Private-college presidents often draw scrutiny for their hefty compensation packages, but most of them have a ready comeback: I could make a lot more money in the corporate world. While this statement is surely sometimes true, it is also true that some of the nation's top-paid presidents continue to receive perks that their corporate counterparts…

When he was still President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now mayor-elect of Chicago, famously quipped: "Never allow a crisis to go to waste." Republican governors in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Ohio, and other states have certainly taken that advice to heart. By emphasizing, and in some cases manipulating, the red ink flowing through…

Faculty members and administrators should not assume that their colleges will pick up their medical bills during their retirement. Medicare benefits are not guaranteed that they will remain the same. Experts believe that the Medicare trust fund that pays for retiree hospital care will go bankrupt by 2019. As such, insurance experts are now urging…

At colleges, presidents, provosts, and even faculty senates are taking a fresh look at how to manage professors' retirements. A few institutions that have sought to trim their tenured-faculty ranks for other reasons offer early lessons for those institutions that want to encourage retirements. Many institutions are doing just that, using…

When it came to benefits for employees, higher education used to be at the head of the class. Back in the 1950s, academe was one of the first fields to embrace health-insurance coverage for illnesses that do not require hospitalization, and it later led the way toward long-term disability insurance. Universities and colleges approved…

Keith Hoeller is an adjunct professor. He teaches philosophy for a living at Green River Community College, just outside Seattle. He has also spent much of the last two decades ruminating about the bigger picture for those at his level of the professorial pecking order. Over the years, Hoeller has lobbied relentlessly for adjunct-friendly…

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), the largest pension system in the country, has lost its tax exemption, a change that has both created problems and opened doors to new ventures. TIAA-CREF is now seeking opportunities to manage state tuition-savings plans, and has also established six…

Reports on changes at the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), the dominant force in the higher education pension market, to counter declining investment by younger professors. Changes include addition of retail mutual funds and making some products available to the general public. Critics…

Higher education's largest pension companies and others involved in the faculty retirement fund market can expect to face questioning about their investment policies and long-term performance. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) have been sharply criticized for their investment strategies…

Harvard University has found that insuring its retiring faculty for long-term health care was too expensive, blocking implementation of its planned benefits program and potentially affecting the planning of many colleges. (MSE)

New federal tax law requiring employees to pay taxes on a large sum of money at one time rather than over the course of retirement makes college retirement "buyout plans" no longer feasible and hampers colleges' efforts to thin faculty ranks after the uncapping of the mandatory retirement age. (MSE)

A second court decision supporting the payment of equal retirement pensions to men and women through the Teachers Insurance Annuities Association and College Retirement Equities Fund for retirees, effective after May 1, 1980, is discussed. This federal appeals court decision allows limited retroactivity. (MSE)

The University of California at Los Angeles has established an association for professors emeriti, their spouses, and surviving spouses that provides a setting and structure for continued participation in university life, including benefits such as office space, parking, and other campus privileges and a forum for communicating with the…

High salaries and perquisites such as generous separation benefits, bonuses, housing, and housing improvements have provoked criticism and concern over the use of public or limited institutional funds. (MSE)

Federal legislation effective in 1994 bars colleges and universities from forcing tenured faculty to retire at age 70. Reactions of unions and professional associations, a required study of the law's impact, and a related measure requiring institutions to continue contributions to pension plans of over-65 workers are discussed. (MSE)