The H. Dale Williams Center for Extended Learning, the new headquarters of Coastal Carolina University's Division of Extended Learning and Public Services, will make it possible for Coastal to expand its programs and services for senior adults when the facility opens later this spring.

This 9,600-square-foot facility, located on the second floor of the new Welcome Center-Bookstore Building on the Coastal campus, will house the Lifelong Learning Society, a computer lab, six classrooms, office space, and the Senior Resource Center, a new service for senior adults created by H. Dale Williams. The building is expected to be completed by late April or early May 2001.

The Senior Resource Center will offer free computer access, Internet, e-mail, fax and copy machine services to senior adults as well as a reading area which will be supplied with books and magazines. In addition to the Division of Extended Learning's many programs for seniors, the Resource Center will offer workshops on health care, retirement, financial planning and other topics of interest to senior adults.

H. Dale Williams is director of Senior Resource Group, an affiliate of Metlife Financial Services which specializes in estate planning with an emphasis on charitable giving. He is founder of the Senior Resource Center concept, which focuses on educational offerings and free services of interest to senior adults. In addition to the one now under construction at Coastal, there are Senior Resource Center locations in Hilton Head, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

Williams is also co-founder of H. Dale Williams Productions, creator of The Senior Network, a 24-hour television channel offering exclusive programming for seniors. Williams is the host of America's Senior Forum, a state-wide television show which focuses on social, economic and political issues relating to seniors. H. Dale Williams Productions has also assumed the role of Title Sponsor of the Sunbelt Senior Professional Golf Tour held in coastal South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Coastal Carolina University has been recognized as a national leader in providing educational programs for seniors. Coastal's Lifelong Learning Society received the Exemplary Model Program award from the Network for Older Adult Learners of the Association for Continuing Higher Education in 1999. In the last three years membership in the Lifelong Learning Society grew from 112 people to almost 1,000. >From three computer courses each semester the program has grown to offer more than 45, according to Peter Balsamo, dean of Coastal's Division of Extended Learning and Public Services. Coastal is one of the few universities in the nation with dedicated facilities for older adult learning on their campuses, according to Balsamo.