The Faculty Handbook Section 5.1 offers a checklist of considerations for retiring professors and associate professors. Candidates should review these considerations as some will be relevant. With these "talking points" in hand, initiate a conversation with your chair or supervisor.
Tenured Faculty
When a tenured professor is planning retirement, they make a request to their department chair/division director to be considered. (Reference Policy 5.2 in the faculty handbook)
Department Process
The faculty member provides the following to the chair / director:
- CV
- A cover letter indicating: (1) rationale for the request; (2) retirement date; (3) title preference (emerita or emeritus)
The chair validates the eligibility for emeritus/a status and facilitates the departmental faculty vote. If the retiring faculty member is a full professor, then full professors and emeritus faculty vote. If the retiring faculty member is an associate professor, then tenured professors and emeritus faculty vote.
Criteria
A university professor, full professor, or associate professor who has been a tenured member of the University Faculty for ten or more years may be considered for emeritus/a status. Consideration shall be based upon the career contributions of the candidate through a combination of teaching, research, advising, administration, extension, and outreach. An overall record of meritorious service to the university is expected.
- Retired with ten or more years in an emeritus-eligible position.
- Meritorious service to the university (title dependent).
College Process
Following the departmental process, the chair/director makes the decision to recommend emeritus/a status or not. If recommending, they provide the recommendation packet to the dean’s executive assistant which includes the chair's letter and the CV (packaged into one pdf document). The chair’s letter should include the vote, the rationale, the retirement date and include the faculty’s title preference (emerita or emeritus).
The dean reviews the materials and if approving, the dean’s letter of recommendation is added to the packet and sent to the academic human resources office for Provost approval.
If choosing not to recommend, the chair/director should contact the Senior Associate Dean for Research and the Assistant Dean of Human Resources to discuss next steps.
RTE Faculty (Approved by the Faculty Senate and the Provost, March 2021)
Upon retirement, a senior lecturer, senior research associate, senior extension associate, professor of the practice, associate professor of the practice, research professor, associate research professor, clinical professor, associate clinical professor, senior scientist, senior scholar, research scientist, principal research scientist, librarian, associate librarian, archivist, or senior archivist who has served in that capacity for ten or more years may be considered for emeritus/a status. (Reference Policy 5.5 in the faculty handbook)
The new policy takes effect immediately for all RTE faculty who have retired after June 30, 2020.
Process
When a RTE faculty member is planning retirement, they make a request to their department chair/division director to be considered. Advice for Potential Candidates is in the Faculty Handbook Section 5.1
- Candidate sends CV and cover letter to Chair (or equivalent).
- The Department/Unit votes. University Voting Rights
- Chair/Director sends three items (packaged together as one pdf document) to the Dean's Executive Assistant.
- A letter indicating the vote tally and making a recommendation.
- CV
- Candidate’s cover letter
- The Dean makes the final decision which is communicated to the Dean of Faculty (deanoffaculty [at] cornell.edu).
- The dean’s office will prepare the congratulatory letter and distribute.
Note: Advice for Potential Candidates is in the Faculty Handbook Section 5.1