***** from _the Chronicle of Higher Education_, available at <http://www.chronicle.com/colloquy/99/aging/aging.htm?promo>:
A new survey of faculty members at U.S. colleges found that nearly a third of full-time faculty members are 55 or older, compared with about a quarter a decade ago. At the same time, the proportion of professors who are under 45 has dropped from 41 per cent to 34 per cent. Statistics like those have led some younger faculty members (and would-be faculty members) to complain that older scholars are staying in their jobs too long -- creating a tight job market and depriving academic departments of the vigor and new ideas that younger scholars bring. Other scholars say that these changes are simply a result of higher education's being covered by age-discrimination laws, and that colleges -- just like other employers -- should not assume that older employees are less capable. Is the aging of the professoriate creating problems for higher education in its impact on the job market? Or in the way classes are taught and research is conducted? Should colleges be allowed to have mandatory-retirement ages? What, if anything, should colleges do about their aging faculties?
For further information, see this background story:
The Graying Professoriate (9/3/99)
37 RESPONSES (New 9/6)
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