Emeritus Professors Make a Case for Campuses to Tap Their Talents

Dustin Chambers for The Chronicle

When James (Jerry) Murphy retired as a professor of English and rhetoric at the University of California at Davis, his plan, he says, was “not to work very hard.”

That may be what some people expect of emeritus faculty members, but Mr. Murphy’s idea of retirement was a bit busier than that. Since he retired, in 1991, he has written, edited, or revised six books, been guest editor of a journal, lectured at colleges large and small, and occasionally served on dissertation committees.

A prominent scholar of rhetoric and the history of language use, he still, at 92, attends conferences like the Rhetoric Society of America’s last month, where he and a colleague held a highly anticipated discussion of whether current rhetorical terms reflect new concepts or merely rename old ideas.

For Mr. Murphy, a pull toward scholarly endeavors is almost instinctive. “People who are scholars are doing something in an area that they’re personally interested in,” he says. “It’s not unnatural for them to want to keep doing what they were doing.”

Often there’s no measure of how emeritus faculty members spend their time or what they contribute. And general impressions may stir the professors’ feelings of obsolescence. Some retired academics would like to be recognized for their work and engaged more often on their campuses.

A recent survey of emeritus professors in the University of California system seeks to show just how productive they have been, touting such tallies as 500 books, 3,000 journal articles, and 2,500 conference papers over a three-year span.

Responses from about 1,600 emeritus professors on all but one of the system’s 10 campuses — about a quarter of the whole group — demonstrate that the amount of research, publishing, teaching, mentoring, and service performed by just that fraction of them is equivalent to a “virtual 11th campus,” a report on the findings says.

That message is meant for the system’s full faculty and administration, as well as the emeritus professors themselves. “Lots of academics feel a sense of loss when they retire,” says John L. Vohs, author of the report and a senior lecturer emeritus of communication at Davis. “What this shows is that people who want to continue working can find ways to do that, and they’re making a huge contribution to the UC system.”

Taking stock of what emeritus faculty members are up to, which the Council of University of California Emeriti Associations has done since the late 1990s, is partly a way to stoke a sense of professional pride. And detailing their value for administrators can help make the case that emeritus professors — who are also subject to institutional austerity measures like benefit cuts — still have plenty to offer.

“This survey provides some really interesting talking points to catch the attention of leadership,” says Patrick Cullinane, president of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education, which promotes to colleges the benefits of tapping the talents of retired faculty and staff members. “Since all of these people are retired, they’re not really on the books. Yet they continue to contribute meaningfully to the mission of their universities.”

Keeping Busy

What it means to be an emeritus professor depends on the institution. Some colleges award the title more freely, while elsewhere it’s not guaranteed. Neither are benefits like office space, a parking spot, research money, or a nominal fee for teaching.

At the University of California, where the status is conferred on any retired associate or full professor, the survey captures a wide range of activities that make up their post-retirement lives. Almost 60 percent of respondents reported writing and publishing sometime in the three-year span the survey covered (2012-15), and slightly more said they had academic publications or presentations in progress. Beyond that, many reported either consulting or serving on an editorial board.

It’s no surprise that recent retirees are the most connected to the careers they’ve built over several decades. About three-fourths of professors who retired in the last five years said they had academic work in progress, perhaps winding down labs, grants, and relationships with graduate students, as professors in early retirement tend to do, Mr. Vohs says.

But roughly half of the 279 respondents in Mr. Murphy’s cohort — those who took emeritus status in the early to mid-1990s — were still engaged in research and writing during the period included in the survey.

Retired professors often spend time serving their colleagues and institutions. Just under half of the emeritus faculty members reported serving as mentors who provided career advice or other counseling to students and faculty members. A similar share held service commitments on their campuses or in the university system.

And although professors everywhere talk about retiring partly to escape grading papers, some still inhabit the classroom. Respondents to the survey taught 866 undergraduate courses and 739 graduate courses on UC campuses over the three years.

That’s like 335 full-time faculty members, Mr. Vohs says, each with a teaching load of five courses a year.

“A number of people told us they got called back to fill in for a professor who was on maternity leave or somebody who went on sabbatical,” he says. “There are people who really would like to teach more, but they don’t have the opportunity to do that.”

Since retiring, in 2008, James N. Danziger, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of California at Irvine, has taught one or two courses a year for his department. The lighter load has let him teach three times so far in the Semester at Sea, a study-abroad program on a ship.

“Now I have much greater flexibility,” says Mr. Danziger, who is also revising the 12th edition of a textbook he wrote.

Irvine’s Emeriti Association is working on a report that highlights the productivity of retired faculty members there, says Mr. Danziger, president-elect of the group. Top administrators, deans, and even department chairs, he says, “have a fragmented idea of what we’re doing on campus.”

Seeing the data on paper, he thinks, will help. So will suggestions like a list of emeritus professors willing to give talks on their area of expertise or to mentor graduate students.

Mr. Danziger wants emeritus professors to be better recognized and used. In presenting the data on what they contribute, the plan is to integrate retired faculty members more consistently into campus life.

Audrey Williams June is a senior reporter who writes about the academic workplace, faculty pay, and work-life balance in academe. Contact her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her on Twitter @chronaudrey.