This year marks the first of a three-year period in which new and retiring professors overlap employment at the College, an effort of the Legacy of Distinction Fund to prevent an absence of qualified professors. The strategy was designed to combat the compounding effects of several faculty members approaching retirement as the University faces reductions in state general funds.
The Fund was established to fill the interim between University faculty members' retirement and their replacement.
In March last year, the College had 88 tenured faculty members above the age of 65 and 33 above the age of 70.
"The school faced an inevitable wave of retirements at a time when significant state funding cuts and endowment losses limit the replacement hiring the school can do," University spokesperson Carol Wood said in an e-mail.
The College introduced the Fund in June 2009 in an effort to reduce the strain on University faculty members by attracting successors for members who soon will retire.
"The Legacy of Distinction Fund is a pool of private money we can use right now, when few universities can afford new faculty, to hire the successors to professors who will retire soon," College Dean Meredith Woo said in an e-mail. "Our aim is to find impressive replacements two or three years ahead of the retirement of some of our most prestigious faculty members in a small number of high-priority departments."
The Fund has raised more than $3 million of its $5 million goal. The College Foundation began raising money for the Fund in October 2009, Woo said. The first four faculty to join the College because of this funding were identified during last spring's hiring cycle and are here now. The Fund's work will continue during four hiring cycles, as long as funding remains available, Woo said.
The Fund was initiated because senior faculty members who have contributed to the University's reputation and research need to be replaced when they retire.
"These are faculty members who helped to build the strong academic reputation the University enjoys today," Wood said. "We need to be ready to fill their shoes - and we can't wait until they are gone."
Scholarship and teaching lags between the time a faculty member retires and a replacement is hired, Woo said.
"By having the replacement arrive before the retiree departs, it also enables us to benefit from a temporary increase in capacity rather than suffer from a temporary gap," Woo said.
A document released by the Fund says it has identified 12 potential bridge hires. These faculty members, in most cases assistant professors, began work this year and will serve with the established professors until their retirement in 2013.
"At the conclusion of the overlap period, the compensation budgeted for the retiring faculty member will become available to cover the ongoing cost of the replacement, making this a sustainable strategy over the longer term," according to document.
It is not only the College which suffers from a mass exodus of faculty members, but also the retiring faculty members who have based their lives around the University.
"Retirement for many faculty members is social death," University President Teresa A. Sullivan told the Chronicle of Higher Education. "And if it isn't, they think it is."
The University has implemented programs to address these issues, including Transitions, which aims to provide peer support for faculty members who are planning on retiring or who have retired.
"For faculty who are considering retirement there are things that the University is already doing," said Gertrude Fraser, vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention. "[Transitions] brings people together to talk about the next phase of their lives. It's a kind of peer-to-peer discussion."
With proper planning, however, retirement can provide opportunities for new experiences, especially with the increasing national quality of life, she said.
"What I've seen from my experience [is] some people see it as the next best thing in their lives," Fraser said. "People can look into a healthy quality of their life into their 70s and 80s." She added it is essential for the faculty members to be involved in their own retirement process. "When people feel like it's been done to them - that's when they feel like they stop mattering," she said.
Some retired faculty members may stay on for a few years as emeritus professors, providing the opportunity for continued involvement in University life, Fraser said. They have offices and are able to work on research projects, allowing them to continue to give back to the University even after formal retirement.
"If you've been an active engaged teacher, there's a lot you know about the University," Fraser said. "If younger faculty want to listen, there's a lot they can learn"
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