Issue Highlights
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AROHE News

Retirement Organization News

*Retirement Planning Programs

*Georgetown University

*University of Southern California

*Clemson

*University of Washington

*University of Cincinnati

Trends

Retirement Resources

Creative Corner

AROHE Information

Thank you to our Sponsors

TIAA     Kendal
ASU Emeritus College
Vivid-Pix

Editor's Note

This issue of AROHE Matters highlights campus retirement planning programs submitted by AROHE member organizations. The AROHE Research and Development Committeehas developed two AROHE Briefs on this subject; one focused on faculty retirement and one focused on staff retirement. Members can access the Briefs at https://www.arohe.org/Knowledge-Center/.

For the May issue of AROHE Matters, we will be highlighting retirement organizations’ volunteer programs. Send your volunteer program activity by April 18 to editor Patrick Cullinane at pculllinane@berkeley.edu.

President's Message

Bill Verdini

This year AROHE celebrates our 20th Anniversary!


Congratulations!

Our hopes for an in-person conference this year did not materialize. You may think that 2022 is mimicking the movie “Groundhog Day,” but “It’s [NOT] déjà vu all over again!” Click here for an interesting history of this quotation.

But unlike 2020 when we postponed and then canceled the biennial conference and 2021 when we held our first ever virtual conference, both in response to the pandemic, this year we are choosing to hold a one-day virtual summit in response to your preference for a virtual Event. See articles in this issue of AROHE Matters.

The AROHE Board of Directors has been focused on planning for 2022. Some of the actions that emerged from our planning meeting in February include:

  • Cultivate corporate sponsors/partners with similar beliefs and missions
  • Poll membership on newsletter topics, webinar topics, a new vision of AROHE
  • Create a framework to develop relationships with individual members within ROs
  • Reach out to minority-majority serving institutions and other institutions that are unable to establish ROs (perhaps offer a virtual RO option to campus administrations)

As we finalize plans for 2022 and beyond, please consider helping us “Keep the Momentum” by sharing your suggestions and answering our call for volunteers to serve on committees, on the Board, and as officers. Stay tuned for updates and thank you for your support.

May our March go out like a lamb.

Bill Verdini

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AROHE News

AROHE 20th Anniversary Celebration will be Virtual

Building on the success of our first virtual conference in 2021, the AROHE Board of Directors has decided to pivot back to virtual for our fall 2022 gathering. Plans are underway for a one-day online summit on that will honor AROHE’s 20-year milestone and recognize the accomplishments of AROHE member organizations during the past two decades. We are currently holding three dates (September 22, September 29 and October 6) and will finalize the date after confirming our keynote speaker.

In a recent survey of AROHE members, approximately 80% of respondents indicated that they prefer a virtual event, With the theme of “Celebrating 20 Years of Innovation in Higher Education Retirement Organizations,” the 2022 summit will honor AROHE’s founding member organizations, recognize the University of Southern California (USC), which housed and nurtured AROHE through the years, highlight unique accomplishments among AROHE member organizations, and plan for a future where higher education retirees everywhere engage with, and continue their contributions to, campus and community. 

Watch for more information as details are finalized.

2023 Event to be Determined

While the AROHE Board of Directors will continue to explore the option of returning to an in-person event in the fall of 2023, we have decided to cancel the hotel contract with USC at this time. We have explored hybrid technology, but the costs for a hybrid event are far beyond the reach of our small organization. Perhaps technology will adapt, and/or costs will go down in the future. The board will continue to explore options for future AROHE member events.

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    Retirement Organization News

    AROHE Members Offer Retirement Planning Programs

    Getting Ready to Retire – Georgetown University 

    Georgetown University provides an array of resources to prepare faculty and staff for retirement. There are resources related to the financial aspects of retirement summarized on the Getting Ready to Retire webpage and links to financial consultants from the investment companies that manage the retirement accounts.

