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Retirement categories

• Full retirement: A retiree is any tenured faculty member who voluntarily terminates employment with the university and who meets the service requirements for retirement under the Teacher Retirement System or the Optional Retirement Program. TRS & ORP Overview PDF provides a comparison of the two plans. Any UT employee can view their retirement plan type and other details in Workday - go to the “Benefits Dashboard” app on the Workday home page.
  
  

• Phased retirement: Phased retirement refers to reduced appointments in teaching, service, and/or scholarship to assist an individual in preparing for full retirement. A post-retirement contract is entered into for up to three years. A tenured faculty member who officially retires maintains a part-time (50% or 25%) term appointment without tenure until the expiration of the contract. See COE: Phased Retirement.
  
  

• Modified service: The Board of Regents may appoint a faculty member who has retired to modified service. Recommendation for and appointment to modified service shall be made only if the individual's service will significantly benefit the university. Appointment to modified service is without tenure, limited to half-time, and spans no more than one academic year. See COE: Retired-Active Faculty > Modified Service.

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Retirement process

Instructions for the retiring faculty member

1. Contact the HR Benefits Specialist to confirm eligibility to retire. Include EID in the communication.

   1. Find the name and contact info of your HR Benefits Specialist at HR: Find Your HR Representatives.

2. Complete all steps on the Human Resources Pre-Retirement Checklist.

   1. Note that either the TRS Notice of Retirement or ORP Declaration of Retirement (depending on the faculty member’s retirement plan) must be submitted in order for HR to begin retirement processing. Links to both forms are included at step 4 of the Pre-Retirement Checklist.

3. Submit either a letter or email to department chair stating intent to retire. Include the proposed effective retirement date. Standard retirement dates are 5/15 or 8/15. Health insurance remains active through the end of the month.

4. The department chair must officially accept the retirement in writing through either an email or letter. The acceptance must confirm the effective retirement date. Letters should be signed and dated.

5. Copies of the retirement letter and department chair’s acceptance should be shared with the following:

   1. Department Administrative Manager and/or Academic HR Partner

   2. COE Faculty Affairs

   3. All other departments or centers where the faculty member has concurrent appointments, including courtesy or zero percent time appointments.

6. If faculty member is eligible for Medicare, they must apply for both Medicare parts A and B prior to retirement date.

7. Prior to the last day of employment, review both Eligibility to serve on graduate committees and Systems access for retirees on this page, and take any necessary action. Please keep in mind that these are time-sensitive.

8. If faculty member wishes to be considered for emeritus status, they should notify their chair and department Administrative Manager. Please keep in mind that the nomination process typically takes several months to complete.

9. To ensure that any University communications are received, it is important that both current and former employees keep their contact information current in Workday. Instructions on updating contact information are available at Edit Personal Information - WIG.

Instructions for administrative staff

1. Before beginning, review EVPP: Faculty Retirement for guidance and Workday processing instructions.

2. Once HR has received and processed the faculty member’s TRS or ORP form, the “Retirement” reason code will become available in the Workday termination process for that faculty member.

3. Review and complete relevant steps at COE: Termination and Offboarding - Faculty > Termination process.

4. For terminations due to retirement, the Workday BP will route to Benefits for review of retirement information, and then to APS for final approval.

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Insurance for retired faculty

See HR: Retiree Insurance Overview and HR: Change of Status for Retirees.

Faculty members who worked in the spring are eligible for active employee insurance coverage through the end of summer, if they use 8/15 as their retirement date. If they retire effective 5/15, then their insurance will end 5/31. Retiring faculty should contact the Benefits Section of Human Resource Services prior to retiring to discuss their insurance options.

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Eligibility to serve on graduate committees

See Graduate School: Advancing to Doctoral Candidacy > Forming the Dissertation Commitee.

Retired faculty who have been nominated or granted emeritus status and who were members of the GSC upon retirement may request continued membership on the GSC with approval of the Dean of Graduate Studies. Such requests should be accompanied by the recommendation of the appropriate GSC, and be submitted to the graduate school by the GSC chair. If approved, the continued membership will be reviewed annually.

Such faculty may serve on student committees as a GSC member or as a co-supervisor, but may not serve as a sole supervisor.

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Systems access for retirees

See ServiceNow > What to Know and Do When You Retire or Leave the University.

UT email for retirees

See ServiceNow: Knowledge > Communication and Collaboration > Email and Collaboration Services > What Happens to My Email After I Leave the University?

UTmail Business accounts will automatically be converted into a Personal account when a former employee's EID reflects a "Retiree" affiliation as long as they have not already claimed a Personal account. UTmail Personal accounts for retirees will be automatically suspended if the owner does not log in at least once every 365 days. Notification emails will be sent to the account and recovery email prior to suspension and will contain instructions to prevent/revert suspension. Current employees leaving the University are not eligible for a personal account. Retiree Personal accounts have a lower amount of storage than Business accounts. Please review KB0018969 - What's Changing with UTmail for details regarding differences in account types.

University ID card

Retirees may keep their faculty ID card, or may request a new one. New ID cards will say “Retiree” instead of “Staff/faculty,” but otherwise are the same. There is no advantage or disadvantage to having a card labelled "Retiree" from the University's viewpoint.

Box

See ServiceNow > What Happens to My UT Box Account When I Leave the University?

Users should download any personal content they wish to retain before they leave the university. 

When an active student, staff, or faculty member leaves the university their access to UT Box, along with a number of other services, will be restricted. 

• All content stored by that individual will be escrowed for 30 days. 

• Any content that has been shared with others will still be recoverable for 30 days.

• Co-owners and collaborators of files are encouraged to make a local copy before the end of the 30-day period. 

• If the individual does not return as an active student, staff, or faculty member before the end of 30-day period the associated content will be destroyed.

Workday access

See askUS: Duration of Worker Access to Workday.

Workday access is not removed for Retirees.

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Employment after retirement

Retirees: see COE: Employment After Retirement.

Administrative staff hiring retired faculty: see COE: Hiring Retired Faculty.

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Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu.