Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MR. LAKE GOES TO COLLEGE
Steve Lake, a Las Vegas casino pit boss, is on a mission to visit 500 college cam-
puses. He began his unique odyssey after his 1984 honeymoon to Boston. He and
his new wife visited Harvard and a light bulb went on: “Wow, there's some beau-
tiful schools out there! I really missed out on something.” It's not that Lake didn't
attend college, but as he says about Concordia, the Montreal university where he
got his marketing degree, “It didn't really have a campus, not 1 inch of grass. It was
a 12-story office building.”
On each of his campus visits, Lake walks around campus, inspects the architec-
ture, reads the student newspaper, checks out the bulletin boards, eats at the campus
dining hall, and when he can, sits in on a class. If the classrooms are empty, he'll
leave his mark on the chalkboard: his name, the date, and the number of campuses
in his count.
Lake, who admits to being a tad bit obsessive-compulsive, has also collected
a few other milestones. He has visited every U.S. state, its capital, and its capitol;
he's seen a game at every major league ballpark; and by 1980 he had achieved life
master status in contract bridge. Number of campuses? 384 and counting.
Mini University, Indiana University.
Since 1972, Mini University has been offering this
reasonably priced week of classes that draws summer scholars from all over the world. For
a mere $215 (on-campus lodging at the Union Biddle Hotel & Conference Center is extra),
you can take up to 15 classes that are from one to two hours long on everything from “Life
of a CIA Operations Officer” to “Is Wal-Mart Good for America” to “Eugenics: Then and
Now.” They're delivered by volunteer IU faculty. At night, Mini University stages picnics,
films, theater trips, and other social gatherings. And you don't have to be an alum.
IU Alumni Association,
Virgil T. DeVault Alumni Center, 1000 E. 17th Street, Bloom-
ington, IN 47408, 800-824-3044 or 812-855-4822, www.alumni.indiana.edu/events/miniu/.
St. John's Summer Classic Series.
With a series of three weeklong seminars, you'll delve
into such classics as Dostoevsky's
The Brothers Karamazov,
Tolstoy's
War and Peace,
Milton's
Paradise Lost,
Joseph Conrad's
Nostromo,
and the operas of Benjamin Britten. In
groups of 17, you'll attend morning and afternoon sessions. Seminars go for $1,100 and in-
clude tuition, books, lunch, course materials, and special events. Accommodation on campus
including all meals can be arranged for $510 per week.
