About
Honorific Emeritus Titles
Emeritus titles recognize a faculty member's distinguished service and distinction at the University. They may be given to either a retired faculty member or to a faculty member in anticipation of retirement, to be effective upon retirement.
Emeritus titles may include a named professorship, chair, or fellowship held by the faculty member prior to retirement if approved by the Dean and Department Chair and not prohibited by the conditions of the professorship, chair, or fellowship.
For more information on emeritus titles and policy, please see the HOP 2-2430 on Emeritus Titles.
Process
Nomination Process
The Department Chair sends CNS Faculty Affairs Staff (copy the Dean) a brief request memo (using the Emeritus Memo Template) along with the candidate's CV. The memo should include the Budget Council vote.
After reviewing the nomination packet, if the Dean is in agreement with the recommendation, CNS Faculty Affairs will submit the nomination to the Provost's Office via the Emeritus Nomination ServiceNow form. Recommendations for emeritus status are then reviewed and approved by the President. Departments will be notified by CNS Faculty Affairs once emeritus requests have been final approved.
Appointment Processing in Workday
Once Academic Personnel Services (APS) receives the emeritus nomination for a faculty, they will process an Interim Emeritus Academic Appointment in Workday for the faculty member to ensure they retain privileges, i.e., network and library access, while their nomination goes through the approval process.
After the nomination is approved by the President, APS will process the necessary transactions to establish the faculty member’s emeritus status in Workday.
Required Materials
Required Materials for Emeritus Nominations
- Candidate's current CV
- Budget Council or EC vote
- Department Chair Emeritus Memo
Eligibility
Emeritus Eligibility
Faculty must hold one of the following titles prior to their retirement to be eligible for emeritus:
- Associate Professor
- Professor
- Research Professor
- Distinguished Senior Lecturer
- Clinical Professor
- Professor of Practice
- Professor of Instruction
Note, faculty who hold an emeritus title at other institutions are not normally eligible for an emeritus title at UT Austin.
Timeline
Deadline to Submit Emeritus Nominations
Emeritus nominations should be submitted to CNS Faculty Affairs at least eight weeks prior to the effective date of the proposed appointment. Nominations may take anywhere from four to eight weeks to be final approved.
Emeritus Privileges
Emeritus Privileges
Holders of emeritus titles will be granted the following privileges and perks:
- Membership (without vote) in the General Faculty and in the college and department faculties in which membership was held at the time of retirement.
- Eligibility to serve on graduate committees, subject to the approval of the Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies.
- Eligibility to work with undergraduates on research projects as long as there is no compensation for the work being done.
- Listing in the faculty directory and in the appropriate college catalog.
- Use of the campus mail service.
- Office space, when available and with the approval of the chair of the department, the dean of the college or school, and the president.
- Holders of an emeritus title will be granted all privileges and perks of retired faculty.
PI Status
Retired/Emeritus faculty do not receive automatic PI approval even if PI status was held before retirement. Exceptions for emeritus faculty will be granted on a project-specific basis. Please specify faculty type as “Emeritus” when submitting a PI Exceptions Request to OSP.
Supervising employees
Emeritus status does not give faculty the supervisory organization in Workday required to supervise employees. If an emeritus faculty needs to supervise employees, the department must temporarily rehire them under modified service at 0% time. For more information on modified service requests, please see the link for Modified Service on our Faculty Human Resources sidebar.