionals. If that person graduates and gets through a year without committing another crime, the crime that brought him to drug court will be removed from the record.

The five-week class looks at the drug problem in this country and how the nation is dealing with it. In the first session, Gasser gives an overview of the problems. In the second session, a clinician explains the difference between drug abuse and addiction. The third session brings in people from law enforcement to discuss why they have turned to drug courts as a possible solution to recidivism. In week four, the class goes with Gasser to a drug court, either in Keene or North Haverhill.

One of the reasons that Gasser teaches the class is to educate the community about the efficacy of such programs. Although there is a program recidivism rate of perhaps 17 percent, Gasser said, compare that to a recidivism rate of at least 60 percent for felons who go through the justice and prison system with no intervention.

What is most rewarding to Gasser is when someone comes up to him, who has successfully completed the program, and says to him, Do you remember me?

“What reward do you have in sending somebody away? You’re not going to remember the people you send away for 20 years. This is your legacy, if you really want a legacy,” Gasser said.

For information on registration and classes, go to Osher.dartmouth.edu, or call (603) 646-0154.

Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.