National committee on
the emeriti, Inc.
Leaving behind a legacy
BY John sandbrook
UCLA Today
A part of campus history came to a close in March with the dissolution
of the National Committee on the Emeriti, Inc. (NCE).
Based at UCLA, this nonprofit organization was established in 1955
by Sociology Professor Constantine Panunzio, who was credited by
many for starting the momentum during the 1950s that led the UC
regents to establish a separately funded retirement system for faculty
and staff in 1962.
According to “UCLA On the Move,” Panunzio began his
one-man crusade to upgrade pensions for faculty members when he
found out in 1951 that he would receive only $129.16 monthly in
retirement income after a lifetime of teaching.
NCE, which was created to help emeriti faculty at UCLA and elsewhere
by providing a variety of benefit programs, was a precursor to the
UCLA Emeriti Center, established in 1969.
After Panunzio died in 1964, his widow, Perina, as well as many
distinguished faculty and senior administrators on NCE’s Board
of Directors, continued his work. Perina Panunzio died in 1994,
and the last board member, Professor Emeritus Fred Case, died in
2000.
In October 2001, the longtime administrator of NCE, Albert Gordon,
asked Chancellor Albert Carnesale for assistance in dissolving the
nonprofit organization, with its assets to be distributed to the
regents. The dissolution was completed last month.
Three endowments are being established with the group’s assets:
• The UCLA Archives will have an endowment to hire researchers
to assist with the evaluation of scholarly and personal papers contributed
by emeriti faculty to the archives.
• The Department of Earth and Space Sciences will have an
endowment for student academic awards (NCE had been housed in a
Geology Building office for more than three decades).
• To recognize Panunzio’s service as a faculty member
for more than 30 years, the Division of Social Sciences will receive
an endowment for graduate student fellowships.
“The distribution of these assets and the establishment of
these endowments will enable the vision of Professor Panunzio to
continue for years to come,” Gordon said. “I am very
pleased that the university was able to provide the necessary effort
for the legal process.”
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