CHAMPAIGN,Ill. – The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the U. of I. campus has a new home and a new $1 million endowment to support its courses, lectures, study groups and trips for its more than 650 members.
The institute received the endowment in June, according to Kathleen Holden, institute director. Separate from the grant, the institute relocated this summer to the Gateway Building in the south research park to accommodate its growing membership and increased activities, Holden said.
The institute is one of more than 120 OLLIs that have been established on college campuses across the country in little more than a decade, Holden said. Open to anyone in the community age 50 or older, the institute places a premium on offering intellectually stimulating content and being member-driven, Holden said.
The university received a $100,000 grant in 2006 from the Bernard Osher Foundation to establish the institute, and received additional grants over the next three years to continue building the program. Once it passed 500 members, which it did in January, it was eligible to apply for the $1 million endowment, Holden said.
At the center of the institute’s offerings are eight-week courses offered each fall and spring, and taught by U. of I. and community college faculty members, Holden said. Twenty-two courses – on topics ranging from foreign policy and history, to film and dance, to physics and life in the soil – are among the fall courses that begin this month.
“Mr. Osher’s vision (in starting the institutes) was that traditional lifelong learning programs were shortchanging older adults,” Holden said. “He believes they want to be intellectually stimulated and they want to be empowered.”
In addition to courses, the institute also has lunchtime lectures and study groups, most of them offered during the periods between courses, Holden said. Last spring the institute sponsored its first trip, to Germany, and more recently organized a weekend trip to the Chicago Jazz Festival, she said. This fall it’s also offering several pre-concert lectures.
Membership is $125 a year; each course is an additional $25. Current members’ ages range from 50 to 97; 69 is the average, Holden said.
A number of prominent U. of I. faculty members have taught, or are scheduled to teach, OLLI courses, Holden said. They receive a modest stipend, but she believes the main motivation has been the rewarding experience they get from teaching OLLI students. “They’re interacting with adults who bring life experience into the classroom, who don’t have to be there for any reason other than they’re loving to learn – and that’s an exciting experience for a teacher,” she said.
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