Spring Break
Letter:AAUP exec questions provost's thoughts on retirement incentive
Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
09/18/08 - To the Cigar,
Congratulations on your editorial yesterday [9/17 - "Retirement option incentive for disaster.] You have correctly identified the consequences of state and university policies that urge faculty to retire and then provide insufficient funding to replace them.
I urge you to send this editorial to every member of the General Assembly (all of whom will be on the ballot this November) and to the governor's office.
It would be interesting to see if any of these elected officials write back and what they say. Students are entitled to reasonably sized classes, with sufficient numbers of sections to satisfy their academic and career plans. Thank you for your advocacy in this regard.
I can assure you that the URI faculty continues to strive to provide the highest quality education, under the most difficult conditions any public university has endured.
While we have lost a number of our outstanding colleagues through retirements, URI is still blessed to have on our faculty many brilliant, experienced and nationally-recognized teachers and researchers. We have also hired many young faculty over the past 20 years and they, too, are making their mark upon the high quality of education URI offers.
On a separate but related manner, I must wonder who Provost DeHayes is speaking for when, as quoted on your page 1 article, he states, "Most of the staff is elderly, we want a new and energetic faculty."
Speaking as the union representative of the faculty, I must point out to the provost that he is probably older than many of the URI faculty.
Yet, he seems to have a great deal of energy. Who does the provost include in the "we" that wants a new and energetic faculty? The president? The Board of Governors? I wish these people would also come forward so that the URI faculty will know where they stand.
The age of the faculty, new or elderly, is not the problem at URI. We need MORE faculty, but to do that, we need more money. Let's go about the business of finding more money, rather than engaging in invidious ageism.
Frank R. Annunziato
Executive Director
URI/AAUP
Congratulations on your editorial yesterday [9/17 - "Retirement option incentive for disaster.] You have correctly identified the consequences of state and university policies that urge faculty to retire and then provide insufficient funding to replace them.
I urge you to send this editorial to every member of the General Assembly (all of whom will be on the ballot this November) and to the governor's office.
It would be interesting to see if any of these elected officials write back and what they say. Students are entitled to reasonably sized classes, with sufficient numbers of sections to satisfy their academic and career plans. Thank you for your advocacy in this regard.
I can assure you that the URI faculty continues to strive to provide the highest quality education, under the most difficult conditions any public university has endured.
While we have lost a number of our outstanding colleagues through retirements, URI is still blessed to have on our faculty many brilliant, experienced and nationally-recognized teachers and researchers. We have also hired many young faculty over the past 20 years and they, too, are making their mark upon the high quality of education URI offers.
On a separate but related manner, I must wonder who Provost DeHayes is speaking for when, as quoted on your page 1 article, he states, "Most of the staff is elderly, we want a new and energetic faculty."
Speaking as the union representative of the faculty, I must point out to the provost that he is probably older than many of the URI faculty.
Yet, he seems to have a great deal of energy. Who does the provost include in the "we" that wants a new and energetic faculty? The president? The Board of Governors? I wish these people would also come forward so that the URI faculty will know where they stand.
The age of the faculty, new or elderly, is not the problem at URI. We need MORE faculty, but to do that, we need more money. Let's go about the business of finding more money, rather than engaging in invidious ageism.
Frank R. Annunziato
Executive Director
URI/AAUP
