Summer ending… Perhaps a good time to think about goals and projects for the fall and winter, or the next year, or the future altogether. I would like to tell you about a uniquely creative study program that has changed my life. UIL, the University for Integrative Learning, seems made to order, “hand-woven” for women – for writers like you and me. First of all: Does a degree serve a writer? You may say an M.A. or Ph.D. could perhaps serve a writer of non-fiction or a journalist, but the rest of us? When you think, however, of coaching, editing, service of any kind you want to offer other writers, would-be writers, or anybody else, the picture changes. I can tell you from my own experience that it made a big difference to be legitimately able to add the three little letters to my name. Doors opened professionally and even in ordinary life when I chose to use “Dr. Stendhal” to present myself (just think of talking to doctors, hospitals, banks, schools, public administrations, etc). The authority people usually accord to these letters is very real, whether you got your degree(s) at Harvard or at an unconventional, alternative university like UIL. So what is UIL? This University Without Walls (http://www.universityforintegrativelearning.org/) was founded by Melvin Suhd, the acclaimed “father of individualized reading." (http://www.loveisthesolution.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48) Mel helped design the first Head Start classroom in the US and developed his theory of pluralism in education. In the 1970s, he co-designed and directed the country's first external master's degree program, at Goddard College, then the first University Without Walls. This kind of university (like Antioch, Sarah Lawrence, etc.) lets you do your course work independently, at your own desk, your own computer. Mel Suhd never sought accreditation for the universities he founded, precisely because he did not want to perpetuate the male-dominated, white-only canon of academic learning. He wanted to offer a non-traditional, individualized, creative and spiritual approach to education. UIL’s mission statement sums it up this way: "The University for Integrative Learning serves a spiritual learning community in ways consistent with humanistic educational philosophy and psychology. UIL places individuals at the center of their own learning processes in relation to all aspects of life. In other words, the University for Integrative Learning (UIL) is devoted to personal wholeness and the educational freedom that comes from honoring each individual’s uniqueness within the context of lifelong learning. “ What makes UIL so special to women writers? UIL recognizes and rewards what no other university pays any attention to: life experience, the very thing women tend to have plenty of – whether we learned at school, at the job, at our desk, at home raising kids, volunteering, or taking care of our elders and other people in need. Wherever women live, is the place we learn. At UIL, students are asked to write in-depth course essays and a major study on one all-encompassing topic: “What have I learned in life?” What I learned from UIL I can tell you from my own experience how amazing it was to go over my life and take note of particular milestone insights, AHA-moments of learning that I cherished and was eager to write about. For example, how my relationship to food was influenced first by my mother, then by my lovers; what I learned writing in my favorite Paris café; how my way of seeing the world changed when I began to see with feminist eyes; how my conflicted passion for Gertrude Stein grew out of my own biography, etc. I would never have thought of putting life lessons of this kind down in essays, but now that I had “permission,” I was fascinated by the depth of this challenge. My course work led to some fresh discoveries about myself and my life choices. Some of my essays proved to be publishable; others seemed to carry the seeds of memoir writing I want to do one day. Being enrolled in UIL felt like gathering my own harvest into a basket – a harvest that in the end felt rich and proud. A brilliant concept It’s important to me to make this unusual school known because I am impressed by the concept and have seen it work from many angles. I chose to become a provost of UIL some time after my graduation (something you, too, could do!) -- one of many excellent provosts who can guide you along this magical path toward a degree and keep you on track until you hold your diploma in your hands. (One of them is the new director of UIL, Libby Adams, Ph.D., who took over from Mel Suhd. Another is She Writer Kim Chernin. (See Kim Chernin’s “Life’s Long Learning” in Tikkun Magazine: http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/Chernin-Life) I have been the guide and way companion to a number of students who found the challenge exhilarating. Some of them published their essay work; one She Writer published the children’s book that was her major project (A Tale of Serendipity); another is finishing a Ph.D. she was not able to complete twenty years ago, preparing to publish her dissertation as a non-fiction book on women and weight-loss. With every one of my students, it was a poignant experience of discovery for me as well, a privilege to follow the process month by month and share this deeply meaningful, transformational harvest of life. So what does it take? An M.A. or a Ph.D. degree takes a minimum of 4 semesters (each semester takes 4 months), but many students who have full-time jobs or are full-time parents take longer and make use of a free-of-charge additional grace semester. A combined M.A.-Ph.D. degree takes a minimum of 5 semesters, always depending on how many official study units you bring with you into the program. Units from other colleges, classes, and workshops apply; books you have already published can be transformed into course essays: for once your life experience truly counts. Students who come with a big bagful of learning accomplishments and are fast writers can accomplish the course essays in 3 semesters, and write their major study or dissertation in the fourth. I used the book I was working on (my work with couples and sexuality in long-term relationships) as my thesis and finished in four semesters, i.e. in just one year and a half. In addition to being rewarded with my Ph.D., I was pleased that my book had made a good leap forward and was published within a year. Imagine writing essays you could publish, a study or dissertation that could be your first or next book. Could this get any better anywhere in Academe? I ask you, writers. What does it cost? UIL is one of the less expensive universities around. A semester costs $ 3,000; the enrollment and graduation fees come to $150. (As this is a small, unfunded university, supported by many volunteers, scholarships are unfortunately NOT available.) In figures: a 4-semester M.A. or Ph.D. costs $12,000. A 5-semester combined M.A.-Ph.D costs $15,000. You can read student testimonies on my own website http://www.renatestendhal.com and get more information at the UIL website http://www.universityforintegrativelearning.org/