Lifelong learning gets a boost

By Charles Sowell  

AUGUST 25, 2011 9:40 a.m. (0)

It was a long, tough road to building a $6.4 million Herring Center for Lifelong Learning at Furman University.

The two-story, 22,000-square-foot building will house the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Bridges to a Brighter Future, Center for Corporate and Professional Development, Learning for You, and Undergraduate Evening Studies.

The building will be located next to the Younts Center, directly across from Timmons Arena.

The Herring Center and the programs it houses are the direct result of a meteoric rise in continuing education’s popularity in Greenville, said Lucy Woodhouse, director of OLLI.

Funding was the key issue, she said, and the loyalty of OLLI participants coupled with the value seen by the community and by Furman drove the drive to fund the center to completion at amazing speed.

Just last fall, Gordon and Sarah Herring issued a $1.8 million challenge to raise $500,000 by June of this year. The university had $3 million already.

“If OLLI could come up with $500,000 and Furman raised $500,000, the Herrings promised to match the funds with $1.8 million,” Woodhouse said.

The funding drive exceeded those goals, she said, and they did it by April. The university has $200,000 yet to raise.

The hope is to finish the building in time for the start of classes in the fall of 2012. With a centralized location and plenty of room for classes, administrative offices and lectures, Woodhouse said the program is poised to take the next step in a nearly two decades of steady growth.

The Herrings are Furman graduates. Gordon Herring, one of the founders of the Weather Channel, is retired.

What became OLLI started in a classroom at Furman Hall in April 1993 as the Furman University Learning in Retirement (FULIR) program.

There were seven classes taught the first year with 62 members.

By 1996, FULIR had moved to the basement of Plyler Hall (now the Charles Townes Center) and was serving 150 members.

OLLI took over adult education outreach in 2008 when the Bernard Osher Foundation awarded FULIR a $100,000 grant. The FULIR program was shortly thereafter renamed OLLI.

By 2009 the rapidly growing program had reached 500 members and was given a $1 million endowment by Osher, a businessman whose foundation has funded more than 120 such centers at colleges and universities in the United States since 2001.

Along the way the Furman Board of Trustees committed to the lifelong learning process as part of the school’s outreach program, Woodhouse said.

“The board could see the benefit of it to the school and the community and serious talks about building some sort of center for lifelong learning began.”

So far this year about 700 people have signed up for OLLI classes. For all of last year, the program served about 1,200.

“The growth of OLLI has just been phenomenal,” Woodhouse said. “And the support we’ve gotten from our alumni, the university as well as other donors has been just amazing.”

The OLLI program is designed to help seniors stay intellectually and physically active. There are three terms in each academic year, Woodward said.

Classes are held during the day from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and generally last about 90 minutes.

A volunteer council, elected by the membership, provides guidance.