Resolution Concerning Emeritus/a Status for Retiring RTE Faculty Members
Sponsored by the University Faculty Committee (UFC)
November 10, 2019

Through passage of Resolution 131 (4/2/2019), the Faculty Senate made it possible for the Research-Teaching-Extension (RTE) Faculty to participate more fully in shared governance. It is important to recall the motivation for taking this step: we need an inclusive and creative academic workforce if the University is to advance its reputation in research, teaching, and extension.

Building on this, the RTE Project has forwarded to the UFC the first of what will be a sequence of recommendations for Senate consideration. It is a proposal that the following RTE titleholders be eligible for emeritus/a status upon retirement:

• Senior Lecturer
• Senior Research Associate
• Senior Extension Associate
• Professor of the Practice and Associate Professor of the Practice
• Research Professor and Associate Research Professor
• Clinical Professor and Associate Clinical Professor
• Senior Scientist, Senior Scholar, Research Scientist, Principal Research Scientist
• Librarian and Associate Librarian
• Archivist and Associate Archivist

In the language of titles and and modifiers, the proposal is to extend the list of titles that can be modified by “emeritus/a” to include the above. Currently, only the titles “professor” and “associate professor” can be so modified. The proposed process for awarding emeritus/a status to eligible RTE faculty is patterned after the process developed two years ago for professors and associate professors. Here is a side-by-side comparison.

This resolution is strictly about the process of conferring emeritus/a status. It implies nothing about the fringe benefits associated with that status.

The Resolution¹

Whereas it is important to recognize retiring RTE faculty for rendering meritorious service that to the University;

Be it resolved that these  eligibility rules and procedures for conferring emeritus/a status be adopted and included in the Faculty Handbook.