Dive Summary:
- A survey finds that nearly three quarters of professors 49 and over plan to delay retirement past 65 or never retire.
- If this pattern holds, it means that granting tenure in 2010 binds a school to that employee until at least 2050 and a school is locked into staffing distribution that may not fit enrollment patterns when students, say, stop signing up for French or German classes 40 years down the road.
- Using more non-tenured instructors is one solution, but it's fraught with political peril.
From the article:
... Tenure started 100 years ago as a way to preserve academic freedom, not to keep employees in place 10 years past customary retirement age. The continued resistance to reform shows arrogant disregard for rising college costs for students, for meritocratic decision-making and for academic innovation. ...
