Radcliffe College plans to expand its fledgling "Intellectual Renewal" seminars for mid-career professionals, officials will announce today.

The four-day weekend seminars give women--and some men--in leadership positions the chance to discuss texts by authors including Plato, Margaret Mead, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Jill Ker Conway. The seminars, which explore leadership questions, take place in both large sessions and smaller group exercises.

"Participants take themes and ideas from the classics and apply them to today's world," said Radcliffe spokesperson Michael A. Armini.

The program has been in place for a year in a pilot phase, and has met three times in Massachusetts.

Radcliffe will expand the program with three more sessions this year and take it on the road, holding seminars not only in the Bay State, but also in Scarborough, Maine and Santa Fe, N.M.

Armini said demand for the program was considerable, fueled entirely by word-of-mouth.

"The response from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive," Armini said, adding that Radcliffe has agreed to host a May reunion at the request of past participants.

Thus far, about 45 people have been through the program, the majority of whom were female, although it is not limited to women alone.

With a push to market the program, the pitch will be made to "leaders" who are both men and women, Armini said.