Closure of FIU’s lifelong learning center is a blow to South Florida seniors | Opinion

Many years ago, in a former life as a reporter and columnist for The Miami News, I covered a financial class in what was then called Florida International University’s “Elders Institute” on its Biscayne Bay Campus in North Miami. That was in the mid-1980s.

As a retiree in 2009, I joined the similarly-focused Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at FIU. I started with an intermediate Spanish class since I had studied that language in high school and college — and this is Miami, after all. Since then, I’ve taken multiple courses about the Constitution, Federalist Papers, political science, philosophy, local, regional and national history, current events, foreign-language film, art, music and more.

But, no more!

OLLI is being cancelled. On March 30, all 690 paid-up members were informed by email that this enriching, engaging “third-place” for seniors would end its run by the close of the fiscal year.

Was it ageism? Anti DEI? Yes, we are older, unlike the average college-age student. Yes, we are inclusive of retirees with professional pedigrees. And yes, our curriculum offers equal weight to all manner of the humanities.

When FIU’s OLLI program went hybrid in response to the COVID pandemic, how grateful I was and am now, because I’m partially disabled and depend on OLLI’s virtual-in-real-time classes to connect with my friends, my Zoommates.

Like many in my senior cohort, I know socialization is the antidote to aging in a vacuum. How does an entire and potentially vulnerable community get erased without so much as a by-your-leave? What is happening to our OLLI will create real deprivation to our seasoned adult community, one of 120-plus such groups throughout North America funded by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Over the years, I’ve volunteered my public relations and fundraising services to OLLI. With the assist of my college roommate and OLLI student Marlene Zuckerman, I’ve contacted Osher and FIU leadership (from the president on down) with petitions signed by hundreds of our fellow students. The sole explanation was that Osher funding would go instead to working-students who have never graduated from college. Worthy intent but that’s not the older-adult mission of OLLI.

FIU administrators have suggested our members in North Miami-Dade and South Broward counties join the OLLI groups at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton or the University of Miami in Coral Gables. For those of us who can’t or won’t drive long distances, those solutions aren’t feasible. Fortunately, some instructors are seeking alternate virtual venues to keep us as their students.

The members of OLLI are engaged, intellectually alive and deeply invested. For many of us, particularly those who live alone or who face social isolation, OLLI is a lifeline. It is a place where we are seen, heard, challenged and celebrated. Research consistently demonstrates that continued learning, social engagement and mental stimulation are vital to healthy aging. FIU’s OLLI program delivers all of this and more.

We believe in the love of learning — no homework, no tests, no grades. In our collective opinion, the decision to cancel OLLI at FIU is a travesty for the many dedicated members who have made the program the cornerstone of their intellectual and social lives for decades on end.

Norma A. Orovitz was a reporter and columnist for The Miami News and managing editor for The Jewish Floridian, both now defunct.