New Retirement and Disability Research Center Launches at The New School and The City University of New York
Recently the Social Security Administration (SSA) awarded The New School and The City University of New York (CUNY) a five-year, multi-million-dollar cooperative agreement to establish the New York Retirement and Disability Research Center (NY-RDRC), one of six centers in the federal agency’s Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC). Staff at the new center will research the multifaceted challenges faced by older adults and people with disabilities as a result of the political economy, geographical divides, the changing workplace, and climate instability and will provide training and educational opportunities to the next generation of scholars.
A collaboration between the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research at Baruch College, the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College, and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) at The New School, NY-RDRC will bring together interdisciplinary scholarship and methods from demography, economics, public health, social gerontology, sociology, and urban planning. It will partner with other institutions, including the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Spelman College, Howard University, the University of Baltimore, Brandeis University, and Montana State University.
The center will receive more than $1.9 million in its first year, with similar amounts expected in each of the following years. It joins five other research centers housed at Boston College, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin.
“This award unites the expertise of two of New York’s premier institutions of higher education to confront rising disparities in aging and disability,” said The New School’s interim president, Donna E. Shalala, in a press release. “Harnessing The New School’s innovative interdisciplinary scholarship and its commitment to racial equity and civic engagement to the newly created NY-RDRC will reshape policy and promote the well-being of older workers and seniors nationwide. Professor Teresa Ghilarducci, a nationally recognized expert on retirement security and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, will lead our effort.”
With CUNY’s involvement, the new center is one of the first RDRCs led by a minority-serving institution. “CUNY is proud to partner with The New School in creating an important new research center whose work will help the Social Security Administration pursue policies that improve the lives of millions of people in New York and across the country,” said CUNY Chancellor FĂ©lix V. Matos RodrĂguez in a press release. “CUNY is committed to reducing health and economic disparities and this partnership exemplifies how we are expanding research opportunities for CUNY students by creating collaborations across disciplines, across our campuses and with partner institutions.”Â
Providing training opportunities for diverse students and scholars is another key component of NY-RDRC. Research fellowships, paid summer training internships, and postdoctoral fellowships will be offered to give students practical training in research and policy analysis and access to faculty and resources at CUNY and The New School.
“Hunter College is honored to partner with the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research at Baruch College and The New School in this vital national project to address the disparities that have negatively affected the health and well-being of so many older Americans,” said Hunter College’s interim president, Ann Kirschner, in a press release. “Our Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and its director, Ruth Finkelstein, bring to the center decades of research and problem-solving among some of America’s most disadvantaged seniors. It is fitting, too, that Hunter will participate in a partnership sponsored by the Social Security Administration. Our Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, the former home of Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, was the birthplace of the New Deal and the old-age pensions that became Social Security.”
“Baruch College, an institution driven by learning and intellectual discovery, is proud to be the host of the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research since its inception in 2007,” said Baruch College President S. David Wu in a press release. “This major, first-of-its kind project between CUNY and The New School reflects Baruch’s strategic priorities to foster faculty research that is impactful and to empower our students to succeed by providing research opportunities on all levels. The New York Retirement and Disability Research Center complements the work already accomplished by Baruch students and faculty in the field of retirement and disability. This funding creates new pathways for interdisciplinary collaboration, focusing on today’s pressing social and economic issues: the disparities in health, wealth, income, and social class that shape work quality, retirement income security, morbidity, and longevity in older ages.”