The Edge

This week’s edition of The Edge features another contribution from one of our readers. James Witte, who just retired from his position as a professor of sociology at George Mason University, writes about the expanded role that emeritus professors can bring to their institutions, at a time when those institutions could use the perspectives and additional help from people who spent their lives in higher education. I love the generous spirit of this essay — and how it frames institutions as assemblages of people with individual talents and areas of expertise that can remain relevant (or become even more valuable) with age.

Witte doesn’t really raise this point explicitly, but reading this essay, I also wondered about the roles of retired professors as elders, in the way that some describe elderhood: These are people who have long-term attachment to the structure and mission of their colleges, and who now have the distance and security to call out problems when they see an institution straying from a mission or some founding principles. The point of elderhood in this case is not to impede evolution at a college but to act as a check to make sure that future directions are in line with the institution’s tenets. In this role — at colleges, or in society or within families — elders prompt people to stop and think if they see the mission, behavior, or mores changing around them.

I hope this essay prompts you to stop and think. Thanks to Professor Witte for submitting it.

The Case for Rewiring Faculty Who Are Retiring

by James C. Witte

Effective June 1, I retired, earlier than planned, under a generous, incentivized retirement program at George Mason University. On June 2, I became an emeritus professor of sociology and left my position as director of the university’s Institute for Immigration Research.

Emeritus status typically entails keeping one’s email address, library privileges, and the “right” to buy parking and gym access. This is couched as a well-intended reward for university service. But at the same time, the development office is relentless in asking me to include the university in my estate planning.

This common framework overlooks other options that offer enormous potential benefits for retiring faculty, as well as for colleges. It’s no secret that higher education today faces many challenges, not the least of which are two demographic inevitabilities. First is the demographic cliff. Just as public opinion is questioning the value of a college degree, the number of traditional-age college students is drastically declining. Second is the graying professoriate at the other end of the age pyramid. Some faculty members will continue to work well into their 70s and 80s, while many others will retire earlier.

In this environment, the faculty role in research and teaching is necessarily being redefined and reimagined. With few new tenure-track hires, many colleges look to adjuncts and artificial intelligence to fill the void. But neither provides the mentoring and in-person contact — for current students and alumni — that committed faculty provide. In a recent New York Times interview, conservative Silicon Valley guru Peter Thiel described his perspective on the current state of affairs in higher education:

There certainly are diminishing returns to going into science or going into academia generally. Maybe this is why so much of it feels like a sociopathic, Malthusian kind of an institution, because you have to throw more and more and more at something to get the same returns. And at some point, people give up and the thing collapses.

If higher education cannot automate or hire its way out of the situation, a potentially productive and rewarding approach is to rewire the role of emeritus faculty members and rethink their place in university life.

Such an approach could be mutually beneficial. If all goes well, I have at least 10 years of intellectual productivity left. I am not alone. For example, several years ago, a retired social scientist joined the Institute for Immigration Research as an unpaid faculty affiliate. She not only helped us obtain three National Science Foundation grants but spent time mentoring students and bringing a unique intellectual voice to our office. When possible, she was compensated through grant funds, but not always. Twice a week she took a 40-minute cab ride from her home to the office — at her expense! She was not doing it for the paycheck.

Retired faculty members have valuable social and human capital that should not be discarded — especially now. Retired faculty, as well as staff, represent an underutilized resource for colleges at a time of scarce resources. Many retired faculty still have the intellectual energy and curiosity that led us to our careers in the first place. They may continue to write and research, to review book and article manuscripts. They write dozens of reference letters and recommendations for former students. They are lending their talents and energy to their profession and to their students, but many colleges are missing out on the possible institutional benefits of strengthening these connections.

College-branded merch has replaced the “gold watch” of yore as a token of appreciation for an employee’s service. Whether a tote bag or a timepiece, these initial signs of recognition could also be the start of a positive and authentic relationship between emeriti and their institutions. How can such a relationship be built?

Here are a few options. Some colleges may already be taking these steps, but others may wish to consider them.

• Determine who your emeritus faculty are and where they are located. Most institutions will have some lists, perhaps in human resources, development, or in college or departmental hands. These should be updated and integrated, and when possible matched with email and physical addresses. The latter would be particularly useful to locate emeriti who live close to campus. Due to changes in faculty residential patterns, older faculty members may be more likely to live close to campus while younger faculty may live further away to find affordable housing or accommodate spousal employment needs. An active emeritus community may act as a magnet for the faculty at large. Once located, reach out to them.
  
• When possible, offer emeritus faculty real office space, not a stray carrel in the library but a space close to their intellectual home to facilitate interaction with younger faculty. At some institutions this may not be possible if space is tight. Other campuses, however, may have open or underutilized office space. This may entail asking some current faculty to share space, particularly on days when they are not teaching and may not be coming to campus.
  
• Make deliberate efforts to engage emeriti in intellectual and social events. When appropriate, emeritus faculty should be included among the list of event invitees as a matter of course. An occasional direct invitation from the unit head or dean would signal that emeritus faculty members are truly welcome at an event.
  
• Create mentor relationships with junior faculty. Most academic units encourage mentorship relationships between junior and senior faculty. Even when successful, however, there is a power dynamic involved. An assistant professor may be careful in discussing new ideas or even criticizing how the department is run with a person who has a vote on their academic future. A mentorship with an emeritus faculty member can serve as a safe space to voice one’s ambitions and concerns.
  
• Institute small, competitive emeritus faculty-development grants. These need not be large, perhaps between $3,000 and $5,000, but could bring large returns. Many faculty members have “unfinished business” at the end of their active careers. Resources to complete a manuscript, curate data, or attend a conference would bring closure to those efforts. Just as important, once this work is completed, credit will accrue not only to the individual emeritus but also add to the metrics of the institution.
  
• Designate a dedicated emeritus IT support person. This does not mean a full-time person, just someone who is familiar with common technical issues facing emeritus faculty. Rapid changes in a wide range of campus IT services, like email, file storage, video conferencing, or library services, are often not overly complex but may seem so. Nearing the end of their active careers, faculty members may question the return on investment in learning new systems.
  
• Appoint an emeritus ombudsperson. This could be a member of the HR staff or an experienced emeritus faculty member who could offer advice and guidance for newly retired faculty members. The ombudsperson would work through options available at their particular institution and tailor a plan for retired faculty to match their interests in establishing and maintaining a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship between new retirees and the college.

Colleges have long spent resources on one end of the talent pipeline, setting up early-career programs, such as Preparing Future Faculty, and mentoring postdoctoral fellows, but they’ve neglected the other end. There will certainly be some administrative and training costs to rewiring and engaging emeritus faculty, particularly with the adoption of new technologies, regulatory compliance, and campus access. However, these are far from insurmountable and such resources are already developed for new-employee onboarding. Faculty off-ramping is worthy of its own attention. Not all emeritus faculty will be interested, but for those who are, considerable benefits may accrue to the individual as well as the institution.

Now is the time to develop mutually beneficial mechanisms to retrain and rewire retiring faculty.