By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH – Could Marshall County benefit from a “People’s University?”
That was the question before a group of area leaders from various organizations as they contemplated continuing education for residents of the county. Representatives from the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, Ancilla College, The Marshall County Council on Aging, The Marshall County Historical Society, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center Plymouth, the Purdue Extension Office and Plymouth Park’s Department gathered at Crossroads Academy for a teleconference with Michael Simmons, the director of Adult Services for the Park Department of Bloomington.

Simmons’ department runs a very successful program called People’s University that offers continuing education classes to adult residents of Bloomington. The department offers 85 different classes from writing and literature, cooking, finance, music and dance and gardening.
Simmons outlined the program that began in 2000 with an offering of 10 classes, “…and only three of them were a success…” to its current status as one of the most successful programs of its kind.
“Sticking it out in the early days was what made it work for us,” said Simmons from his office in Bloomington. “The longevity of the program has created more buy-in from the community.”
While the department does charge for some offerings, many are free to the public with cost based on the cost incurred in offering the particular class.
“While we don’t try to make money it has become one of the most profitable programs for our department,” said Simmons.
Offering the classes at affordable rates for any budget, he said, has been a big part of the success of the program.
Many of the groups attending the presentation already offer programs or classes to the public and the hope of those in attendance was the ability to incorporate and combine resources to make them more available, and more visible to the community.
“We all have these little campfires going in our camps, I guess the question is do we want to make it a bonfire?” said Jackie Wright Director of Marshall County Older Adult Services.
Doug Anspach Director of the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce added fuel to those fires, stating that his board of directors had already voted to help sponsor a program similar to People’s University once one could be designed.
“We are willing and able to begin supporting you if you all think this makes sense,” said Anspach. “We’d like to cover our costs obviously but we aren’t interested in making any money beyond that. This idea has such marvelous potential.”
The group agreed to look deeper into the possibilities and meet again in October.