The survey gathered information on the presence or absence of policies for retired faculty related to part-time teaching, committee service, health-insurance coverage, and other benefits. Although information was requested on the level of benefits, specific details of the policies were not collected because of the variation among institutional programs. Many institutions post information about their retirement programs and policies on an institutional Web site. (Upon request, the AAUP will provide a list of the Web sites of respondents that agreed to be identified.)
Most institutions permitted at least some retired faculty members to teach part time. Forty-eight percent of responding institutions reported that all their retired faculty members could teach; 51 percent reported that some could do so. Only about 33 percent of the respondents indicated that part-time teaching was negotiable as a condition for retiring from a tenured position. Retired part-time faculty members are typically paid similarly to other part-time faculty.
Sixty-six percent of responding institutions did not permit retired professors to advise or supervise students or to chair student honors theses or dissertation essays. Twenty-one percent of the respondents allowed retired professors to supervise or advise students but not to chair theses or dissertations. Retired faculty could both advise or supervise and chair at 13 percent of the institutions.
Eighty-two percent of the respondents conferred the title emeritus professor, but only 47 percent of them awarded it routinely to all retired tenured professors. In most cases, the title was conferred at the discretion of a university administration.
At 82 percent of responding institutions, faculty retirees continued to be eligible for group health insurance (other than as required by law through the COBRA program); at 80 percent of the institutions, spouses also continued to be eligible. The amount of cost borne by the individual and the institution varied, however. Fifty-one percent of institutions paid part of the cost for the faculty retiree, while 33 percent required the individual to pay 100 percent of the cost (see figure 12). (.pdf) Although 17 percent of institutions paid the entire cost of medical insurance for the individual retiree, few institutions reported paying the entire cost of medical insurance for spouses (3 percent), domestic partners (5 percent), family members (2 percent), or survivors (2 percent). The most common scenario was for individuals and institutions to share the cost of medical insurance for the retiree (51 percent), spouse (51 percent), partner (54 percent), or family member (51 percent). Individuals are more likely than not to bear responsibility for 100 percent of the cost of long-term care (96 percent), dental insurance (65 percent), vision coverage (62 percent), and survivors’ benefits (54 percent).
Only 45 percent of responding institutions reported that their health-insurance benefits had remained the same for both active and retired faculty members since 2000. Twenty-six percent of the respondents reported reducing benefits for both groups equally, while 8 percent indicated that benefits for retired faculty had been reduced more than those for active faculty. When asked about future plans for retiree health-insurance benefits, most institutions reported that they intended to maintain benefits at current levels. However, 20 percent of the institutions did not respond to this question, refused to answer it, or indicated that they did not know.
Many retired faculty members also received other benefits, such as library privileges and office space. Figure 13 (.pdf) depicts the variation in other benefits offered by how many faculty members received the benefit: none, some, or all. For example, 78 percent of institutions offered library privileges, 72 percent let retirees use campus fitness or recreational facilities, and 64 percent extended faculty pricing for events to all retired faculty members. About half of all responding institutions provided retirees with an e-mail address (56 percent), access to institutional computer networks (48 percent), and parking (54 percent). Fifty-four percent of institutions provided office space to some retired faculty. Less common benefits were tuition remission (47 percent of responding institutions did not offer it), campus telephone numbers (49 percent did not provide them), secretarial assistance (59 percent did not make it available), and travel funds (83 percent of institutions did not provide it).
Forty-two percent of institutions had a faculty retiree organization. Where retiree organizations existed, 69 percent had been organized by faculty retirees; 26 percent were initiated by administrators. Only 43 percent of the responding institutions provided space on campus for retired faculty to meet.
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(2/15/07)