One of the
problems we face as an organization is overcoming the assumption
that once faculty and staff take on the role of “retiree,”
they will fade into the sunset, never to be heard—or heard
of—again. However, questions lying just beneath the surface
during active service come to the fore in the glare of the reality
of retirement. Members currently in service, therefore, cannot
afford to place their CUNY retirement future at risk.
Retirees
are naturally concerned about questions of personal security in
retirement. These questions should be of equal concern to the
“not-yet-retired.” After all, sooner or later—you will be
there!
The
following issues occupy active sites on the agendas of the PSC and
the Retirees Chapter:
1.
What financial security is actually provided by my academic
pension?
2.
Are my Social Security and Medicare funds at risk?
3.
Are my institutional health care benefits to be continued into my
retirement? Are health benefits to be provided for my spouse or
significant other during my retirement and after my demise?
4.
Is the PSC still there to protect my financial security interests
after I have retired?
The PSC
offers resources to provide answers to these questions. A Pension
and Welfare Benefits Office under the direction of Clarissa
Gilbert Weiss offers consultations to members contemplating
retirement. For a number of years the PSC has been running a very
popular annual pre-retirement conference in the spring. It is open
to all members and their spouses, regardless of proximity to
retirement.
Our
growing Retirees Chapter, which has over 2000 dues-paying members,
meets once a month during the academic year. It provides updated
information and generates action on Medicare, Social Security and
Welfare Fund benefits, and political issues affecting retirees,
active faculty and students. Many retirees have also become active
in other PSC initiatives: they serve on the Legislative Committee;
they lobby vigorously in Albany; they are leaders in the Women’s
Committee.
There is
another set of components of retirement that agitate retired
faculty. Severing the umbilical cord of active service should not
include the amputation of all ties with one’s department, home
institution, CUNY or the PSC. Many retired PSC members wish to
continue active professional lives. Yet not every campus provides
retirees with a campus ID card and access to facilities and/ or
equipment such as the library, computers and duplicating
apparatus, office space, on-campus parking (where available), and
faculty dining rooms (where available). These are some of the
professional considerations that occupy retirees. The PSC
negotiating team has pressed for a solution to these problems at
the bargaining table, with members of the Retirees’ Chapter
attending to make the case for these demands.
In
addition, many retirees, having spent a professional lifetime on a
CUNY campus, find themselves cut off from the flow of information
about departmental and institutional activities. Should a faculty
member be banished from departmental and campus mailing lists and
cast into the limbo of non-communication by the act of
“retirement”?
After
scrutinizing the items above, shouldn’t you, as a member in
active service, ask, “Will there be life for me after retirement
on my campus?” Ask yourself, “Should I care?”
Sooner or
later, you will enter the domain of retirement. Whatever the PSC
and its Retirees Chapter accrue will be what you inherit.
Therefore it is in your best interests to encourage your
department, your institution and CUNY not to dismiss retirees with
a verbal ‘gold watch.’ Remember— sooner or later, you will
be there!
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