A "road map" to guide tenured faculty members in making the transition to emeritus status and specific policies applying to Cornell emeritus faculty are spelled out in a policy statement issued by Provost Don M. Randel on May 8.
The Cornell Association of Professors Emeritus (CAPE) will have an expanded and more visible role on campus, with new office space to provide easier access to its services by faculty, under the provost's plan.
The newly issued policy statement was developed from a report presented to Randel by the Provost's Committee on the Transition of Faculty to Emeritus Status last November.
Chaired by Ronald G. Ehrenberg, vice president for academic programs, planning and budgeting, the committee's goal was to advise the provost on ways to aid departments in planning for the future in the absence of mandatory retirement, to aid faculty members in planning for the transition to retirement and to enhance the status of emeritus professors. In developing its final report, the 15-person committee held discussions with the Faculty Senate, academic deans, CAPE, members of the administration and individual faculty.
"The new policy will help us ensure that senior members of the faculty can remain valued and productive members of our community, while providing the university and departments an opportunity for realistic planning for the future," Randel said.
The policy statement contains almost all of the recommendations included in the committee's final report. The phased retirement option selected by Randel is the one that has a five-year maximum duration and, after an initial two year period, can be elected only by faculty age 70 and younger. Ehrenberg emphasized that the policy recognizes that retirement is a voluntary decision protected under federal and state law but he added that Congress is far along in the process of passing a bill that would explicitly permit maximum ages of eligibility for retirement incentive programs for tenured faculty members. The AARP has agreed not to oppose the bill.
"Provost Randel delayed issuing his phased retirement policy until we were fairly certain that it would be permissible under the law," Ehrenberg said.
Randel will present the plan to the Cornell Board of Trustees' Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life Saturday, May 23. Trustee action will be taken on the phased retirement program for endowed faculty at the June 25 meeting of the board's Executive Committee, and for statutory faculty in September.
"I look forward to working with CAPE on the details of this new plan, and hope that its members will play a leadership role in helping individual faculty members plan appropriate transitions in their careers," Randel said.
The full text of the provost's policy statement is available from the Provost's Office, 300 Day Hall. The Chronicle will run the full text of the statement in its June 4 issue, and it also will be posted on web in the near future.
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