The silver tide of faculty retirement continues to ebb and flow. While much of today's scholarship on faculty retirement focuses on the financial implications for colleges and universities, arguing that older faculty members clog up the faculty pipeline, cost more in salary and benefits, and are ineffective teachers who fear technology, little…

About 25 percent of faculty working in the United States will reportedly consider retiring in the next five to seven years. As one of this 25 percent, the author has been researching what she needs to know to retire. What she found initially was a lot of misinformation. To complicate matters, the world has changed over the past year, causing those…

This article talks about the retired faculty members from different types of institutions around the country that were interviewed to find out how well their preparations for retirement are serving them now. Like other state employees in California, faculty members at public institutions participate in the California Public Employees' Retirement…

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. With a duration of eighteen months, this recession was almost double the length of the average post-World War II economic downturn. Although the worst recession since the Great Depression is now technically over, this analysis…

Variations on the traditional methods of planning for retirement are offered to college faculty, focusing on use of Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) investments, and other pension options. It is concluded that with careful planning, faculty can retire with close to full preretirement…

Faculty members should consider becoming more involved in the oversight of their personal retirement funds. Both price and inflation risks are best controlled by taking a balanced or diversified approach to investing, with a portfolio based on a predetermined percentage of each type of investment. (MSE)

Indiana University's experiences with trying to cancel an increasingly expensive early retirement system illustrates some of the ways in which faculty retirement benefits are subject to attack and some of the potential and weaknesses of the traditional faculty governance mechanisms in trying to shape a response. (MSE)

Four steps to retirement planning, intended to demystify retirement investment, are offered for college faculty: (1) establish diversification goals; (2) urge their institutions to offer more investment options; (3) coordinate retirement investments with other investments; and (4) take steps to guarantee against inflation. Typical age-related…

College and university employees are exposed to considerable risk in the management of their retirement funds, but there are also extraordinary opportunities for careful investors. Colleges should help employees gain knowledge of investing and ensure that a broad range of adequate investment options are available. (MSE)

An officer of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund responds to an article criticizing the funds' pension policy issues and performance. (MSE)

Surveyed changes in retirement policies for tenured faculty at a large national sample of colleges and universities. Found variations in the characteristics of regular retirement programs, in the existence and nature of retirement-incentive and phased-retirement programs, in institutional policies relating to retired faculty, and in institutions'…

Almost thirty years ago, Justice William Brennan saw clearly that American higher education was coming under the same pressures to "cut costs and increase efficiencies" to which market forces were subjecting businesses. Since Justice Brennan's observation, employers generally have sought to maximize their "flexibility' by creating a…

Faculty perceptions of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and the College Retirement Equities Fund are noted and the funds' performance in the recent market are criticized for inflexibility and lack of leadership. (MSE)

A variety of ways in which retired college faculty benefit from social services and commercial and professional perquisites, in addition to retirement income, are discussed. It is proposed that these faculty are benefiting at the expense of their younger colleagues and should in turn participate in volunteer public service. (MSE)

The advantages and disadvantages of the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) as investment vehicles for college faculty are examined, and guidelines for faculty to use in evaluating their investment options are offered. Some data on TIAA-CREF performance are included. (MSE)