The Oregon state employee., June 01, 1944, Page 7, Image 7

5
The Need for a Retirement Plan
By E dgar W. S m it h
Chairman o f Insurance Committee
State Board o f Higher Education
(Reprinted by permission of the Oregon
State Board of Higher Education and the
author, Edgar W. Smith)
It is practically incumbent on the
governing board of every college of im­
portance to provide an adequate re­
tirement plan for the benefit of staff
members and employees. N ot only is
such program necessary for the attract­
ing and holding of quality staff mem­
bers and keeping them satisfied and effi­
cient, but it would be impossible to
build a faculty of high standard in
competition with the other colleges that
have retirement plans, unless super­
annuated personnel who had given long
and loyal service to our youth are being
looked after. Most state colleges and
practically all well endowed private
schools provide retirement compensa­
tion.
It is indeed regrettable that thé fed­
eral social service system does not em­
brace school and college personnel, but
as no action in that direction can be
anticipated, it doubtless is to be under­
stood that this phase of "relief” work
is left to the states.
Two methods of providing retire­
ment funds are usually employed by
colleges. One comprises direct payments
by the college after eriiployees have
reached the age of retirement either
from funded account or from current
funds. Our board is obliged to carry
employees who have reached the age of
retirement on the payroll, as the laws
of this state do hot permit a state de­
partment to pay pensions as such.
The other popular method of provid­
ing retirement funds is to purchase
annuities for the personnel from a com­
mercial company. In that regard I
would say that just as the Presbyterian
Ministers Fund was the first life insur-
ance company in America, so the Teach­
ers Insurance and Annuity Association
is one of the leading pension facilities in
the country. This is a concern which
now is serving some 250 schools and
colleges by accepting premiums, usually
paid on the contributory basis, i.e., by
the employer and the teacher, during
the teacher’s service, for which an an­
nuity is provided with payments to the
annuitant beginning at the age of re­
tirement, usually 65, and continuing for
life.
Now with reference to our own situ­
ation and difficulties. I am not suffi­
ciently posted relative to Oregon leg­
islative history to explain why it was
possible before unification of the state’s
higher educational interests to provide
an annuity plan for their employees
while later, and at present, the law
prohibits this constructive action. Suf­
fice it to say that some 20 years ago the
regents of the University of Oregon
took advantage of an .offer from the
Carnegie Foundation to assist in pro-
(Continued on page 24)