A North Carolina native, she knew she wanted to come home to retire. But her decision to move to Asheville, as opposed to other nearby towns, was influenced heavily by the presence of the Center for Creative Retirement at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. At the Center's College for Seniors, she found a smorgasbord of non-credit courses, some taught by university faculty and some by retirees, that has more than satisfied her intellectual appetite, reports New York Times.

During the four-week winter term, Hanover, who is 62, took classes on pre-Columbian South America, practical law for seniors and theater as forum. For the 10-week spring term, she has enrolled in five courses, including Mark Twain, history of Ireland, poetry, the RomanRepublic and the female face of heroism.

``I retired to be able to take classes,'' Hanove said during a break in a lecture about the culture of the Incas. ``All those years I taught, I took classes that I had to take, but I could never take classes that I wanted to take. There are so many things that I don't know.''

In this age of relative affluence and longevity, there are thousands of seniors like Hanover who are devoting their retirements to learning. And hundreds of colleges and universities are beginning to understand this burgeoning new market. All across the country, colleges are catering to retirees with a broad array of academic programs, cultural offerings, community service initiatives and even housing options.

Ten years ago, there were fewer than 50 colleges with academic programmes designed specifically for retirees. Now an estimated 300 colleges have such programmes-known as Institutes for Learning in Retirement-and they serve more than 60,000 retirees, according to Mary Linnehan, directorof the Elderhostel Institute Network, an association of the institutes.

A related nonprofit organisation known as Elderhostel, which is 24 years old, offers thousands of courses at 2,000 colleges, libraries, museums and other locations. Participants must be at least 55. Last year, there were 263,000 enrollments. This spring, seniors can learn to play ``The Plucked Dulcimer'' or explore ``The Art of Quilting'' at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, or listen to ``Women's Voices From the West: Survival on the Northern Plains'' at Western Montana College in Dillon.

Scores of other colleges have affiliated, either directly or indirectly, with developers who are building retirement villages on or near their campuses. The developers view the colleges, with their course offerings, libraries, athletic events and performing arts centers, as marketing lures that entice retirees to their communities. The colleges see the seniors as eager students who can help fill concert halls and basketball arenas and, perhaps,include the schools in their estate planning.

`E-cruitment' destinations
CareerBuilder Inc. is a rare Internet start-up that seems to be run by adults. Rob McGovern, the 37-year-old chief executive of the Reston online job-search service, has actually been seen wearing blazers to work. He keeps pictures of his kids in his office. None of which is to say CareerBuilder is frivolity-impaired, reports New York Times. Recently McGovern sent out a message saying CareerBuilder would be moving its headquarters to Bethesda, a major hassle for the dozens of employees who live near Reston. Not to worry, it was just an April Fools' joke, McGovern said later-but not before four people threatened to resign.

Funny or not, you'd think that people at CareerBuilder wouldn't even think about quitting these days. That's because CareerBuilder is one of the top online ``e-cruitment'' destinations, and it recently filed to sell its first stock to the public-$51.75 million worth.

Given how Internet initial publicofferings have performed recently, and given that all of CareerBuilder's 120 full-time employees hold stock options, this could be the next Washington area technology firm to make a lot of people wealthy.

No CareerBuilder official would agree to be quoted for this story, in observance of a pre-IPO ``quiet period'' mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the company's business is fairly straightforward-and, by many indicators, flush with potential.

CareerBuilder is a kind of ``portal'' for anyone in a job-seeking (or job-filling) circumstance. It provides an entry point to a network of job sites (including www.careerbuilder.com) where companies post job openings and search for resumes, and where job seekers can zero in on jobs that might be available to them.

A lawyer in Washington, for example, who wants to work as an in-house counsel for a technology company in Boston, can run a search for ``lawyer,'' ``technology'' and ``Boston'' and immediately see a listing of relevantopenings.

With an additional click, the job candidate can send a resume directly to the company.

The service is free for job seekers but employers pay to post their positions. CareerBuilder also contracts with more than 20 ``affiliates'' --media outlets such as CNET and NBC-to manage their online job listings.Many industry analysts put CareerBuilder among the top online employment services, along with the Monster Board, HotJobs and CareerPath.com. Forrester Research Inc. projects that the market for online want ads will reach $1.7 billion a year by 2003, compared with $105 million in 1998.CareerBuilder is the first company of its kind to go public and early indicators are that Wall Street is enthusiastic. Fifteen high-profile investment baners competed to underwrite CareerBuilder's IPO -- a group that was winnowed to a ``beauty contest'' of six last fall. Of those, CareerBuilder chose Credit Suisse First Boston as its lead underwriter; the deal will be co-managed by BancBoston Robertson Stephens,Hambrecht & Quist, and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc.