Faculty Retirement by Van Ummersen Claire McLaughlin Jean Duranleau Lauren

Author:Van Ummersen, Claire,McLaughlin, Jean,Duranleau, Lauren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stylus Publishing
Published: 2014-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

Wellesley’s Efforts on Faculty Retirement

Like many institutions of higher learning, Wellesley College maintains through our Human Resources Office an active series of events and a set of resources for faculty contemplating retirement. Over the past several years, that office has run an expanding set of workshops for the teaching faculty nearing retirement, which have covered such topics as retirement income planning, medical benefits in retirement, estate planning, and lifestyle. All this programming has been evaluated through questionnaires distributed to participating faculty. In those questionnaires we have also asked participants what additional programming they would like, and we are continually looking for new opportunities to serve faculty who stand uncertainly on the brink of this new phase of their professional lives.

Faculty who have attended the sessions indicate that they receive useful information and that they feel more prepared, with targeted questions, to do further research on their own about their options. For example, we have brought a representative of the Social Security Administration to come on campus to present income options, as well as Medicare coverage information, and attendees at these events have reported gaining knowledge that has yielded a tangible benefit to their bottom line in retirement. The college also provides both in-house and outsourced counseling for faculty navigating the transition to Medicare to ensure that their coverage is seamless and targeted to meet their specific needs. Such health-care counseling is especially needed because some of our faculty report that they avoid retiring because their retirement medical options are complicated, costly, and difficult to research in comparison with the ease of employer-provided health insurance.

In addition to providing retirement counseling, the college seeks to make emeriti faculty feel welcome on campus and allows them to continue to use many college resources. Emeriti faculty have free use of library facilities, campus recreational facilities, and campus parking facilities. They can retain their e-mail addresses and use the Help Desk and other campus computer services. They can also apply for research and travel grants for amounts up to the award limit set for other faculty. Scientists with grant money have had access to college facilities to support their research. The Provost’s Office has for many years hosted a lunch for retirees in October, at which the provost and deans update the attendees on recent developments. Emeriti faculty are also invited to the provost and deans’ annual holiday party in December.

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