UC San Diego Receives
$413,000 Bequest for Lifelong Learning

October 1, 2008

By Henry DeVries

The Marcella Coolidge Trust has awarded UC San Diego a $413,908 bequest gift to support lifelong learning for mature adults. The endowed earnings will support lecture programs and capital improvements at UC San Diego Extension’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a continuing education program with a curriculum designed for those who are at least 50 years of age and enjoy thought-provoking learning opportunities in a university setting.

“This bequest demonstrates the late Marcella Coolidge’s appreciation of the wide array of intellectually stimulating, learning opportunities that we offer for mature learners,” said Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor for public programs and dean of Extension.

Stanley Faer, president of The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC San  Diego, says the group’s executive committee and council plan to use the funds to broaden membership and expand program activities of the learning-in-retirement program.

Programming includes the group’s Distinguished Lecturer Series, which features prominent speakers from government, academia, the lively arts, journalism, religion, medicine and other disciplines. Upcoming thought-provoking lectures will feature:

• Former Illinois Governor Dan Walker, a rebel democrat who campaigned against the state’s infamous machine politics, will speak on “The Maverick Governor and the Chicago Daley Machine” on October 2
• Professor Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego’s political scholar, who just returned from Iran, will discuss the Iran nuclear crisis and the 2008 Presidential election on October 3
• Jim Gilchrist, founder and president of The Minuteman Project, will discuss the uncertain consequences to the United States if immigration policies and laws are not enforced on October 16
• Former two term San Diego Republican Mayor Susan Golding will reflect on her 20 years of public service on November 13

Many of the Osher lectures are broadcast on UCSD-TV, which began 15 years ago and is available to 1 million homes. Over half a million viewers in San Diego tune in to UCSD-TV and another 200,000 visit the Web site at least once a month. Programs are broadcast live and on-demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the Internet using the latest in Web-delivery technology, including YouTube and podcasting.

UC San Diego Extension was an early pioneer in the national movement of learning in retirement.  Originally named the Institute for Continued Learning, the program began in 1974 in response to ideas offered by a group of retirees from New York who wished to replicate the learning in retirement program they had participated in at the New School for Social Research.

Through grants totaling more than $1 million from the Bernard Osher Foundation beginning in 2004, the program was renamed the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC San Diego. California businessman Bernard Osher created The Bernard Osher Foundation in 1977 to support university programs nationwide that offer intellectually stimulating learning for seasoned adults.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offers a broad range of education opportunities offered year round which includes over 120 academic courses, tours and social events for an annual membership fee of $215.  There are no educational requirements – just the desire to learn for the sake of learning.

For more information please call (858) 534-3409 or e-mail olli@ucsd.edu  or visit the Web site at www.olli.ucsd.edu.

Media Contact: Henry DeVries, 858-534-9955 or 619-540-3031 (after hours)