Emeritus Status

Purpose:

The purpose of this policy is to establish the eligibility requirements for and privileges of emeritus status for meritorious service to J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College (Reynolds).

Definitions:

Administrative/professional faculty emeritus: the highest honor for administrative/professional faculty who have demonstrated meritorious service to Reynolds.

Classified employee emeritus: the highest honor for classified employees who have demonstrated meritorious service to Reynolds.

Emeritus status: the highest honor that Reynolds can bestow to acknowledge outstanding service to the college, which does not represent any entitlement to authority, rights, privileges, or resources.

President emeritus: acknowledges outstanding service to the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) in positions of substantial leadership to include the role of president.

Professor emeritus: the highest honor for teaching faculty who have demonstrated meritorious service to Reynolds at the rank of associate professor or professor.

Policy:

1. Eligibility

   Candidates for emeritus status must be retired from the college after providing ten (10) or more years of outstanding, distinguished, and honorable service to Reynolds or the VCCS in positions of substantial leadership to include the role of president. Further, to be eligible, teaching faculty shall usually have the rank of associate professor or professor.

2. Privileges

   Privileges of emeritus status shall include the following based on classification:

   1. listed in the college catalog and on the college website
   2. invited to march with the faculty at the college commencements
   3. full use of the college libraries
   4. invited to attend the Reynolds Recognition and Awards Ceremony and other college-wide activities as determined by the president upon signing a new Computer Ethics Agreement, use of a college email address without being included in college distribution lists.

Procedures

1. The College Board must nominate a president for emeritus status by official board action. The nomination is forwarded to the VCCS chancellor for review and consent. If agreed to, the chancellor will submit the request to the State Board for Community Colleges for approval.

2. For the professor, administrative/professional faculty, and classified employee emeritus honor, colleagues and co-workers may submit written recommendations for emeritus status to the nominee’s Reynolds Leadership Council (RLC) member. The recommendation should include first-hand knowledge of outstanding college service that the RLC member could possibly use in the formal nomination process. Additionally, the RLC member may initiate the formal nomination process and generate the request for emeritus status without input from the nominee’s colleagues and/or co-workers.

3. The formal nomination process for emeritus status requires the completion of JSRCC Form No. 58-0001, Nomination for Emeritus Status. It is suggested that the Reynolds Leadership Council member bear the responsibility for completing the nomination request form and submitting the nomination package to the President’s Executive Cabinet for review and recommendation to the president.

4. The Nomination for Emeritus Status form must be properly completed and must include a full description of the contributions that the nominee has made to the college.

5. The president will be the final approval authority for all nominations. Upon approving a nomination, the president or designee will officially inform, in writing, the nominee of the decision and notify the nominee of the arrangements for conferring the award.

6. The president will confer the emeritus award, as approved, during the annual awards ceremony.

7. The Office of Human Resources, in coordination with the appropriate supervisor, school dean or President’s Executive Cabinet member, will ensure that the applicable privileges are made available to persons having been granted emeritus status. Additionally, the Office of Human Resources will inform the newly conferred emeritus of their applicable privileges via a Letter to Emeriti Recipient no later than five (5) workdays after the presentation of the honor.

Other Information:

JSRCC Form No. 58-0001, Nomination for Emeritus Status

Letter to Emeriti Recipient