When Bob Curl responded to the first pleas of retired faculty who were unable to access Fondren Library’s on-line Resources, he didn’t anticipate the consequences: Now the University has revised its policies of access!

Bob Curl, Jim Young, and Mary Tobin expanded their efforts as the Committee on Benefits and Privileges and produced the Interim Report in May 2018 that included how departments and schools across the University were involving retired faculty to achieve their goals, from hiring them to teaching courses, participating as research faculty, attending meetings and social events, and receiving departmental news. ARRUF shared this report with the Vice Provost's working group. Now we have received the wonderful news that the working group headed by the Associate Provost C. Fred Higgs, III has revised policies affecting retired faculty. While the complete policy revisions are not yet posted, we know this much, thanks to an email from Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Celeste Boudreaux on October 30:

At long last, we are finally ready to launch a new process for giving non-emeritus faculty retirees off-campus access to a certain subset of Rice library resources through EZ Proxy. For more details about the resources available via EZ Proxy, see https://library.rice.edu/services/retired-faculty-services. In addition, we just today launched a new and improved VPAA website, which now includes a section for retired faculty: https://vpaa.rice.edu/retired-faculty. You will note that we have posted some information about library access on that page. Item #1 is specifically about the new EZ Proxy access that we are now testing.

. . .

As soon as I have received confirmation that [ARRUF members who asked for access] they are able to log in and access the resources, I will send emails to a list of other non-emeritus faculty retirees via their Rice email addresses, inviting them to request access if they are interested. As I receive requests, I will set them up with a special code in Banner, and the next day, they should be able to use the resources through EZ Proxy. This access will have to be renewed annually. Each summer, I will send those with access, plus any new retirees in this category (non-emeritus faculty retirees) emails inviting them to renew or be added. The first step for anyone wishing to set up such access is simply an email to vpaa@rice.edu asking for access to the Rice Retired Faculty Digital Library, or simply EZ Proxy.

This was a project that involved the cooperation of many individuals in the Fondren Library, the Office of Information Technology, and VPAA Office.

And we also know that last year members of the Associate Provost’s staff, especially Heather Holley, helped ensure that ARRUF’s needs were “top of mind” with the working group. Our most sincere thanks to Celeste Boudreaux, Heather Holley, and to Associate Provost Fred C. Higgs III! It is also worth noting with appreciation the efforts that ARRUF’s directors have made to keep the administration’s leaders aware of ARRUF’s activities and needs. Well done all around!

The photo in the NEWS list shows Mary Tobin and Jim Young of the Benefits and Privileges Committee