    Perhaps more importantly, the HR department makes available, for no cost, an excellent seminar on preparing for the emotional aspects of the transition. Called Taking the Leap Forward!: Imagining Your Life After Retirement, this program uniquely addresses the emotion(s) that comes up during transition, as well as the alignment required to create the life you are imagining—your next new adventure. This six-week program provides the time and tools to reflect on what is important to you so you can make “Conscious Choices™” about how you live and how you honor yourself in this life transition. It provides time to reflect on what is meaningful to you and how you want to be engaged in more of what you love. Participants leave with a vision and resources to support transition to retirement and keep moving forward after the program completes. The program was developed and is presented by Heart’s Joy Consulting, LLC at www.hrtsjoy.com.

    For more information, contact Suzanne Bronheim, vice-president, Georgetown University Association of Retired Faculty and Staff, bronheis@georgetown.edu.

    Retirement Navigator – University of Southern California

    The University of Southern California (USC) has established a retirement navigator for all employees within the Office of Benefits Administration and a retirement navigator for faculty within the Office of the Provost. The retirement navigators assist employees as they transition into retirement. The retirement navigators have hosted in-person and virtual transition to retirement sessions and provided individualized advisement to ensure all employees are prepared with the correct planning.

    Recently, the benefits retirement navigator, along with the director of retirement plans, the faculty retirement navigator, a representative of health plans, and the Emeriti Center held an online retirement playbook session. This session focused on the required steps starting six months before retirement ensuring financial and health planning as well as an understanding of Medicare and Social Security. In addition, the session presented information on the USC Gold Card, which allows qualified retirees to receive special privileges such as holding a university email, complimentary parking, and university discounts.

    The USC Staff Retirement Association (SRA) and Retired Faculty Association (RFA) frequently organize events and resources to support retirees. The SRA and FRA are supported by the Emeriti Center, which offers intergenerational events for retirees, staff, faculty, students, alumni, and the community. For more information on employee retirement at USC please click on the links below:

    USC Retirement Navigators

    USC Retirement Benefits and Planning

    Leaving USC Checklist

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    Retirement Resources  – Clemson Emeritus College

    Clemson’s Human Resources Department prepares faculty and staff on the steps involved in planning for retirement. They also guide other types of retirement transition and separation from their current roles. They publish a detailed employee checklist of resources, including decision-making and step-by-step checklist.

    The Emeritus College offers additional services for retiring faculty:

    • A guide to help retiring faculty visualize life after retirement
    • The Emeritus College Fact Sheet that provides an overview of steps needed to become a member and a letter of welcome
    • Discussion sessions where faculty thinking about retirement can ask questions and get informal answers from experienced retirees. Plans for such discussions are given in our weekly list of upcoming events.
    • A blog where retirees have a chance to reveal what exciting things they have been doing in their retirement.

    Details can be found in the Emeritus College 2020-2021 Annual Report.

    For more information, please contact Nicole (Nicci) Hanewald, Program Coordinator, at nherman@clemson.edu.

    Faculty Retirement Seminar – University of Washington

    Retiring from academia is a fraught enterprise. For faculty especially it raises fundamental questions about what it means to be a professor and how one’s identity and purpose are defined by more than the specific demands of a ‘job.’ The University of Washington Retirement Association (UWRA) has long offered a popular workshop on “Non-Financial Retirement Planning” that is open to both staff and faculty. Although the workshop has been well-attended by pre-retirement staff, faculty have been less likely to sign up and participate.

    In response to these issues, we developed a Faculty Retirement Seminar through the UW’s Simpson Center for the Humanities. The eight-week seminar is designed to provide faculty some collegial space and time to think and talk broadly about retirement. We hoped this experience would generate imagining for what the next stage of a faculty member’s career might look like.

    We identified a group of ten faculty to serve as speakers, aiming for a balance of gender, fields, and stage of retirement, from pre-retirees to recent retirees. Each seminar session focused on a pre-selected topic with recommended readings.

    UWRA also offers one-off transitions panel discussions where recently retired faculty respond to questions from still-employed colleagues. The seminar provides a valuable opportunity to build a new community while in the process of leaving the old one. As one seminar participant noted, “Knowing that others have had similar experiences is reassuring and encouraging.”

    For more information, contact Cathy Randolph, associate director, Retiree Relations/UWRA, retiremt@uw.edu.

