STRENGTHENING USC THROUGH THE ACTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE USC RETIREE COMMUNITY

A Strategic Plan

Developed by the Joint Committee of the USC Retiree Community

Prefatory Statement

This strategic plan is being developed by a joint committee of the USC Retiree Community representing the Emeriti Center, the Emeriti College, the Staff Retirement Association, and the Retired Faculty Association. In the fall of 2004 we undertook to explore what we can do that is both worthwhile and practical to strengthen the University. Accordingly, the following blueprint has been developed.

This blueprint follows along the track of the University’s strategic plan announced by President Sample earlier in the fall. Recognizing the realities that confront the University, this strategic plan of the Retiree Community seeks to support the role and vision of USC, and to further the themes of interdisciplinary lifelong learning, strengthening our Pacific Rim connections, technology transfer, and collaboration with other institutions.

The planning has proceeded in the context of the celebration of the University’s 125 th anniversary, in which all of us are encouraged to think about how we can honor the past in ways that help and inspire the future. Therefore, this USC Retiree Community strategic plan is organized into three sections. First, it focuses on honoring the past by reviewing what retirees have done through the four separately organized components of the retiree community. Then it turns to exploring what might be worth inventing in the future. It concludes with steps that might be taken to implement this enlarged picture of the future.

Our planning is predicated on several basic and closely related facts. One is that the investment in the University that was made during their years as faculty or staff members of the University, continues into retirement in the same way that students move seamlessly from student status to alumni status; they all continue as vital components of the Trojan Family. Another is that although retirees during their working lives were identified with separate disciplines and academic fields in particular schools, departments, colleges, or administrative support organizations, in retirement such barriers are transcended and retirees become part of a community that is principally directed toward the advancement of the University as a whole.

This paper outlines our thinking about the strategic contributions of the USC Retiree Community that support the University. We expect our planning to continue to evolve as we learn more from consultation both within the Retiree Community and the larger USC community, and as we explore the resources that would be warranted by these developments.

HONORING THE PAST — BUILDING ON OUR STRENGTHS

USC, recognized as offering the largest scope of services by and for retirees of universities in North America, is deeply cognizant of the value that result when retired faculty and staff continue life-long and world-wide connections with, and support for, the institution they helped to build and the community of which this University is an integral part.

Organization

The history and character of USC have been shaped by the faculty and staff over the last 125 years. Throughout their careers, faculty and staff have elected to work in this educational/service organization rather than in industry where salaries in most instances would have been considerably higher, thus effectively making them the largest contributors of all to USC. And many, after retirement, continue to serve the University on campus and as ambassadors to the community. Just as the Staff Assembly and Staff Club were unique pioneering ventures, so the USC Retiree Community, with leadership drawn from the four discrete organizations, is forging new ground in university-retiree relationships.

These organizations are:

Retired Faculty Association (since 1949)

Emeriti Center (since 1977)

Staff Retirement Association (since 1985)

Emeriti College (since 1990)

Each of these organizations began independent of the others; each has largely pursued its own portfolio of contributions to the University and services to its members. On balance, these contributions have been complementary and not competitive. A spirit of support and encouragement and cooperation prevails among all four as hundreds of retired staff and faculty volunteer time, talent, and money to carry out the separate or joint activities of these organizations.

As of January 2005, the USC Retiree Community consists of 1,495 Gold-Card recipients who individually have served the University for at least 10 years. This group of retirees represents more than 30,000 years of service to the University, with an individual average of 20.9 years. To these numbers may be added many retirees whose shorter period of service or age at retirements render them ineligible for the Gold Card but who nevertheless remain actively involved and connected with USC. It is also noteworthy that among the retirees are many alumni who bring an added dimension of loyalty and support to their alma mater.

Over the last half century, USC has gradually created the key components of the Retiree Community that nurture the contributions of retirees to the University, albeit that each of the four organizations provides some different services and opportunities.

Given that each of these organizations works well in its separate sphere, we see no reason for structural change, merger, or incorporation. However, we have learned that there are a number of important things worth doing that transcend our four present charters. The USC Retiree Community accordingly would benefit from collaboration, and such collaborative action would work strongly to the advantage of the University.

