Retired profs offer aid

CHAPEL HILL -- In February, an association of retired UNC-Chapel Hill professors sought to help ease daunting budget cuts by offering to jump back into teaching, free of charge.

The response from the university, they say, has been underwhelming.

"It was more than a gesture; it was a well-thought-out offer to the university," said Andrew Dobelstein, a retired professor of social welfare policy and the group's president. "I'm quite frankly surprised we haven't gotten much response."

This year, UNC has had to pare its operating budget by more than $60 million, a 10 percent cut. While most of the reductions have to come in nonacademic areas, students are seeing the effects in classrooms, which have become more crowded this fall.

So to Dobelstein, it seemed a great time for UNC to tap this vast pool of retired faculty, many still active in their scholarly fields. There are about 600 retired professors in the Chapel Hill area, Dobelstein said. They could have taught classes, helped write grants, supervise dissertations and mentor students, he said.

"Some of these people have national and international reputations in their fields," said Dobelstein, who retired five years ago but is working part time at N.C. Central University and recently published a new text on social welfare policy. "It's not as if we're just holed up in the coffee shops around town."

But for university officials, the offer isn't quite that simple.

While budget cuts have strained many academic departments, university leaders are leery of plugging retired faculty members into roles that may not fit them perfectly.

"This really has to be one of those things where matches get made," said Ron Strauss, executive associate provost. "We don't want to bring back people who ended their academic careers several years ago and aren't keeping on the cutting edge of their disciplines, just as a stopgap measure."

Despite budget cuts this year, UNC is offering more class sections this fall -- many with more students -- than it did a year ago, Strauss said.

Still, Strauss concedes that if professors are a good match, department heads would be wise to use them.

There is no university mechanism for connecting retired faculty members with teaching slots or other academic roles, Strauss said, adding that those connections are best made within each department. The UNC system has no formal program concerning retired faculty members, either.

Karen Gil, the new dean of UNC's College of Arts & Sciences, said one of her priorities is to find new ways for retired faculty members to help. And the university's Faculty Council, with representatives from across the campus, is also discussing the issue this year, said McKay Coble, a drama professor and chairwoman of the faculty.

Evelyn Huber has found a way to tap those resources. Huber chairs the political science department, where budget cuts would have forced her to eliminate an honors seminar on European politics because she didn't have the $7,500 to pay an instructor.

She found an answer in Jurg Steiner, who spent 40 years on the UNC faculty before retiring in 2000. He has taught on a part-time basis since and was happy to do so without pay this semester. If anything, Steiner is a better teacher now than he used to be when he balanced a full teaching load with research and administrative responsibilities, he said. And he spends at least half of each year in Europe conducting research that he incorporates into his politics seminar.

"I am very active in research and am also publishing a textbook that we use in the class," said Steiner, who turns 74 Thursday. "The main thing is to continue to be an active researcher. If I had given that up, maybe the department would be less interested in me."

Steiner is one of two retired professors Huber is counting on this year to teach courses for free.

"It's of tremendous value," she said. "They are some of our best teachers."