ABSTRACT
This chapter includes many examples of how Carleton College has worked with retiring faculty to define personalized, flexible paths to postteaching careers. Retired faculty have also offered their expert advice to departments and programs. The close-knit nature of the community seen in the student-faculty relationship extends to faculty relationships with each other, staff, and administrators. During the phasing period faculty members are eligible for full benefits, although benefits that are proportional to salary, like the retirement benefit, are prorated according to the reduction in salary. Freed from teaching, committee and department service, and any external pressure to publish with high frequency in disciplinary journals, retired faculty felt empowered to take on new, often risky, academic projects. After decades of service as faculty, many retirees reported that the process of establishing a new scholarly sense of self-identity was a serious challenge.
