Faculty Handbook
Academic Affairs

Offices and Labs for Retired Faculty

University Policy on Offices and Labs for Retired Faculty

  1. Each year, retired or newly retiring faculty members who want continuing office and/or lab space beyond the current academic year must submit a request to their department/program chairs by December 1.  Similarly, retired or newly retiring faculty members should inform their chairs by this same date of their intention to give up their offices and/or labs for the following academic year.
  2. Upon receiving requests or notifications from retired faculty and prospective retired faculty, the department/program chairs will consult with their academic dean on the allocation of office and lab space (chairs of the PAC departments should work through the Director of the PAC).  If a chair and the dean agree that a retired faculty should have an office and/or lab for the next academic year, they will determine which office and/or lab the retired faculty member can use.  If the chair and the dean cannot locate an appropriate space for the retired faculty member, they will forward a request for such an office and/or lab with a recommendation to the University Space Committee, which will consider and act on this recommendation. 
  3. Department/program chairs, the deans, and the University Space Committee will abide by the following guideline:
    1. Whenever possible, a retiring faculty member who requests to do so may have full use of his or her office at the time of retirement for at least a further year.  Please note that this may not always be possible.
    2. A retired faculty member who continues to pursue professional activities in a campus office on a regular basis may continue to have a campus office beyond the first year of retirement.  This may be the office occupied prior to retirement, but it may be necessary to ask a retiree to move to a different office, to a different building, or to share an office with other retired faculty.
    3. In the case of shared offices with other retired faculty, the existing occupant(s) of an office to be shared will clear space on shelves and in drawers and filing cabinets for the office's fellow occupants.  An appropriate desk, as well as telephone and computer connections, will be provided, the cost to be borne by Academic Affairs.
    4. A retired faculty member who does not use his or her office on a regular basis may be asked to forego having an office on the campus.
    5. Similar rules will apply to the continued use of laboratory space by retired faculty.  Requests will be made and considered according to the same procedures and criteria as those that govern the allocation of retired faculty office space.
    6. Physical Plant staff will assist with the boxing and removal of books and papers from offices.  They will deliver the materials to another assigned office or put them into temporary storage; they may be willing to deliver them to a home within a 25 mile radius of campus.  In some cases the Wesleyan University Archives may be interested in holding the papers of retired faculty members but retired faculty should not count on this.   The Office of Academic Affairs will provide a reimbursement of up to $500 for the cost of such moves.
  4. This policy applies only to faculty who are fully retired, and not to partially retired faculty.