Course Selections

OLLI issued its Spring 2025 Catalog.  From it I expect to commit to five courses.  Having done this a few times, I've generated an experience related system, though not a perfect one.  First some rules.  No classes after 2PM.  No classes that exceed the 75 minutes allotted for most lecture format options.  Many performance, art, and movie sessions are longer.  Passover needs only one Monday absent.  Classes end before Shavuot.  That means no accommodation for Yom Tovim, which greatly impacted my selections for last semester.

Next create a 5 x 3 grid.  M-F horizontally, early AM, late AM, Early PM vertically.  Then just go through the catalog page Iby page, filling the grid possibilities as I go.  Now some criteria.  I prefer live courses to Zoom sessions, so first only classes held near my home.  There are some excellent classes downstate where many talented retirees have relocated.  Reconsider those as a parallel zoom option later along with other online only classes. First I need to be with other people.  The pandemic took its toll on social interaction.  At one time people would gather in the lounge, have lunch in the cafeteria.  All imploded.  Even the live classes, people come for their session and go home.

Then page by page, subject by subject, I jot anything of interest onto my time grid.  By now I have favorite instructors.  I've also had teachers not up to the task, over even offensive.  Those don't go onto the grid.  The course selection exposes something about me.  I like information.  I dislike people subjecting me to their agendas and buzzwords.  I am not an  oppressor.  I resent any hints that my personal success and background detracts from my decency.  There are courses like that in the catalog.  I don't register for those.  I can only realistically take five.

As my grid fills, I will have some choices.  It takes about twenty minutes each way to drive to campus.  I have taken classes that fill all three slots on a given day.  On those days, I pack lunch, put my computer and charging cord in a backpack, and plan to spend the day on-site.  It's been burdensome, so more likely I will limit a single day to two classes, and not an early and late one with a big time gap between.  Zoom courses from the campus do not always access well.  If I have Zoom and site courses the same day, I will need to be able to travel between them.

It is also possible that I will be closed out of a limited enrollment selection.  Take my time.  Visit the January Open House.  Complete the grid. Pare to five.