Achievements

Last year, the USC Emeriti Center celebrated its 25 th anniversary with a corporate-sponsored luncheon and premiere of a professionally produced documentary “Connecting for Life.” This DVD was subsequently shown at national conferences: American Society on Aging, National Council on the Aging, and Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE). It appears on the USC Website with links from several organizations. The Center’s national reputation derives both from consistent growth in opportunities accessible to retirees to serve the university, the community, and each other, and from expanded services offered to retirees. Some of the services provided by USC retirees to the university and the community are noted in this plan.

The activities and services of the Center are wide-ranging. Direct services to retirees include pre- and post-retirement education (seminars, application forms, articles, personal consultations, Steps-to-Retirement Booklet); regular communication (via newsletters, EC Forum list serve, website, e-mail, internet service, personal notes, phone calls, etc); referrals for age-related and other personal problems; and service as ombudsman for USC-related problems. USC offers many privileges to qualified retirees through the Retiree Gold Card (such as campus parking, publications, e-mail, directory, discounts, event calendar, etc) and to other retiree groups (such as retention of eligibility for tickets to athletic events and membership in the University Club). USC’s primary support is through its generous Defined Contribution Retirement Plan and the Support Staff Pension Plan. Many retirees also receive a university healthcare stipend.

Through foundation support, the USC Emeriti Center offers Emeriti Research Grants of $2000 each (resulting in dozens of academic publications) and Undergraduate Assistantships of $2500 to aid in retiree research (resulting in publications and significant influence on student participants). A new offering of Volunteer Community Service Grants of up to $1000 encourages volunteerism on- and off-campus.

Recognition of achievement, contribution, and service often become even more meaningful in retirement. The Emeriti Center administers the Leibovitz Faculty and Staff Awards for Service to Seniors and the Borchard Honorary Lectureship, and collects nominations for the Lifetime Achievement Awards. “Retiree Recognition” is a regular page of the newsletter featuring the achievements or activities submitted by retirees. Successful nominations were made on behalf of retirees for Alumni and civic awards. The Emeriti Center-sponsored H. Dale Hilton Living History Project provides videotaped interviews with prominent USC retirees for the USC Archives, the USC Library, and serves as a resource for the 125 th Anniversary History Group.

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In 2004, the Emeriti Center was presented with the Small Business Recognition Awardfrom the USC Small Business Development Office.

The Emeriti Center Advancement Board, formed in 2002, serves as an added connection to the corporate and alumni communities.

USC Emeriti Center has been referred to as the “gold standard” [for retirement organizations in higher education] in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Feb. 7, 2003). Emeritus Director Paul Hadley was the subject of an article entitled “Professor for Life” in AARP:NRTA’s publication Live and Learn (Winter 2003). A dual case study of the USC Emeriti Center and the Retiree Center at UC Berkeley, authored by the respective directors and entitled “Continuing the Connection: Emeriti/Retiree Centers on Campus,” has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Gerontology (2005). Based on an interview already conducted, the USC Emeriti Center is to be featured in the most prestigious London Times Higher Education Supplement (2005).

Other AAU universities including Yale, UC Berkeley and UCLA have sent representatives to consult with the USC Emeriti Center Director on how to form or enhance a retirement center at their institutions.

USC is the force behind the founding of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) in 2002 and serves as its founding and present secretariat. Evolving from a fifteen-year span of USC Emeriti Center-sponsored conferences with retiree organizations at other universities, first in California, then the West Coast, and finally spanning the country, AROHE is now an international organization in its infancy. Yielding immense benefit to member universities, its very existence is still dependent upon the volunteer leadership of USC.

