As government funding for higher education constricts and tenured faculty rolls bulge nationwide, Cornell has established a committee to address issues relating to the transition from faculty to emeritus faculty status.
The committee, a joint faculty and administration effort announced today by Provost Don M. Randel, will seek ways to bring new faculty into the university despite the abolition of mandatory retirement, while helping senior faculty remain active in their fields and in the university.
It will be chaired by Ronald Ehrenberg, vice president for academic programs, planning and budgeting, and will discuss such issues as the provision of financial planning assistance, the establishment of long-term, part-time positions for senior faculty, consideration of retirement incentive programs and enhancement of the status of emeritus faculty members.
"Emeritus faculty are a tremendous, underutilized university resource," Randel said. "At the same time, with the elimination of a mandatory retirement age and reduced government spending on higher education we have fewer hiring opportunities and therefore fewer opportunities to reinvigorate the faculty.
"We want to help ease the transition from faculty to emeritus and enhance emeritus status to allow for the influx of new faculty. In addition, both the university and emeritus faculty will benefit if we can find creative, cost-effective ways to continue using the expertise of our most senior faculty."
The 11-member committee will not consider recommending expensive retirement "buy-out" programs, Randel said. Rather, a variety of "semi-retirement" options may be considered. For example, some universities are considering offering faculty phased retirement options and emeritus faculty a portion of office space, opportunity to teach a class or two on a regular basis, retention of faculty privileges such as principal investigator status and continued voting status on faculty matters and even an annual research stipend.
Randel has asked the committee for a preliminary report by March 15, and he will submit it to the Faculty Senate and deans for formal comment. The comments will be returned to the committee by the end of the spring semester. The committee is expected to produce a final report with recommendations by Nov. 15, 1997. At that point, Randel said, he hopes there will be sufficient consensus on campus that the recommendations can be quickly adopted as administrative policy.
Randel said any recommendations that are adopted regarding retirement incentives or the treatment of emeritus faculty by June 1998 will apply retroactively to all faculty retiring on or after Jan. 1, 1997.
"We want to ensure that no faculty who chooses to retire before the adoption of recommendations from the committee is disadvantaged," Randel said.
Randel noted that other university committees have addressed similar issues over the past 15 years, with little success. He said that was partly because the problems at the time were projected rather than real and partly because the committee was not composed of both faculty and administrators.
"This committee is different on both those counts," Randel said, "and its recommendations and subsequent new policies will be the result of real consultation and campuswide discussion."