ACADEMY OF ACTIVE
RETIREES
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII (UH-AAR)
By Fred W. Riggs
Chair of FRAUHM 's Committee on Liaison with UH (CLUH)
Jump to Activities, Background , and end for relevant links
UH-AAR. Tentatively, would it make sense to promote the idea of an Academy of Active Retirees (at UH)? It could include not only retired faculty but also any retired person interested in UH, like former Regents, visiting professors, ex-staff of the East-West Center, etc. -- the criterion for membership would be that, after having retired, one remains active and interested in taking on this challenge. Retirees from each campus in the UH system would be eligible. Activity would include work as volunteers, or in any other relevant roles. To launch the idea, CLUH might select a small group of "charter members" and they would first meet separately to discuss the idea. If they liked it, they could create the academy and seek external support. They would also be able to "elect" Fellows of the Academy. The key word is "ACTIVE." We would look for people who are, indeed, active after retirement in socially significant roles. CLUH would initiate but have no control over or responsiblity for the UH-AAR, an acronym that could well be used for the group if they liked it.
ACTIVITIES. The Academy (UH-AAR) -- pronounced you are -- might engage in these activities:
1. Regular meetings to discuss matters that concern retirees -- this can include all current concerns of members and visitors. Start as an in-house discussion group. Later, perhaps, it could expand to include community and university people in town-gown discourse on salient questions with interesting speakers and presentations -- perhaps dinner meetings at a hotel, with drinks first, and then seating at tables designed to optimize cross-cutting participation and discourse. Members and guest speakers would offer critical analyses of problems facing UH and possible solutions.
2. Panels set up by AAR-UH to look into any question, especially problems facing UH and its BOR, including relationships with non-UH but closely linked entities like the EWC. Eventually, if panel reports are worthy enough, UH-AAR might get funded commissions to do studies and reports. One such commission might propose reforms for UH and the BOR designed to overcome problems that led to the BOR/Dobelle fiasco. To do this, the Academy would need funding and should therefore be incorporated as a non-profit organization.
3. Prizes could be offered for exceptional achievements as an active retiree -- a kind of Academy Award. Interestingly virtually every other category -- faculty, students, regents, staff -- do receive honors for their achievements, but there's nothing for active retirees! Academy members should exclude themselves from receiving prizes so they could be disinterested in choosing awardees. Prize money could be raised from members and friends of the Academy.
4. Action to support relevant causes, like establishment of, and participation in, the University Club being organized by Raymond Yeh, Dick Dubanoski and others. The Academy might seek other outside vehicles through which its concerns and interests could be extended to a broader constituency. It could sponsor workshops or courses through OLLI , the Osher Lifeong Learning Institute. Because of its essential freedom of action, it could offer critical comments on UH problems, perhaps through letters or op ed notes in the local press, serving a kind of ombudsman function. Externally, UH-AAR might cooperate with other academies that share its goals. We do not visualize the Academy as a social club but rather as an instrument for articulating information and points of view that will help UH become a better university.
BACKGROUND. Apart from the National Academy of Sciences -- and its DBASSE (Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education) -- which is a familiar prototype, consider two other academies that provide relevant models. They all engage in studies and sponsor awards. Their charter members elect new members who expand and enrich the membership and capabilities of each academy..
The World Academy of Art and Science is a global association that sponsors conferences and panels to study problems relevant to academia and the world system. Several fellows of the WAAS are colleagues at UH and we might be able to secure their help in co-sponsoring a study of active retirees and how to engage them more effectively in relevant programs.
The National Academy of Public Administration is headquartered in Washington and has fellows all over the U.S. It sponsors studies and panels on problems of national interest. Since I am a life member, I can share experience and perhaps obtain assistance from this source.
The National Academy on an Aging Society conducts research on issues related to population aging and provides information to the public, the press, policymakers, and the academic community. Our goal, by contrast, will be to engage senior citizens in activities that serve the University community -- we would not try to duplicate research about the elderly and services for them as already available through the UH Center on Aging.
ROBUST SENIORS. Inspiration for the Academy is drawn from Marc Freedman's book, PRIME TIME: How Baby Boomers will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America. (Public Affairs, NY, 1999). The opening paragraph of this book reads: Our enormous and rapidly growing older population ... is a vast, untapped social resource. If we can engage these individuals in ways that fill urgent gaps in our society, the result would be a windfall for American civic life in the twenty-first century. We might just accomplish something else along the way: bring greater fulfillment and purpose to the postmidlife years and transform what it means to age in this country. Freedman is founder and president of Civic Ventures , an organization that works to transform the aging of America into a source of individual and social renewal. The proposed Academy strongly endorses this perspective and will suppport the achievement of this goal at the University of Hawaii. .
Etymologically, the word ACADEMY derives from Plato's Academy, a suburb of Athens honoring the hero Academos or Ecademos, where Plato met with his disciples -- for details see: Plato's Academy . The Encarta Dictionary defines an academy as a school or college; as referring to the academic world or academia; and in its first sense, as "a formal society whose purpose is to promote a particular aspect of knowledge or culture"
MONEY. Financial support for the Academy can come from dues paid by members, grants from foundations, and contracts for studies to be sponsored by UH-AAR. At UH, the Center on Aging may be helpful. Relevant information at the national level about work done by and for retired elders is availaable from the National Academy on an Aging Society . It lists donors to its work, including some foundations, and funds that prioritize projects on and with seniors -- they both collect and distribute money. Among them are the AARP Foundation; the International Longevity Center and its affiliated Alliance for Health and the Future; the Retirement Research Foundation ; and the U. S. Administration on Aging . These programs prioritize health and income requirements of aging, but say little about the activities robust elders can engage in, activities that not only serve society but enhance their health. This is the dimension that UH-AAR should focus on.
Some Relevant Links:
Background Information:
Some of the innumerable Academies selected for their relevance to the UH-AAR concept: