OLLI celebrates 30 years of ‘pure learning’ for seniors

Mid-morning is a busy time in the lobby of the Herring Center. Dozens of older adults, members of Fuman’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), stream through, exiting one class session or entering another, chatting and smiling. OLLI director Nancy Kennedy ’90 greets most of them by name.

“They are people who are interested in things and want to keep learning, and they enjoy being with people who have that same passion,” Kennedy said. “They’re here to learn things they’ve always wanted to learn but never had the time.”

OLLI students at work in a drawing class

With approximately 120 courses during each of three terms, OLLI is now celebrating its 30th year of helping senior Greenvillians stay mentally and physically active. In Spring 2023, members – most of whom are 55 and older – could explore Sondheim, Shakespeare, Jung, acrylic painting, ukulele, guitar, weightlifting, wealth management, Tai Chi, hiking, Latin, poker, the history of the ’60s, the Transcontinental Railroad, beekeeping, Indian cooking, Islam and “Star Trek.”

Classrooms take up two floors in the Herring Center, along with a demonstration kitchen with an ever-steaming coffee machine. Special interest groups meet in the lobby, and OLLI also hosts Friday bonus events and Tuesday lunch-and-learns.

“You’re not here to get a degree or pass a test or get a job,” said Kennedy. “It’s pure learning. You’re learning to learn.”

OLLI has expanded steadily since Sarah Fletcher established Furman University Learning in Retirement (FULIR, pronounced “fuller”) in 1993 with 62 members and seven classes taught in one classroom in Furman Hall.

FULIR was renamed after receiving a grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation, which supports 125 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes on college campuses across the country. When the Herring Center was completed in 2012, OLLI had its new headquarters.

By 2020, OLLI membership reached 2,600. The numbers went down during the pandemic but have since rebounded, with about 2,100 people expected to take courses this year. Many courses remain available online.

About 800 volunteers along with five full-time staffers and one part-time employee help run the operation, said Kennedy, who came to OLLI part time in 2011 and took over as director in 2014. Members form an executive council and several committees that guide OLLI and keep the coffee – and other necessities – flowing. Grant funds, along with membership fees and class tuitions, keep OLLI self-sustaining.

Nancy Kennedy ’90, director of OLLI

Membership is $65 a year, and individual courses are $55, with course packages available. Courses are usually 90 minutes long and meet once a week during the day.

The curriculum is ever-changing. Popular courses are likely to repeat, and new courses are decided by a curriculum committee that recruits instructors – all volunteers – and considers proposals. Several current and retired Furman faculty members lead classes, but many instructors are OLLI members themselves, or “just people from the community who just love to teach,” said Kennedy.

“They’re all teaching here because they love their topic and they want to share it with our members,” she said.

Many members are residents of the Woodlands at Furman. Over 30 years, OLLI has played a significant role in making the Greenville area a popular retirement destination, said Kennedy, whose mother is also a member.

“There are people who tell me they moved to Greenville because of OLLI,” she said. “If you’re looking for a place to retire, you know it’s going to be a little bit harder to make new friends. You need to find a way to build your new community.”

“It’s a playground for seniors,” said Morgan Kutzner, 69, a semi-retired chiropractor who has been an OLLI regular for about five years, glancing up from his woodworking project. “You can learn so much and do so much.”

Dick Eaton, an 88-year-old Woodlands resident and, at various times since 2002, an OLLI member, student, instructor, volunteer and council member, put it more simply.

“There are no tests,” he said, “and there’s no homework.”