In an effort to provide for the increasing number of retired professors and to help recruit new faculty, the University Senate endorsed a new plan for retirement benefits for faculty.

The retirement plan, which could go into effect on Jan. 1, 2006, will now offer lifetime benefits to retiring professors, their spouses, and dependents, said John Palmer, Emeritus Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, during his report to the senate.

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Michael Flusche presided over the meeting in Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s and Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund’s absences.

The absences prompted the Committee to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns to defer their report on military recruitment and ROTC and their relationship to academic freedom for LGBT students until a meeting with Cantor and to have additional time to discuss the report, said Pat Cihon in the agenda committee report.

The new retirement plan took precedence in the agenda. The culmination of two years of work, the plan will use an age/service subsidy and a Medicare plan to increase retirees’ coverage without dipping into a $1.1 million surplus in retiree medical costs.

At 65, retirees become eligible for Medicare drug coverage, at which point SU will provide only supplementary coverage, the executive report prepared by the Health Care Advisory Committee’s review committee said.

The addition of the Medicare program allows for additional major savings, Palmer said.

‘This is an opportunity to make a wonderful improvement to retiree healthcare benefits,’ Palmer said.

Palmer also explained the new age and service subsidies, which increase with years of service and the professor’s age at retirement, to the senate. According to estimates in the report, some eligible retirees could save over $40,000 in medical coverage over the rest of their lifetime, while others could end up paying more than $50,000 more than they would under the current plan.

‘The vast majority of employees will be substantially better off in terms of what they can expect to pay over the rest of their life,’ Palmer said.

The senate voted to endorse the plan, which will go to the Board of Trustees on March 11 for approval.

USen also voted on conferring an honorary degree to 2005 commencement speaker Jane Goodall.

Other items on the agenda included introducing a revised plan for a confidential complaint hotline, EthicPoints, for business and financial matters during a report given by Raymond Letterman, chair of the Committee on Administrative Operations.

Geraldine de Berly, chair of the Committee on the Library, questioned what efforts were being made to monitor faculty’s academic integrity.

David Potter, associate dean of The College of Arts and Sciences, said the vice chancellor’s Committee on Academic Integrity is currently working on a report on integrity throughout the university.

‘We’ve reached out to the community about this,’ he said. The committee is the force behind the fall’s integrity surveys that were sent to all students via e-mail.

Both the integrity and hotline debates were shortened due to lack of time. The hotline proposal will be reworded and presented again at the next meeting, to be held in Maxwell Auditorium at 4:15 p.m. on March 23.

Published on February 16, 2005 at 12:00 pm