Update on the UNC Retired Faculty Association
Presented to UNC Faculty Council, March 19, 2010
Note: Professor Andrew Dobelstein, President of the UNC Retired Faculty Association was invited to address the Faculty Cuncil on March 19, 2010. His brief remarks follow:
Professor Coble, thank you for inviting me to provide a brief update on the Retired Faculty Association, UNC, Chapel Hill.
The UNC Retired Faculty Association was organized in 1986, and I quote from our initial document. “to help retired faculty maintain meaningful ties through service and other continuing contributions to the UNC academic community.” Dorothy Talbot (Public Health) was our first president, followed by a long line of well known UNC retired professors. Membership in the association is open to all retired faculty; our by-laws, and a brief history of the Association are on our WEB site. Other early records and directory of members have been placed in the UNC archives.
We have coordinated with the UNC Alumni Association, which estimates that there are over 750 living retired UNC faculty members. At present we are in touch with about 700 retired faculty through our quarterly Newsletter. Many live in the Chapel Hill area. We have about 125 active members most of whom attend our quarterly membership meetings usually held at the Friday Center.
In recent years, with an increase of younger retired faculty, the Association has launched a campaign to promote the value of retired faculty in continuing service to the University. In the fall of 2008, William Andrews, the Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, appointed a committee of retired faculty members to report on the current status of emeritus professors at UNC. The committee was composed of Gillian Cell, Barbara Harris, George Houston, Eugen Merzbacher, Richard Pfaff, and chaired by Jaroslav Folda. The findings from this comprehensive study revealed strong interest among retired faculty to continue their professional activities, suggested ways the university could exploit the resources offered by retired faculty, and identified several barriers that discouraged utilization of retired faculty resources.
As the fiscal crisis deepened in North Carolina in the spring of 2009 and in the face of proposed severe budget cuts for the UNC campus, the Retired Faculty Association passed a resolution committing its members to return to the campus in the classroom and other appropriate professional activities, if called upon, and without compensation. Fortunately Chancellor Thorp was able to implement budget reductions without jeopardy to the academic integrity of the university, minimizing requests for retired faculty assistance. However, we have become involved with the Law School, serving as jurors in student mock trials, we will supply volunteers to screen Fulbright applications, and we are exploring the use of retired faculty to assist in developing funding proposals with the TraCS Institute, School of Medicine.
We also formed a consortium in 2008 with the retired faculty associations at NC State and North Carolina Central to exchange information and propose that the national association of university retiree organizations, the Association of Retiree Organizations in Higher Education, hold its 2012 biennial meeting in the triangle. To our delight, AROHE accepted our proposal and we will host the 2012 meeting.
One of our continuing problems has been clarifying the relationship of the Association to the university. The Code of faculty Governance identifies privileges the university is expected to provide to its Emeritus Professors, but it has been unclear where the Association fits in the University itself, and who, exactly, oversees the commitments made to retired faculty. We presented this concern and other issues raised in the Arts and Sciences report to the Chancellor in our first meeting with him, and he quickly assigned Executive Vice-Provost Ron Strauss to act as liaison between the Association and his office to explore this and other issues we identified. For us, Provost Strauss has been the best thing since the Rathskeller closed. Ron has worked to iron out some of these rough spots, and with the wisdom and guidance of Professor Joseph Ferrell, the UNC Retired Faculty Association now will be formally recognized as an affiliate of UNC related to the Office of Faculty Governance. This will improve our relationship with the university campus and will allow us to use the university bulk mailing permit, which will reduce our mailing costs by more than half. we also have been granted Official Observer status membership in the Faculty Council for two Retired Faculty Association members. On behalf of the Association, thank you Chancellor Thorp, Professor Ferrell, Vice Provost Strauss, and Dr. Anne Whisnant, who has done much of the leg work to make this recognition happen. We now feel that the retired faculty have an official home. Professor Ferrell and Dr. Whisnant have also arranged a meeting with the new director of Human Resources to see how retired faculty might overcome some of the administrative barriers we face, such as ensuring that our UNC-1 cards remain active, remaining in the university directory, and continued use of the university email services.
Thank you Professor Coble and the Faculty Council for the opportunity to bring you up to date on the Retired Faculty Association. We think the developments of the past few years will boost the opportunities for retired faculty to continue their scholarly activities and enhance opportunities for collaboration with their yet-to-retire colleagues on campus. We believe that retired faculty offer the university a largely untapped resource of valuable talent and experience. Most of all we can assure you that when you do retire the Retired Faculty Association will provide a base for you to continue your teaching, research, and service to the community that has made our University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill such an outstanding educational institution.
Andrew W. Dobelstein, PhD.
President, UNC Retired Faculty Association
