Serving the needs and interests of retired faculty

Retired Faculty Association -- Programs and Events

Retired Faculty Association – Programs and Events
   (Reserve for yourself and guests at 732-932-3807 or at thunt@scils.rutgers.edu)

Tuesday, February 12 – 9:30 a.m. – The Rutgers Club
    Primary Season 2008 – Where Do We Go From Here?
The presidential nominating races will reach a climax on Super Tuesday, February 5, when almost half the states chose their convention delegates. By that early date, there may – or may not – be a clear Democrat and Republican candidates for president.What happens next? What will it mean when losers drop out and throw their support to surviving candidates? Will there be a drive to present an “independent” candidate? What’s the election outlook?

Our resident expert on elections will offer his insights on why the races came out the way they did and where the campaigns go next. Gerald M. Pomper, Board of Governors Professor of Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, is the author of 20 books and many articles dealing with American politics, political parties and voting behavior.

In addition to providing us with analysis on several previous elections, Prof. Pomper earlier spoke to us about his book “Ordinary Heroes and American Democracy,” originally published by Yale University Press, and now in Paradigm paperback.    This program is co-sponsored by the Rutgers AAUP Emeriti Assembly.

Tuesday, March 18 – 9:30 a.m. – The Rutgers Club
   “The Nursing Shortage” – Why?
In November 2007 the findings of a survey conducted by a Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation revealed that New Jersey’s registered nurses are “teetering on the brink of exhaustion due to heavier work loads, feeling they are not able to provide proper patient care and receiving little support from management.”

Perhaps to those of us retirees who might reasonably expect to have a hospital stay or require home care such a disclosure comes as a shock. But it was no surprise to Dorothy DeMaio, RFA member and past dean of the College of Nursing. Nursing shortages have plagued the country for more than a century. Back in 1981 during her tenure as President, the New Jersey State Board of Nursing surveyed 22,750 of the state’s 76,000 registered nurses, and again in 1989 when she served a Vice Chairperson of the Governor’s Commission on the Shortage of Nurses, the findings were the same.

From birth and through some of our most vulnerable life events with nurses, people know what nurses do and consistently rank nurses among the most valued and trusted professionals. Dr. DeMaio will help us understand the factors contributing to the cyclical shortages and discuss the influence of academic administrators, politicians and the workplace in the recruitment, production and retention of expert nurses. She will discuss what we should know and how we should be involved as citizens and patients.