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Division of Academic Affairs
Academic Personnel

Emeritus and emerita appointments

Faculty and academic staff appointments

Criteria for Emeritus Status

All full-time faculty1 (including clinical, research and teaching titles as well as tenured faculty) and academic staff with tenure or employment security status (ESS) who leave the university for the purpose of retirement rather than to take a position at another university are eligible for emeritus status at the rank attained at retirement, if they have been employed at Wayne State for at least ten (10) years prior to retirement.

Deans, provosts and holders of other leadership positions who also have a tenured faculty position in a department or non-departmentalized school/college are eligible for faculty emeritus titles under the same criteria and process.

Privileges of Emeritus Status

Emeritus ranks involve no duties and provide no stipend. As long as it is feasible to grant them, all persons holding emeritus rank shall have the following rights and privileges in the University:

  1. Listing with their emeritus rank on unit websites and in the university directory.
  2. Receipt of a OneCard listing their emeritus rank.
  3. Use of their Wayne email account with renewals at three-year intervals after retirement and receipt of appropriate university mailings and electronic messages directed to all members of the faculty or academic staff.
  4. Access to the same library, dining and athletic facilities, bookstore, ticket office and parking privileges as held by current faculty and academic staff, except (i) select high-cost licensed library databases for continuing research will require application and decision by the appropriate offices and (ii) parking will be free so long as that university policy continues for faculty and academic staff retirees.
  5. Invitations to attend all appropriate faculty and academic staff social and honorary functions.
  6. Other feasible courtesies and privileges which may include, but are not limited to, office or lab space (if available), use of other research facilities, and ability to participate in applications for extramural funding with approval by the appropriate dean and provost.

A unit may add other privileges as part of their Bylaws, but they may not change the minimum privileges provided in this policy.

Procedures for Granting Emeritus Status

  1. The unit chair or dean or colleagues within the unit may nominate individual faculty or academic staff upon retirement for emeritus status and individuals may self-nominate. Nominations shall be sent to the unit committee responsible for promotion, tenure and ESS decisions for the faculty or staff person so nominated (the peer committee). The peer committee may itself nominate faculty or staff persons for emeritus status.
  2. The peer committee shall review the record of the retiring faculty or staff member with consideration of the retiring faculty or staff member’s overall contributions to the academic enterprise, with a presumption of approval of emeritus status unless there is an egregious factor in the record that the peer committee finds so significant as to merit refusal of emeritus status. The peer committee shall forward its recommendation for emeritus status to the Provost.
  3. The Provost shall make the final determination (other than in the case of the Provost’s retirement, for which emeritus status shall be determined by the President), again with a presumption of approval of emeritus status unless there is a significant negative factor in the nominee’s record.

A single-file PDF should be compiled with the requisite materials and forwarded to the Office of Faculty Affairs and Academic Personnel for Provost approval. 

1Full-time meaning faculty who have greater than or equal to a 0.5 appointment.

Dean appointments

The deans of the schools and colleges play a pivotal role in the academic mission of our university. It seems only appropriate that Deans who have changed the very nature of their college and the university, contributed in innovative ways, and led the path to excellence should be approved for emeritus/emerita appointments. The title dean emeritus/emerita may be granted to any dean who has been employed as a dean at WSU for at least 10 years and who is recognized for outstanding accomplishments (i.e., started a college, led both college and university initiatives, made significant programmatic contributions, etc.).

At the conclusion of their tenure, a dean may be nominated by a chair or the provost for an emeritus/emerita appointment. A one page nomination letter should be submitted to the president for consideration. The president with the approval of the Board of Governors would then grant dean emeritus/emerita status. Their recognition would be approved in the personnel report to the Board of Governors.

Revised April 2025.