Large windows lets the afternoon sun filter into a light gray classroom. The dull scratch of graphite mingles with the chatter of two classmates catching up. 

Time-worn hands skillfully drag a kneaded eraser across a thick sheet of paper at the back of the room, slowly revealing the features of an animal skull. The man wielding the eraser occasionally looks up to throw a short anecdote or bit of advice to the other students. 

Artist and part-time student Richard “Ricky” Patterson has walked the halls of McMaster College, where he takes art classes, for the past three years. But he has called the University of South Carolina home for a long time.

“My earliest memories are being raised on the intersection of Gregg and Greene,” Patterson said. “USC was my playground.”

Whether he was learning to play football as a young boy, needed a quiet place to write papers as a teenager or looking to relax and read his first time as a USC student, the Columbia campus was always there for Patterson to depend on.

Patterson returned to USC as a student once again in 2023, when he joined the University’s 60 Plus Program. All of South Carolina’s higher education institutions are mandated by state law to offer tuition-free classes to state residents aged 60 and up and who meet university standards. 

USC’s assistant provost for graduation and retention, Dr. Shelley Dempsey, said professors have raved about how much these later-in-life students add to their classes. 

“What we tend to hear is that they add so much to the class experience in terms of just a different lens, a different life experience,” Dempsey said. 

Patterson is able to provide an especially unique perspective to his peers, given his years of experience on USC’s campus. 

“Being in exactly the same places that I used to study for my high school papers,” Patterson said. “It’s a bit like time travel.”

Patterson has connected with students in and outside of class. He met his good friend Ian Herd at the C. S. Lewis Student Center. 

“We meet up at the C. S. Lewis Center and argue about things and talk about deep subjects, and it’s a lot of fun,” Patterson said of Herd. “We’re very happy to disagree.”

The two friends can be found horsing around at the Center and watching movies in the theatre-style lecture halls in McMaster College. Herd said if superlatives were given in college, the two would receive the award for being the biggest mischief-makers on campus. 

Patterson’s love of learning led him to attend eight universities at 10 different times, while living in three cities.

It is a point of pride for Patterson that he has never earned a degree from the institutions he has attended. 

“I can’t tell you precisely what I’m hoping to get out of this, except I’m trying to learn the things that I don’t know,” Patterson said.

That lifelong passion for knowledge led Patterson to pursue, among other subjects, anthropology, Hebrew and art. Most of his career was spent practicing art of some kind. He has done everything from drafting construction drawings to reconstructing whale skulls. 

Patterson is taking his time to develop his skillset. He is on his second semester of Introduction to Drawing and is planning on taking it a third time. 

“I’m not paying for the classes,” Patterson said. “So I’m free to actually study at a different pace, a different rate, different depth. So I’m actually trying to do the deep dive and really understand what the skill set is and practice it.”

Patterson expressed his gratitude for the ability to take the classes at a slower pace. He’s planning on taking almost all of the art classes USC offers.

His academic pursuits are driven by his desire to fully flesh out his artistic capabilities. But his fellow students act as inspiration to continue.

“It’s like instead of a muse, I have a whole room full of muses,” Patterson said. “… If the administrators ever found out how much fun I (have), I’d get kicked out. They’d say, surely this is wrong. I feel like I’m getting away with murder here, because it’s just so much fun.”