The Emeriti College (a division of the Emeriti Center with volunteer faculty of 75 retired and senior USC scholars) fosters regular university teaching opportunities with a variety of academic units (courses, freshman seminars, guest lectures). Emeriti College faculty reach out: to individual students (mentoring of Emerging Leaders and Caldwell scholarship recipients and giving undergraduate assistantships on retiree research projects); at campus events (Borchard Lecture, Inamoto Lecture); to alumni (alumni club lecture series, Trojan Travel tours and cruises); to the business community (lectures to civic/non-profit groups and at the Los Angeles City Library, “Talking Together” discussions at corporate events); and to seniors in the greater Los Angeles area (at senior centers and retirement residences). Last year 140 programs were presented at two-dozen community sites, reaching more than 10,000 participants. This community outreach, the hallmark of the USC Emeriti College, has largely replaced the former USC Speakers’ Bureau and has given the Emeriti Center and USC the title among retirement organizations in colleges and universities as the “Community Model.”

The Retired Faculty Association (RFA) hosts bi-monthly program luncheons and an annual Provost’s Luncheon for New Retirees, and maintains communication with retired faculty through its newsletter. An RFA emergency relief fund is available for needy faculty retirees. The RFA supports one Caldwell Scholar and helps administer the program. It also selects recipients for the USC Lifetime Achievement Awards conferred at USC’s Annual Academic Convocation.

The Staff Retirement Association (SRA) provides quarterly program lunches and an annual Retiree Recognition Luncheon hosted by the Senior Vice President of Administration, sponsors guided tours of Los Angeles attractions, sends birthday and anniversary cards to its members, and maintains communication through a monthly e-newsletter and annual publication.

The RFA and SRA share a homecoming booth welcoming all retirees, and all retirees are invited to join the Retiree Book Club’s monthly meetings. Efforts are underway to determine more successfully the needs and interests of USC retirees.

Values to USC

Together our four units have helped to create a caring environment for senior members of the USC community. Now we want to expand our horizons to create an environment and expectation of substantial support aimed toward strengthening the University as a whole. From more than fifty years of experience, we have learned what the Retiree Community can accomplish

1. Institutional Continuity. The Emeriti Center’s Living History Project records video interviews dating from the era of President Norman Topping. Surveys collect retirement memories, experiences, and impressions. Regular social, intellectual and cultural gatherings are an untapped resource.

1. Morale and Community-Building. Highly respected honors and recognition, continual communication, and compassionate services are key components. Outstanding retirement benefits and meaningful retirement privileges, like the Retire Gold Card, are respected and fundamental.

1. Service to the University. A substantial resource of unpaid service, retirees constitute a pool of experts who remain on or return to campus to serve in innumerable capacities: from time to time they help out in emergency situations and cover staff and faculty shortages; help orient and consult with new staff and faculty, providing advice and counsel when it is sought; they teach courses, lead freshman seminars, guest lecture; they maintain contact with alumni and provide expertise on alumni tours. They are productively engaged in research, publication, and mentoring students, not infrequently employing undergraduates to assist with research projects, thereby helping to mold some of USC’s finest students; they are involved in project development, strategic planning, accreditations preparation, doctoral supervision, and numerous other committees. Retirees identify and develop outside resources for USC and encourage donor gifts.

USC Ambassadors. Retirees are USC ambassadors with more than 10,000 contacts each year. Between 140 and 200 college-level lectures/discussions are given to local seniors, alumni, and business people. Volunteers work in libraries, schools, churches, hospitals, polling centers, meals-on-wheels, National Red Cross, and other public-service agencies. With the exception of the Emeriti College lectures, most volunteer service by retirees, whether on campus or in the community is undocumented.

Donor Pool and Development Resource. Retirees provide the strongest link to alumni, donate to the university through direct and planned gifts, and encourage individual donors and foundations with which they have links, to consider USC. Data for the last 20 years show that as of January 2004, 1,591 retirees have made 65,571 gifts to USC both before and after their retirements, for a total of $16,583,747.84. There have been countless contributions to USC resulting from the direct efforts of retirees—including one endowed position this year from a new donor who responded to the request of a retiree.

INVENTING THE FUTURE – THE USC RETIREE COMMUNITY

The USC Retiree Community wishes to celebrate USC’s 125 th Anniversary with the introduction of some innovative initiatives for the future of the University, its faculty, staff, and especially for those who have retired from full-time service from USC.

