Alternative college retirement programs and features of a desirable retirement program are discussed. The historical, social, and economic forces that prompt institutions to consider alternative programs are identified. The present position of college faculty in terms of retirement options is also addressed. Since its inception, the Teachers…

Successful phased retirement plans enable senior faculty to ease into retirement, relieve financial pressures on participating institutions, and permit upward mobility for junior faculty. Responses from 62 of the 72 land-grant institutions in the United States and Puerto Rico reveal that 11 had implemented plans that enable individuals between a…

Early retirement plans (ERPs) have recently been considered and implemented at a number of universities as a means to address their need to contain costs while simultaneously generating new ideas and energy within the institution through the revitalization of faculty ranks. This endorsement of ERPs by university administrators, however, is…

A northern Illinois school district (School District 300), forced by budget cuts to curtail its teaching staff, used incentives and the decisionmaking methods of William Ouchi's Theory Z to reduce layoffs. The superintendent and the teachers' union leadership established a Transfer Council of six administrators and nine teachers to plan staff…

Age grading, the differentiation of social groups by members' age judgments, is widely regarded to be a universal aspect of social life. Most studies have examined age structurally (demographically), rather than normatively (modally). This study presents survey data measuring employees' age judgments of managerial careers collected from an…

This paper questions whether there is sufficient evidence, as presented in the popular press, to support special action to increase the supply of college and university faculty. The higher education popular press has published several forecasts of faculty shortages due to the mass retirement of expansion era faculty and the forecasted low numbers…