Cal State Fullerton President Ronald Rochon has accepted his OLLI Advisory Task Force’s initial recommendations, which provide a framework for addressing short-term issues associated with the university’s enrollment increase and the possible relocation of the OLLI lifelong learning program and community to no earlier than August 2027. This supersedes two earlier dates that he previously announced.
The relocation controversy began when university leadership informed OLLI-CSUF leaders of Rochon’s intention to end its 46-year residency on campus and relocate the program and its 1,200 members to university-leased office buildings across State College Boulevard, including a basement with only a stairway for emergency egress and insufficient on-site parking requiring mobility-impaired members to cross a seven-lane intersection.. Details regarding the relocated facility’s accessibility and safety, cost to OLLI members and taxpayers, adequacy of classroom and other facilities, and occupancy terms were not disclosed to OLLI’s leadership or members.
The devil is always in the details, and a significant one is scheduling additional class time for university students in the Mackey Auditorium at the Ruby Gerontology Center (RGC), OLLI’s home on the CSUF campus. OLLI members are proud that lifelong learners led a six-year fundraising campaign that paid for its construction without taxpayer assistance. Relocating OLLI to a potentially unsafe and expensive, age-segregated facility separate from university students has fueled member opposition.
Extending the decision-making timeframe and increasing the university’s shared use of the RGC will help resolve the current enrollment surge. The task force can now focus on the complex challenges that would arise from relocating a vibrant community of retired and senior lifelong learners, whose members also constitute a campus support organization supporting university student welfare and success.
Safeguarding this community if it’s displaced from its campus home may prove intractable. As an independent advocacy organization, SOAR—Save OLLI at the Ruby Gerontology Center—will continue to organize OLLI members and supporters to pursue practical, balanced solutions that serve the best interests of all concerned. SOAR members will remain focused on supporting the task force’s problem-solving and stay vigilant as the task force addresses critical issues in the new year.
Bill Sampson is the media spokesperson for SOAR, an independent advocacy organization of OLLI-CSUF past presidents, members, university financial contributors, and friends.