The Whitworthian

Issue date: 4/15/08 Last Updated: 4/20/08

Long-time English professor Leonard Oakland is set to retire.

But not just yet.

Oakland will be one of the first two faculty members to participate in a new phased retirement plan for tenured faculty that will be introduced in the fall.

He will step down from tenured faculty at the end of this year and reduce his class load by half in the fall.

Oakland has been a professor at Whitworth since 1966 and is the longest-serving Whitworth faculty member. He has also been teaching Core since its inception in 1969.

Whitworth will likely see an increase in retirement within the next few years due to the number of faculty members who have been teaching here for many years, said Michael Le Roy, vice president for Academic Affairs.

"Thirty-six percent of our faculty from 2006-2007 were born before 1950," Le Roy said. "Therefore, it's likely that faculty in this group will begin to retire at around 2012."

Because Whitworth is expected to see a rapid growth in retirement within the next several years, the institution is looking ahead and preparing for that, Le Roy said.

"We have faculty who could very well teach into their 70s and do it quite well," he said. "Trying to plan for this is challenging while realizing that 65 or 68 is not as old as it was 40 years ago."

The administration is developing a phased retirement program for tenured faculty who have taught full time for a minimum of 15 years.

The plan is a mutual agreement between the individual faculty member and the university, according to the draft of the phased retirement plan. The faculty member must initiate the process, Le Roy said.

Oakland recognizes the timing in which this plan will be introduced.

"This is a wonderful new arrangement for which I am very grateful to the administration for inaugurating in time for me to make use of it," Oakland said.

Dolores Humiston, director of Human Resources, said she recognizes the affects of retirement.

"It is a vehicle that allows Whitworth to retain its long-time tenured faculty members in a capacity that allows them to work part-time, while adjusting to the idea of actual retirement," Humiston said.

Gary Whisenand, director of Institutional Research, said on average, three faculty members retire every year.

Whitworth may see that number change with the new phased retirement plan, Whisenand said.

Tammy Reid, associate professor of English, and Oakland will be the first two to take advantage of the new retirement plan for tenured faculty.

Reid has been teaching at Whitworth since 1971.

"It's a win-win situation as it benefits the faculty member as well as the institution," Reid said. She will be stepping down as a full-time faculty member and continue half-time teaching.

According to a draft of the phased retirement plan, one benefit for faculty will allow them to continue to teach on a reduced schedule. The institution benefits from that as they have time to prepare for staffing changes, according to the plan.

Unless a student has some personal connection with a certain professor, most may not feel the impact, junior education major Angela Johnson said.

"I don't think students generally notice faculty retiring because professors are here much longer than the average student," she said.

Le Roy said there can be a benefit to new faculty.

"New faculty are refreshing and reinvigorating which is appropriate but we also have to consider that the mission really needs to be nurtured," Le Roy said. "Knowledge and history will have to be replaced, supplanted which means there's a lot of work ahead of us to train faculty. If we don't hire and train well, our mission could drift."

Carol Smucker, associate professor of French and department chair of modern languages, will fully retire at the end of this year after teaching at Whitworth for 11 years.

"There's a great deal of respect for faculty who have a history at Whitworth and new faculty recognize this history and are interested in learning about Whitworth's traditions," Smucker said.

Contact Erica Schrader at ericaschrader@whitworthian.com.

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