‘It’s like home’: IU Indy faculty, staff stay involved in retirement
INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — Sherry Queener isn’t just familiar with the history of IUPUI. She was around for most of it.
Queener, now 81, first came to IUPUI in 1970, just six months after the school was founded. While she retired in 2014, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
So she joined what was then the IUPUI Senior Academy, a group of retired faculty and staff that hosts events, lectures and community service opportunities. The group, now affiliated with IU Indianapolis in the split but still open to retired Purdue University faculty, allows retirees to stay involved with the institution and connected to their former colleagues.
“The people around this table created IUPUI,” Queener said. “We’re invested in that institution.”
Retirement can be a difficult adjustment for many. In 2023, more than a third of adults between the ages of 50 and 80 reported feeling isolated from others, according to a University of Michigan study.
Group president Christine Fitzpatrick says the group is able to bring people together as they adjust to a new chapter of their lives.
“I heard one member say, when you retire, you don’t get to retire with your friends,” Fitzpatrick said. “Well, with the Senior Academy, you kind of do.”
Staying connected
Senior Academy was founded in 1993 as an effort from the school’s administration to stay in touch with retired faculty and staff.
For the past 30 years, the group’s been a place for retired IUPUI faculty and staff to find support. But the group also hopes to reinvent the notion of retirement as giving up a career.
“Sometimes, I mistakenly call it graduation,” Fitzpatrick said. “It feels like I graduated from this, and now I’m going on to other things that are equally exciting and fulfilling.”
The organization has nearly 300 active members, Fitzpatrick said, and through the years, over 1,000 faculty and staff have joined.
The academy hosts a variety of activities for members, including a book club, a lecture series and volunteer opportunities. Senior Academy also sponsors three $3,000 scholarships for IU Indianapolis students, including funding for a returning student and an IPS graduate.
“We’re living through the mission that attracted us to academia in the first place,” Fitzpatrick said.
Serving others, together
The organization’s emphasis on service helps retirees find meaning and fulfillment as they transition away from full-time employment.
That’s why once a month, a group of 10 or so retirees meet to crochet or knit handmade items to donate to local charities. Members of the group, aptly named “String Theory,” have created dozens of handmade hats and scarves in the three years since they started.
As the women sit around, conversations range from fantasy football to the early days of Title IX, which sought to protect women’s sports and activities, to Buc-ee’s convenience stores.
And, of course, there’s a good amount of IUPUI talk — about the split, about current and former colleagues and how much the university has changed since many of them started.
Members of the group say they appreciate having somewhere to reminisce about a place that meant so much to them.
“These are interesting and accomplished ladies around the table,” Queener said. “Conversation is always fun.”
Though Debbie Wyeth works part-time as an administrative assistant in IU’s physical therapy department, she still treasures the connections she’s made through Senior Academy — especially the knitting group.
Not only has the academy helped her build closer friendships with colleagues, it’s another tie to IUPUI, the institution that’s been part of her life for three decades.
“That’s my alma mater, and I’ve worked here for more than 30 years,” Wyeth said. “So, it’s like home.”
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire at claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org or on social media @clairerafford.