Ending Mandatory Retirement for Tenured Faculty The Consequences for Higher Education (1991) / Chapter Skim
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1 INTRODUCTION: FACULTY RETIREMENT AND AGE DISCRIMINATION
1 INTRODUCTION: FACULTY RETIREMENT AND AGE DISCRIMINATION
Pages 7-20
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From page 7... ...
~. In granting a temporary exemption for tenured faculty, Congress took a middle position between those who wished to extend full protection against age discrimination to faculty and those who feared that postponed faculty retirements would prevent colleges and universities from hiring new faculty, who are traditionally a source of new ideas.
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From page 8... ...
Congress recognized that the special nature of the tenure conuact could create special issues for legislation affecting employment in higher education. Although there is nothing in the congressional committee report explaining the exemption for tenured faculty or the request for an independent study, Senate debate on the ADEA amendments noted the potential for
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From page 9... ...
. At present, the case for a permanent exemption [of public safety employees and tenured faculty]
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From page 10... ...
The amendments did not eliminate the exemption for institutions with qualified pension plans, and they also retained 65 as the allowable mandatory retirement age. In 1977, with active support from the AARP and the NRTA, Representative Claude Pepper proposed legislation that would: · raise the minimum mandatory retirement age to 70 for private-sector, state, and local government workers; · eliminate the mandatory retirement age for federal workers; and · eliminate the exemption in the original act that allows mandatory retirement before age 65 for employees covered by an IRS-qualified pension plan.
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From page 11... ...
Based on these arguments, Senator John Chafee submitted an amendment to the bill that would permit colleges and universities to maintain mandatory retirement at age 65 for tenured faculty. Senate debate on the bill in the fall of 1977 focused entirely on the proposed faculty exemption, sounding significant themes that would arise again in connection with the 1986 ADEA amendments.
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From page 12... ...
Other education groups opposed the legislation because they believed that opportunities for all younger workers, not only professors, would be affected by uncapping. Given the disparity of views among higher education groups and other special interest groups, as well as Pepper's strong advocacy for extending civil rights to all Americans over age 70, Congress ended mandatory reiirement but granted temporary exemptions until January 1, 1994 for tenured professors, fire fighters, and police officers.
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From page 13... ...
A small number of groups and individuals suggested that problems might be more acute at some or all research universities, which face high scientific and medical research costs and have low faculty turnover. THE COMMITTEE'S STUDY: SCOPE AND ISSUES Traditionally, tenure in higher education has offered employment security until a mandatory retirement age, and most colleges and universities have had the choice of allowing individual faculty members to stay beyond that age.
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From page 14... ...
Turning to possible cross-national comparisons, there is also little to draw on because most countries have legislatively or administratively defined a mandatory retirement age: for example, the Soviet Union recently imposed a mandatory retirement age for some scientists, and Canada's highest court recently ruled that higher education in that country is still subject to mandatory retirement. Therefore, the committee was being asked to assess the behavior, under new circumstances and at a future date, of nearly 300,000 current tenured faculty as well as an unknown number of future faculty members.
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From page 15... ...
These studies included extensive discussions with faculty and administrators. The committee sponsored three workshops involving presentations by knowledgeable and interested individuals and groups, commissioned five papers by experts in specific fields, and reviewed literature, including recently completed and ongoing studies of faculty retirement behavior, in order to marshal!
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From page 16... ...
Another issue is a possible faculty shortage arising during the next 15 years as the number of new Ph.D.s fails to keep pace with projected increases in student enrollments and eventual faculty retirements (Bowen and Sosa, 1989; Atkinson, 1990~. To address these issues, in Chapter 2 we examine data on the current national faculty age structure and changes in age distribution over time, as well as projections of faculty supply and demand and the implications for faculty retirement behavior and policies.
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From page 17... ...
Finally, in order to examine the effects of increases in faculty retirement ages on faculty hiring and salary costs, we adapt several models designed to simulate faculty turnover, hiring, and costs with faculty age and retirement data from a few institutions. Tenure, Performance Evaluation, and Aging How would increased numbers offaculty over age 70 affect the quality of teaching and research?
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From page 18... ...
Financial and Other Factors Affecting Retirement How can faculry retirement policies help institutions and individuals meet the consequences of eliminating removing the mandatory retirement? The committee reviewed college and university retirement policies as well as current faculty retirement patterns.
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From page 19... ...
We also note ways in which Congress could assist colleges and universities that want to use voluntary retirement incentive programs as a way of increasing both faculty turnover and the ability to hire new faculty. Eliminating Mandatory Retirement Lastly, in Chapter 6 the committee summarizes its major conclusions about the potential impact of eliminating mandatory retirement for tenured faculty.
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