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    Teaming with Human Resources – University of Cincinnati

    As AROHE members know, research is clear that retirement transition planning needs to be comprehensive, including attention to both finances/health care benefits and to psycho-social domains (Wong, J., & Earl, J. (2009). Towards an integrated model of individual, psychological, and organizational predictors of retirement adjustment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 1-13.) However, a W-I-D-E gap between research and practice frequently exists, where psycho-social aspects are overlooked.

    Retirement transition affords a prevention opportunity. If prospective faculty retirees can be forearmed with psycho-social information and skills (person-centered approach) and if other organizations can include these domains in their service delivery (system-centered approach), then prevention of retirement transition difficulties becomes increasingly possible.

    At the University of Cincinnati (UC), both intended prevention directions are coming into focus. The UC Emeriti Association’s Pre-Retirement Mentoring program has trained mentors to be paired with prospective faculty mentees for confidential discussions related to non-financial retirement issues. As a result of on-going, patient dialogue and collaboration, Human Resources (HR) is beginning to broaden its workshops for prospective retirees to include the oft-elusive psycho-social factors, e.g., the loss of familiar roles and the benefits of incorporating a “whole-person” perspective within retirement transition planning.

    To learn more, contact Robert K. Conyne, Ph.D., conynerk@ucmail.uc.edu, chair, Emeriti Association’s Health & Wellness Committee, University of Cincinnati.

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    Trends

    Mental Health and the Retirement Transition

    Mental health is determined by social, biological, and cultural factors and is sensitive to life transitions. The article, “Psychological Distress During the Retirement Transition and the Role of Psychosocial Working Conditions and Social Living Environment,” examines how psychosocial working conditions, social living environment, and cumulative risk factors are associated with mental health changes during the retirement transition.

    The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 77, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 135–148.

    Gender Disparities after Retirement

    Recent research on life satisfaction in retirement explores gender differences but yields inconsistent patterns and does not consider gendered sources of satisfaction. The article “Gender Disparities in Life Satisfaction After Retirement: The Roles of Leisure, Family, and Finances” uses a gender relations framework to examine whether women and men experience different changes in life satisfaction with retirement, and whether observed differences are a consequence of different assessments of the leisure, family, and financial situations that characterize their post-retirement lives.

    The Gerontologist, Volume 61, Issue 8, December 2021, Pages 1277–1286

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    Resources

    5 Things Your Investment Advisor May Not Tell You
    (or May Not Know)
     

    Financial professionals are paid to be the experts, but sometimes what they do not know – or do not reveal – has a significant impact on your money. When the market is going gang busters like the last two years, you would expect solid returns, but look beyond the returns on your investments. Pay attention by asking more questions about their advice and recommendations. Read more at 5 Things Your Investment Advisor May Not Tell You (Or May Not Know), nextavenue.org.

    Creative Corner

    For a New Beginning

    By John O'Donohue

    Awaken your spirit to adventure;

    Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

    Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

    For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

    To Bless the Space Between Us Quotes by John O'Donohue (goodreads.com)

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    Come Join Us in Transforming Retirement

    Since 2001 AROHE has supported both institutions and individuals by transforming the experience of retirement – the preparation, the actual transition, and post-retirement programming – into a smooth and productive life-course change.

    To renew, join or learn more, visit arohe.org or contact AROHE by emailing info@arohe.org or calling (213) 740-5037.

    Tell Us Your Story

    Please send us a note about your volunteer program activity and other activities, events, and news of your retirement organization for inclusion in AROHE Matters. Send your information to our newsletter editor, Patrick Cullinane, at pcullinane@berkeley.edu by April 18 for the May 2022 newsletter.

    About AROHE

    AROHE's mantra is "Transforming Retirement."

    AROHE is a nonprofit association that champions transformative practices to support all stages of faculty and staff retirement, their mutually beneficial engagement, and continuing contributions to their academic institutions. By sharing research, innovative ideas, and successful practices, AROHE emphasizes the development and enhancement of campus-based retiree organizations and programs which support this continuing engagement in higher education.

    Copyright © 2020 AROHE. All rights reserved.
    Contact email: info@arohe.org
    Contact phone: (213) 740-5037

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    Thank You to our Sponsors

    AROHE is grateful to these companies, and to all of our virtual conference sponsors. Their generosity allows us to continue fulfilling our mission of transforming retirement in higher education.