Osher course catalog available July 24

By Mark Muckenfuss

Michele Crompton is in the business of showing people it’s never too late to learn. 

Crompton is the manager of Cal State Monterey Bay’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a nationwide program that promotes ongoing education for those in or approaching retirement. 

The fall course catalog becomes available July 24, and, as usual, there is a wide variety of academic, experiential and even recreational offerings. Courses draw from such disciplines as philosophy, literature, music (from popular to cultural), politics, science and travel. Most are two to four sessions, cost less than $50 and are held at CSUMB’s Ryan Ranch campus. 

Crompton has been involved with OLLI since CSUMB began offering the program in 2008. She said about 75 students attended the first year’s courses. That number is typically now close to 1,000. 

“It's really grown quite a bit over the years,” Crompton said. 

Chris Hasegawa, the founding dean of extended education, encouraged Crompton to take on the project at its inception. Now retired, Hasegawa still participates by teaching music courses through OLLI. And he’s not alone. Former deans Brian Simmons and Marsha Moroh (not teaching this semester) are also involved with the program, as are other CSUMB professors. 

“So many people who were foundational to the university are foundational to what we do at OLLI,” Crompton said. 

A few “rock stars,” as Crompton calls them, travel the OLLI circuit of 123 other locations. But about 75% of the instructors are from the local region. And many have returned time after time, creating some of the most popular offerings, such as Renee Curry’s literature courses. 

“She’s been teaching two classes per season for over 12 years,” Crompton said. “She has a loyal following.”

As they do with Simmons and his courses on blues music. 

The most popular recent course, however, was a field trip – a tour of the Point Sur lighthouse that was offered this spring. 

“We filled that tour up in maybe seven minutes,” Crompton said. “I think there were people who had lived here for many years and had driven by the lighthouse and thought, ‘I will do that someday.’ This gave them the opportunity that they would be among friends and that it would be organized.”

A tour of Point Sur’s decommissioned nNaval facility is among the offerings this session. Crompton expects that too will fill up quickly. 

Local offerings such as that, and the fact that most instructors come from the local area, make each Osher institute unique. 

“We’re autonomous in the fact that we’re all encouraged to take advantage of the uniqueness of our universities,” Crompton said. “We like to say, ‘If you’ve been to one OLLI, you've been to one OLLI.’

“I just hope we can keep rising to the occasion of finding fun experiences for people,” she added.