If you thought college was fun when you were 20, you should try it without the tests and grades.

In its sixth year now, Kansas University’s “Mini College” annually draws nearly 150 university alumni, most of whom are retired.

The weeklong event, hosted by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, features lectures spanning the curriculum. Students get fed well and sent off with a “graduation” party on Thursday.

This year’s classes touched on topics such as water resources, memoir writing and bookbinding.

Thursday’s final lecture on the history of musicals by KU theatre professor John Staniunas began not with intellectual exposition but a song.

Out of sight in a back room of The Commons at Spooner Hall, Staniunas serenaded his class of retirees with a rendition of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical Oklahoma!

The performance, and other songs throughout the lecture, were meant to please the crowd as well as make a point about how the musical changed the genre by emphasizing story and character.

Most of those attending Mini College classes were drawn by the chance to learn and engage in a class room decades after finishing their degree.

“It’s the pull of KU,” said Robert Mall, a KU alumnus who lives in Clay Center. “What an opportunity to come here for four days and re-experience something you liked, but had to work hard at at the time.”

“Here you don’t have the pressure of tests and papers,” he said.