In 1997 Provost Jon Whitmore and Vice President David Skorton appointed a Task Force of faculty retirees and asked them to suggest ways in which The University of Iowa might interact more meaningfully with its emeritus faculty members. That Task Force produced a list of 16 recommendations for ways in which The University and its retired faculty could serve each other better than they are now doing. One of these suggestions was the establishment of an Emeritus Faculty Council, a body parallel to the Faculty and Staff Councils.The Emeritus Faculty Council was established early in 1999, with affiliation to the Provost’s Office through Lee Anna Clark, Associate Provost for Faculty. The Council, composed of eighteen emeriti, was selected from the various colleges, with the number from each college roughly in proportion to the number of faculty in the college, with each college having at least one member. As one of its first steps, the Council distributed survey questionnaires to two groups. One of the groups was all members of the emeritus faculty. The other was composed of all Deans and Department Executive Officers in The University of Iowa.

Click here for the Executive Summary of the results of these surveys.

The Emeritus Faculty Council organized the first annual meeting of the Association of Emeritus Faculty which was held in the Senate Chamber of Old Capitol on June 19, 2000. Click here for the agenda and the minutes of the first annual meeting of the AEF.