Knowledge Base

Yes, retired faculty can check out physical materials and access electronic resources.

CUNYfirst Accounts & CUNY Login

CUNYfirst is the University's system of record. Everyone who has been employed by or has studied at CUNY within the last 20 or so years is supposed to be recorded in CUNYfirst.

If a faculty member had an EMPLID and a CUNYfirst account at the time of retirement, they will retain their CUNYfirst account. However, instead of having the "Active" employee attribute, they will have a "Retired" employee attribute at their campus.

If they retired from CUNY before CUNYfirst went live and EMPLIDs were assigned, their account still likely migrated from CUNYfirst's predecessor—the account just needs to be claimed/activated. The CUNY Login "Account Self-Service" page has more information: https://managelogin.cuny.edu/. If they are not able to claim their CUNY Login Account via this method, they should contact the campus HR department for assistance.

Borrowing Privileges

As of March 1, 2023, retired faculty are now automatically loaded into Alma along with active users. This includes everyone who retired on or after January 1, 2000.

Retired faculty accounts in Alma function like every other account: their contact information is loaded from CUNYfirst, they can request and pick up materials anywhere at CUNY, their accounts are discoverable in all Alma IZs, and they can log into OneSearch (assuming their CUNY Login credentials are valid).

Unlike active users, retired faculty have a static expiration date: 30 years from their initial date of retirement. This replaces the previous system where OLS updated account expiration dates for retired faculty to 20 years in the future in bulk every semester.

Remote Access to E-Resources

Retired faculty are also included in our licenses for electronic resources. If your EZproxy instance is hosted by OLS, it uses CUNY Login for authentication and OLS has specifically configured EZproxy to give those with "Active" and "Retired" attributes access to the library's e-resources. (There is also an alternative method for authenticating and authorizing users who do not have CUNYfirst accounts but, again, retired faculty should remain in CUNYfirst and have CUNY Login credentials.) If you host your own instance of EZproxy, you may need to coordinate with your HR and IT departments to ensure that your local authentication system and EZproxy are set up to give retired faculty remote access to your electronic resources.