From the President Archives
Opportunities to Influence
As we all well know, this year is an election year! Every newspaper, every television news program, and every coffee shop in America is talking about the election—and all that election attention is focused on one race, the race for President of the United States; however, there are many other electoral races in our state.
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Over the past few years many of us have had conversations about the future of UMRA and what the organization does for U of M retirees. Should there be a strategy to grow more members and become a much larger organization with eventually a possible need for hired staff? Should it maintain the current membership level with possible small growth using only volunteers to accomplish the mission? And of course, what else might UMRA offer to members in the way of programs, activities, and benefits is always an important topic.
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As I end my term as president of UMRA this May, I must say that I am continually impressed with the talent, commitment, and breadth of connections that UMRA provides to its members. Likewise, that the members, particularly the board and committee members, commit so much talent and time to the organization.
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Last September in a play on words I suggested that in the third quarter (autumn) of our lives, we are caught between life’s stages, not unlike the “tweeners” who are abandoning childhood and grasping for and testing out new adult identities.
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Last September in a play on words I suggested that in the third quarter (autumn) of our lives, we are caught between life’s stages, not unlike the “tweeners” who are abandoning childhood and grasping for and testing out new adult identities.
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Life by the Numbers
Every morning when I step on and off the bathroom scale, I think about how much of life is managed by numbers. How many things do we count, record, and manage, or not, because we attach numbers to them? It has been said “if we can measure it, we can manage it.” This management philosophy promulgated by W E. Deming has led us to record a lot of the numbers of our lives. It feeds our curiosity about the relationship between one event and another, and it enhances our sense of self-control. How many of us have a Fitbit, a kitchen scale, and bookkeeping software?
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Words Matter—
Freedom of speech is a right granted to us all by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We hold this right dear. This right is further protected for University professors by the tenure system. It sets the tone and standard for respectful exchange of ideas throughout the university community. It is core to the pursuit of knowledge.
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Food Waste. It is in our control.
In the media we hear stories about the dilemma of food waste. Can it be possible that we consumers waste between 30 and 50 percent of the food available to us? How can this happen? What can we as individuals do about it?
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October 2015: Keeping Our Land Grant Legacy
You have heard it before. The more things change the more they stay the same. Or, we are going “back to the future.” We see evidence of the cyclical nature of behavior, attitudes, and public policies all the time. As scientists and educators we like to think that we are on the leading edge of progress, that we have advanced knowledge and contributed to a “better” world. And, at one level we have!
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September 2015: The "Triage Age" and UMRA Plans
One of the exciting things about being an UMRA member is connecting with University colleagues who have retired and who are enthusiastically seeking knowledge, contributing expertise, and pursuing avocations. It is always fun to learn about the hidden talents that emerge when one is freed of a paycheck. (Who knew that Crystal played a bassoon or Elmer would write a novel?)
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April, 2015 UMRA and the University
From time to time, UMRA leaders have puzzled about the organization's relationship with the University of Minnesota. From its beginning in 1978, UMRA was incorporated as an independent organization, although closely associated with the Campus Club. While independence has not kept the organization from thriving, there have been times when a formal connection between UMRA and the University could have been to the advantage of both.
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March, 2015 Retirement at Colleges and Universities
In 2014 the American Council on Education published Faculty Retirement: Best Practices for Navigating and Transitioning. It consisted of several chapters on the subject, first tracing the recent history of mandatory retirement and the changes that led to its end. Later chapters were devoted to the efforts of 13 institutions to mitigate the effects of this change.
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The Impact of Medical Science
In 1960, January 1, I received a call from my brother-in-law in Colorado — my father had just passed away with heart failure. He had an attack several days earlier and the small town hospital in eastern Colorado had little to offer him—comfort and care, but not much healing.
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What epidemics tell us about caregivers
Most of us, in an aging population, have faced, are facing, or will face the reality of caregiving. After raising children, we became caregivers of parents, spouses, and other family members. We now are, or soon will be, in need of caregiving for ourselves.
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October 2014 Is College Doomed?
The September issue of The Atlantic carried an article by Graeme Wood titled “Is College Doomed?” The introductory description reads, “Traditional college—expensive, arguably inefficient, slow to change—is widely seen as ripe for dissolution.” Wood goes on to describe some of the competition to the traditional institution.
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