A lot of Osher classes are taught in the Wightman Cup Room, in Kaplan Arena on the campus of William and Mary. This arena was built in 1971 (two years after we graduated) and was known as William and Mary Hall until 2016, when it was officially renamed in honor of Jim and Jane Kaplan, who are long-time supporters of William and Mary Athletics.
Here’s the floorplan of the building; I’ve put an oval around the Wightman Cup Room.
It’s pretty obvious that this room was never meant to be a permanent classroom. The room is awkwardly shaped, the ceiling is too high, and there isn’t much soundproofing to defend against the noise in the nearby basketball arena.
But you know, that’s okay. It’s kind of nice to walk through the building to the accompaniment of dribbling basketballs, squeaking shoes, and shouts from athletes practicing for upcoming games. The basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics teams call this building home, and there’s always some kind of practice going on when I’m there for classes.
The sound system in the room isn’t very good either. The acoustics are bad and, depending on where you’re sitting, the sound is either muffled or echo-y (is that a word?). Couple that with the fact that many of the people who take Osher classes don’t hear as well as they used to, and it makes for some interesting (and frustrating) challenges. The room has a T-loop system, which amplifies the sound from the microphone to a hearing aid that has a T-loop setting. I’m told it works very well, except for some instructors who are absolutely certain that they can be heard without using a microphone if they speak loudly enough.
NARRATOR: No they can’t. Their voices have become weaker as they’ve aged.
I’ve taught a handful of courses in this room and have taken dozens. It’s one of the largest classrooms that William and Mary makes available to the Osher program. It’s set up to accommodate 130 people, and most of the classes that meet in this space fill up the chairs. This is where Tim and I taught our Football 101 class that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.
In the “before” times, we had cookies and coffee at the break that usually occurred halfway through a two-hour class. It provided time to socialize with people who are in the class because they are interested in the same topics. I have come to know a lot of people in Williamsburg through taking Osher classes, because the same people show up over and over again in the history and government classes I usually take. There is cross-fertilization as well; when I see some of the same people in the art or music classes I sign up for, it's a good indicator that we really do share a lot of interests. Some of these people have become out-of-Osher friends. We meet for coffee or lunch regularly.
A couple of years ago, William and Mary notified the Osher program that the college was going to renovate the arena that holds the Wightman Cup Room, and that it wouldn’t be available to us for the time it would take to do the renovation – probably two years. This concerned us – as I said, it’s the largest space that the college makes available to the program. For good or for ill, however, COVID put the renovation plans on hold. I think the renovation will be coming, but it’s not in the immediate future.
I’m teaching a class in this room this semester. My class, titled American Polymath: The Extraordinary Life of Benjamin Franklin, begins on Tuesday, March 22. It will run from 9:30-11:30 for three Tuesday mornings in a row. The enrollment for the class was set at 130, and it currently has a waiting list. William and Mary protocols still require us all to wear masks, so that makes teaching a little more difficult. I taught in this room last semester while wearing a mask, and we all survived.
I love my town and retirement is grand.
Ha! Good one! I may have to use that line with my doc when he asks me what exercise I get. I can tell him that I go to the gym at W&M! I particularly like walking to an Osher class and hearing, for instance, the women's volleyball team practicing.