Adults 60 years and older have an excellent opportunity at Sacramento State to pursue a college education for a fairly inexpensive price.

The Sixty Plus Program allows seniors to attend Sac State for a low $3 a semester, plus the cost of books, lab fees and parking.

Hopefully you, the reader, will not drop this newspaper and run and find out how to pretend to be 60 years or older after reading that last bit of information.

Those in the Sixty Plus Program are able to take the same classes as everyone else on campus, but they get to do it for a lot cheaper due to California legislation that was passed in the late 1970s that allows them to attend school for so cheap.

“One of the oldest students is 90, and most of them are going for degrees,” said Vince Pantalone, a counselor at the Sac State Reentry Services Office.

This program is little known because it is not well advertised.

“We don’t publish it. Students usually find out by some things they may read in the paper or from friends – to keep the numbers low,” Pantalone said of the program. “It is very popular, and has grown 10 to 15 percent every semester. Between 20 and 30 people are added each semester.”

He also said there are 300 students who are 60 and older attending Sac State right now.

Pantalone also said that some of those 60 and older going to Sac State are heading toward graduate school, and he speculated this is because people are living longer and are more focused than in the past.

Pantalone said that the most common majors for those in the Sixty Plus Program have to do with humanity, education, history, foreign language and English literature.

In order to qualify for the program, a student has to be of age by a certain date to receive this perk.

For the fall semester of any year, a student would have to be 60 years old by September 20 of that year. For the spring semester, the student would have to reach his or her 60th birthday by January 25.

“I had to take a creative writing class at Sierra College first,” said Patrick Powers, 62, who is a student in the Sixty Plus Program. Powers was advised to take a class at Sierra first, and then reapply to Sac State for the semester that he would turn 60 by the cut off date. Powers is working on his communication studies degree, as well as a teaching credential.

A student the right age for this program would then apply, and once he or she is accepted, he or she would register the same way a younger student would.

“They register late, but they register like everyone else does,” Pantalone said. “They are last priority.”

Those in the program can take any class they want, with the exception of a studio art or performance art class, and can either take classes on campus or through the Internet or television, through the Distance and Distributed Education program.

“There are about 73 to 74 distance-based classes available this semester,” Othelia Heffernan said. Heffernan works in the Distance and Distributed Education office.

The Sixty Plus program gives those who didn’t get a chance to attend college after high school and in to their 20s an opportunity to do so, and for a very small price tag.

There are several reasons why those 60 and older didn’t attend college when one would typically attend college, or had but never finished.

In the case of Powers, he went to college after high school, but never finished because he said he didn’t take college seriously the first time around.

“I’d be walking to class – it would be a beautiful day – and I’d run into a pretty girl and she’d ask if I wanted to go for coffee,” Powers recalled. “Then I wouldn’t go to class that day. I wasn’t seriously into it, and didn’t do so well.”

In addition to not taking his schooling seriously, he got married and started a family, and college went out the window – until now.

Powers owns a public relations firm, and so his major of communications studies ties closely to his profession.

“I’m on the 42-year plan of graduating college,” Powers said.

This time around, Powers is having a very different experience than the first time, 40 years ago.

He takes six units a semester, because he loves getting As, something he said was hard to attain with more than six units. He also enjoys going to class, and talking with the younger students, and said that the professors love having him in class because he contributes to a lively discussion.

“I like to go to class and have a book in hand,” Powers said.

Powers also has another reason to get through his schooling: his 9-year-old daughter.

“I’m hoping to beat my youngest daughter out of college,” Powers said. He is hoping to instill the value of a college education into his daughter, who is already interested into going to Princeton or Stanford. All of Powers’ other children have gotten through college, and so she is the last one.

Powers has been successful so far at Sac State, and gave some advice on how to get through college:

“Go to class every time, read the assigned chapters, take notes and take the test,” Powers remarked. “It’s that easy.”

Stephanie Samsel can be reached at [email protected].