The aim of these initiatives is to link and connect with retirees based on what they are doing since retirement and want to do in the future. The initiatives are designed to make contributions to the greater Trojan Family, of which the retirees are an essential component. The USC Retiree Community is ready to begin their implementation as resources are available and interested persons are identified for leadership. Indeed, the Retiree Community is optimistic about realizing the vision of what can be achieved in behalf of the University and its retirees.

• Enhance and Expand the Programming and Communications of the USC Retiree Community to:

• Improve the USC Retirement Process by providing personal contacts between retirees and active personnel to discuss and answer questions about retiring from USC and about retirement in general.
• Strengthen Communication and Connections with and among retirees, current faculty and staff, university administration and the public including such vehicles as surveys, newsletters, university publications, and list-serve discussions that explore current and future issues and collaborate to solve problems.
• Begin Involving New Faculty and Staff to Think of Service to USC as a Life-Long Connection: through orientation sessions and literature, discussions, and seminars covering what is important to consider in one’s career that leads to a successful retirement.
• Enhance Programming for Retirees and Those Planning Retirement through luncheons, lectures, discussions, seminars, demonstrations, classes, etc. covering retirement issues and important life and living issues. Form walking groups, computer helpers, or other activity groups similar to the existing Retiree Book Club.
• Initiate a USC Retiree Service Corps to seek, generate, collect, share knowledge of, facilitate, and train for service opportunities – as well as document, measure, report, and build ways to recognize the service contributions of USC Retirees, both within USC and in the broader community. What USC retirees are already doing is formidable, but the impact of those contributions could benefit from more network linkage, recognition, and support. USC can benefit from the community recognition this could generate. The Retire Community might be able to prototype a broader University signature by recognizing the impact of such service contributions being made as well by our current students, staff, faculty, alumni, and other USC community members to a higher quality and more humane and civil society.
  • Build on the Successes of the Emeriti College with an expansion of services and goals, such as creating a curriculum for retiree leadership that would involve practical applications to meet a wide range of community needs and interests. Expand the new program “Talking Together” in which USC Emeriti engage in discussions with corporate groups on vital issues.Develop new projects that more broadly address the community.
  • Improve Institutional Connections and Support. Identify additional privileges and services to add to email, personal website, life-time parking, library usage, listing in the directory, tickets to campus events, health stipends, campus housing for retirees, etc.
  • Expand Programming by the Retirees . Find ways to engage retirees in giving demonstrations, exhibits, discussions, and other formal and informal presentations among themselves and to the public.
  • Work with USC Non-local Retirees, both domestic and foreign,to assist in University work such as student recruitment, alumni group formation, ongoing contact with students and their families, and overseas ventures.
  • Find Effective Ways to Engage non-local USC Retirees through programming that facilitates their involvement. This may require conference phone meetings, e-mail correspondences, and preparing and sharing assignments with local retirees.
  • Reach Out and Engage Frail and Non-Active USC Retirees, creating contact and participation in the greater USC Retiree Community through visitations to those who are less able, so that more can be known about the needs of this population. Seek to address those needs. This may lead to such things as a phone-tree for the ill or frail; an organized transportation service to campus for scholastic, cultural, social, or athletic events; and/or extension of services by the Staff/Faculty Counseling Center. Needs may be met by programs sponsored by the USC Retiree Community alone or though collaboration with Alumni or Student Groups, or by referrals to public or nonprofit agencies.
  • Create Video Presentations to supply programming to Senior Centers and other groups to stand on their own or to serve as backup for speakers who cannot make a scheduled engagement through the Emeriti College.
  • Create a Performance and Presentation Wing of the USC Retiree Community that would provide exhibits and performances. The retirees who have artistic and performance talents will form a performance and presentation group that would create exhibits of their artistic work and create productions and performances that would be available as programming to community groups.
  • Devise Means and Mechanism for Retirees to Assist in Fund-Raising, to include seminars and working sessions to help retirees: identify potential donors, train in methods to cultivate possible donors, and learn how to work with University units.
