In about 50 years, most University students will have grandchildren and will be spending their days waking up at 6 a.m. to beat the coffee crowd at the local McDonalds.
Gregory Theriot, an English freshman, said he does not think of getting older and aging. Theriot said he has never thought about what he will act or be like as an older person.
“I do not know which traits I will possess one day from the next let alone the next few years,” Theriot said.
While many students like Theriot may not be thinking of that day, a new center on campus is.
The Life Course and Aging Center, established in May 2003, is looking to incorporate the essential research factors related to successful aging, beginning at birth and continuing through the life span, said Katie Cherry, the center’s director.
“Given the demographics of our aging society, it is an ideal area to study and to partner with a developing, dynamic center,” Cherry said.
The Life Course and Aging Center faculty study and generate knowledge about human aging to facilitate a greater understanding of human growth and development across the life course, Cherry said.
The center has no permanent home and is made up of faculty representing six colleges and 14 University departments.
Among the topics researched at the center are cognitive processes and aging, early childhood development, education across the lifespan, interpersonal relations across the lifespan, lifespan development and public policy and physical processes and aging, Cherry said.
Cherry said by the time today’s students reach the age of retirement, persons over age 65 are expected to represent over 20 percent of the general population.
“As a result of our aging society, there has been a dramatic rise in the incidence of health care problems and the need for long-term care strategies for older adults, as well as an increase in the opportunities for successful and creative aging into a person’s ninth decade,” Cherry said.
Cherry said aside from the research done at the center, they also are committed to training undergraduate and graduate students in the aging process.
Adrienne McPhaul, a psychology junior, said she often thinks about the aging process she will undertake throughout her life and takes care of her body in preparation of aging.
“I don’t smoke and I jog some of the time,” McPhaul said. “It is because my parents are fat and I am afraid I will get fat like them.”
For more information students can visit the LCAC Web site at www.lsuagingstudies.com.