Teaching at OLLI

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State is one of 124 Osher Institutes across the country, all located at universities and colleges.

San Francisco State OLLI offers 6-week courses as well as Mini courses at our downtown campus at 160 Spear St or via Zoom.

Most of our students are retired professionals and are well read, well-traveled, well educated. We run classes year-round on a variety of subjects including Art, History, Political Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Writing etc.

Please note that starting in 2024 we are no longer able to hire new instructors from outside California.

Instructors enjoy teaching through our program as the students are mature learners and they always have plenty to discuss. There is no homework, no grades, and the people are incredibly engaged and interested. As an instructor you are able to talk about what most fascinates you. A topic can be broad or specific. Our members are hungry for learning.

Class Details

• Our courses are held during the day, Monday through Friday.
• Classes are offered either in-person or offered via Zoom Conference.
• We can work with you about the size of the ideal number of students but we’re finding with the Zoom classes, that if more people are interested it’s great to let them in. Writing and hands-on classes are usually capped at 15-16 in consultation with the instructor.
• Mini Courses are typically 2 hours but we are open to longer Mini courses. We are open to your ideas and your preferred format.
• Our 6-week courses are open only to members while our Mini courses are open to non-members.

Compensation

• Starting in 2024 we will compensate $135.00 per instructional hour.
• We allocate compensation per class based on one instructor x number of instructional hours. Should a professor want to co-teach, the OLLI teacher fee can be split between the teachers or paid just to one teacher.
• Honoraria may be granted for course guest speakers and may be requested by the instructor.

The Proposal Process

• We accept proposals at any time. Download forms below and submit completed forms to olli@sfsu.edu.
• Please use one of the following forms. If your course has more than 1 week, we require a "week By Week" description which can be very short (a few words or a line). If approved, what you submit is what we put in our catalog and it is useful for us and potential enrollees to know how the course progresses.
• Please send a resume or CV.

• If you are interested, please send us the title(s) of possible course(s) and a couple lines of description for each course and/or suggestions for possible courses. Let us know if it is a 6-week course or a Mini course. If you have a full description or proposal we are happy to look at it.
   
• Our director, Kathy Bruin meets with the Curriculum Committee once a month to review new suggestions and proposals.
   
• If the Curriculum Committee and OLLI director are interested in your course, we will accept or decline your course, and in the case of having received only suggestions or a partial proposal, will ask for more information as needed.
   
• In some cases the Curriculum Committee will request a meeting with the prospective instructor. If approved, we will work with you to schedule your course.

Hiring Details

If you are teaching a class with OLLI, San Francisco State University is required to hire you as an employee rather than a contractor. Because of California Assembly Bill 5  — signed into law in 2019, in effect January 1, 2020 — short term employees (with some exceptions) must be hired as employees. OLLI instructors fall into this category.

1. Once your class is approved, we will work with you to schedule your course in a session.
2. Forms W4 and I-9: OLLI staff will provide links to these two documents for you to fill out.

Note that mailing the completed forms back to us is safest and they can be mailed to our colleague on campus:

Shae Hancock
University Corporation / SF State
1600 Holloway Ave, Admin 361
San Francisco, CA 94132

Our colleague on campus, Shae Hancock will reach out to you to:

1. confirm she has received completed Forms W-4 and Form I-9
2. schedule a quick meeting (virtually) where your identity will be verified with your unexpired U.S. Passport (or one of the other accepted identification documents, detailed on page 5 of the I-9 packet).

Upcoming Dates

Please see our upcoming dates. 

Thank you very much for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you. Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you are able to join us.