  • Be More Involved as Mentors for USC Students with a special interest in students who are in need of some attention while continuing to mentor the “Emerging Leaders.”
  • Contribute to the University Neighborhood Outreach by assisting with existing programs and creating additional programs such as parent and/or teacher education and mentoring.
  • Assist the University in the Collection and Management of USC Historical Facts and Items that will enhance the university archives and assist in the preservation and display of items on hand.
  • Develop a Long Term Financial Strategy and Structure to support the USC Retiree Community in the present and into the future.
  • Continue to Support and Encourage Retirees’ Contributions to USC including time and financial support to scholarships, academic units, and the organizations that support the USC Retiree Community.
  • Expand Research and Service Grants to (a) retirees who continue productive research, writing books and articles and in other ways add to knowledge; and (b) retirees whose important roles as volunteers in university, community, or cultural organizations entail some material costs.
  • Create an Endowment in the university that will support the future of the USC Retiree Community. The USC Retiree Community and the USC administration should join together in the continuing search for a naming donor who would support a Center for the USC Retiree Community.
  • Develop a Strategy to Nurture the USC Retiree Community in building and accomplishing common goals. Seek funding from all types of sources for general operation and special projects. Find the common goals for all USC organizations that make up the USC Retiree Community and seek to raise funds for those causes.
  • Support the University in Building Facilities to Consolidate and Accommodate the Work of the USC Retiree Community. Integrate the needs of the USC Retiree Community into the needs into University Facilities planning.
  • Include in the Center Facility administrative offices for AROHE and the USC retiree organizations, meeting spaces, and space in which to read, write, and work on computers.
  • Create a Multi-Generation Living Facility that would have space for USC Retirees in University housing that would include faculty and students.
  • Devise Unique Possibilities for the USC Retiree Community that would show its continued leadership and vitality as a Retirement Community.
  • As a Group Participate in Research Studies , especially as related to geriatric issues. Seek to be more involved with USC programs that involve studies of the aging, active adults, family relations, volunteering, community activism, mental and/or physical traits, etc.
  • Find Ways to Better Connect with USC Alumni organizations and activities, both domestic and foreign.
  • Inform and Empower the Retiree Community in Their Roles as USC Ambassadors. Provide training sessions, materials and information that will better equip the Retiree to be informed as a representative to speak about USC.
  • Encourage Involvement of Non-Local Retirees through such devices as conference phone meetings, e-mail correspondence, partnering with local retirees in developing and implementing assignments.
  • Work with Domestic and Foreign Non-Local USC Retirees to assist in University tasks aimed to recruit students, form alumni groups, maintain ongoing contacts with students and their families, and aid in overseas ventures.
  • Collaborate with Our Colleague APRU Institutions , share common experiences and mobilize our joint capacity as retiree communities to support our research universities.
  • Provide Strong Leadership in AROHE as the international association home office housing the AROHE Executive Director and Founding President. Through USC connections seek to enlarge AROHE’s membership to include all universities with existing or developing retirement organizations. Host an international conference.
  • Redesign the Center for the USC Retiree Community to better serve and engage the full population of individuals who have retired or will retiree from USC . The following steps will be explored:
  • Reinvent the Center to be more inclusive, expanding the definition of “retiree” and incorporating the common goals of the Retired Faculty Association, Staff Retirement Association, and Emeriti College. Transcend previous alliances with these retiree organizations by providing support, as arranged for each organization, and coordinate joint efforts that serve the entire USC Retiree Community.
  • Begin New Initiatives to improve existing programs and create bold new projects for the USC Retiree Community.
  • Organize the Center’s Operations -- staff, committee structure, councils, and related boards -- to best address the initiatives for the future. The Center that serves the USC Retiree Community should be a full-time office with a full-time professional staff in appropriate positions.
  • Seek Ways to Consolidate Efforts of all the Retiree Organizations, including publication of newsletters, management of databases, collection of dues, solicitation of support, and involvement of retirees.
  
  

  REALIZING THE PLAN –

  IMPLEMENTING THE OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE US

  We have reflected on USC’s achievements with its Retiree Community and have identified a number of attractive and practical opportunities that learning makes possible. This section suggests how we can begin.

