With this noted, I have made it a habit to stay after the meeting for the retirement parties simply because I think the greatest wisdom arrives from faculty on their way out. Here are brilliant minds who have spend their careers teaching, doing scholarship, and offering service, who often have to work at institutions that claim its importance, but who do little to invest in faculty and staff. It's an ongoing tension that, I suppose gets influenced with corporate America which has completely opposite intentions for the work they do: profit. Of course, a University needs profit, too (I know because I do small-scale K-12 teacher and youth work, and the more I can make through grants and professional services, the more I can spend on them to do good work).
Yesterday, I listened to the narratives of outgoing faculty and, to be honest, I'm always surprised by the kindness, gentles, and heartfelt appreciation they have as they step aside. For years, I've expected faculty to share gripes, offer grievances, and tell he scandals that they lived through, but the truth is they are 100% genuinely sincere and kind. Some of the loudest, and most abrasive personalities I've see over the years at faculty meetings come to retirement with purring praise and respect for their students and colleagues. They love the Jesuit Tradition and, sometimes, they see glimmers of it shown through administrative choices. They thank leadership, of course, but share that the heart of their work is in the classroom, with peers across the nation, and with colleagues on campus. That's what makes the work great.
It also brings me back to the retirements of both my parents (all the years of hearing the complaints and then, well, seeing the ending and how brutal are employment really is....poof & done). I also recall the year-by-year retirements of fellow teachers in Kentucky, especially at my school, where the base faculty had been there from the inception of its design. The retirements hit everyone different and I studied the behaviors (especially the grace) of those saying goodbye.
I'm also thinking my numbers are getting there, as most share stories of 40-45 years of teaching. I'm guessing I'll be there around 2040, if I'm still alive. Walter Hiawitschka, Ph.D, one of the retires last night, has spent his life in finance and health insurance and discussed the importance of investing as starting-out employees. The same advice I was given by Sue McV in Louisville. I hope I've done it right, as Sue always said, "Just start it young. You won't miss it, because you'll ever experience it. Put some away each paycheck" which I've been doing since I was 25.
I'm off to training all day in hopes of, well, re-establishing my love of global travel. I am not one to vacation, but if I can bring students and it is a learning event for all of us, then I'm in. I miss my worldly days, and although I wish we had a different world right now, I'm hoping better days will return and, once again, seeing the beauty and brilliance of every nation might continue.
Congratulations to the 2025 Fairfield University retirement cohort. We see you. We watch and we learn. It's obvious where the integrity always lies.