  The Evolving Plan

  A significant finding resulting from this preliminary development of the strategic plan is that there is the remarkable opportunity now available for the several institutional parts of a vigorous USC Retiree Community to collaborate and contribute to the University of Southern California’s realization of its goals. The Emeriti Center, The Emeriti College, the Staff Retirement Association, and the Retired Faculty Association are all convinced that our collaboration with each other and with other academic and administrative units offers a major opportunity for strengthening this University of which we are an intrinsic part. We are aware that we need to work together with greater skill and suppleness—and the Joint Committee preparing this plan in itself is a model of how we can most effectively and productively proceed. A key lies in our recognition that we can facilitate achievement of our mutual goals by working together in our common interest: the effectiveness of the retirees and the benefit of USC. We do not anticipate closure of any of the organizational parts of the Retiree Community; rather we see that each would be animated and energized by the larger vision foreseen in this strategic plan.

  It is clear that those of us in the Retiree Community will contribute the laboring oar to guide this plan and begin its implementation. Rather than expending all our energy in trying to “perfect” a plan, it seems better to realize that our thinking about what might be potentially desirable should be disciplined by what we learn can be achieved by our actions. We are aware that we cannot achieve all our goals at once, but that we can learn as we proceed, that we need to work our way into the larger potential that this strategic plan addresses.

  We anticipate using the Joint Committee as a continuing forum, its membership enlarged as we progress, with focus on developing experience, prioritizing, testing, and acting to implement the ideas developing in the strategic plan.

  As completion and submission of the Strategic Plan evolve, we expect to begin the process of implementing some of the key elements it contains. The first step will be to identify a small number of priority projects around which an implementation committee can be organized and with which a champion of that development can work. Implementation teams will assess needs, develop program(s), enlist retirees, and create funding strategy. The licensing and progress will be nurtured and overseen by the Joint Committee, and reported to the larger community.

  
  

  Resources

  The resources and encouragement for innovation provided by the University to the USC Retiree Community have been substantial and are very much appreciated – both by each of us individually as well as by the community as a whole. The opportunities identified within this strategic plan are substantial. We need also to consider whether these opportunities warrant the investment of additional resources, and if so, the possible sources and nature of these resources.

  Manpower. The significant accomplishments of the Retiree Community to now have been achieved by the active support and participation of approximately one fifth of the USC retirees and by financial support of many more. Volunteer time on campus is grossly under-recorded at 3,133 hours for FY2004. However, implementation of this strategic plan requires the enlistment and involvement of many additional volunteers—retirees currently active, those able to be physically present, those by frailty or distance or personal constraints unable to come to campus. We believe that, the potential exists to increase significantly the number of participants and the contributions they make.

  Funding. How much has been accomplished by a minor financial investment from the University is noteworthy. Support for the USC Retiree Community in FY2005 is $218,000. To fund adequately only the existing programs of the Emeriti Center and the AROHE (Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education) office, it must raise an additional $100,000 each year, a target seldom reached heretofore. Funds are solicited through an annual campaign to the retirees themselves, foundation grants, and corporate sponsorships. Endowment funding remains an unrealized ideal.

  A big vision necessitates rethinking of funding support: a volunteer force requires adequate staff support, and new programs rely on material resources. An increasingly spread-out campus demands additional transportation considerations.

  Full implementation of this plan requires a true investment partnership between USC and the USC Retiree Community.

  Prepared by the USC Retiree Joint Committee:

  
  

  Robert Biller

  Robert Coffey

  William R Faith

  Frances Lomas Feldman

  Carole Gustin

  Phil Manning

  Jennifer Ontai

  Elizabeth Redmon

  Robert Scales

  Harriet Servis

  Gilbert Siegel

  Mitzi Tsujimoto

  Ronald Violette

  
  
  

  Endorsed by:

  
  

  USC Emeriti Center

  USC Emeriti College

  February 28, 2005

  
  

  Retired Faculty Association

  Staff Retirement Association