A comparison of the benefits of participating in TIAA and CREF retirement programs is offered with emphasis on differences in payout rates and in overall financial performance. (LBH)

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)

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)

An expected wave of retirements has some institutions stockpiling professors by hiring them before openings occur, while many colleges and universities worry about the dwindling supply of high-quality faculty candidates. (MSE)

The chief executive officer of the Teachers' Insurance and Annuities Fund-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) discusses the current widespread concern over retirement issues in general and the ending of mandatory retirement ages for college faculty. Changes in TIAA-CREF policies and practices affecting range and coverage of retirement…

Following an earlier survey of the attitudes and activities of academic staff who had retired three to five years earlier, a survey was undertaken of the policies and practices of university authorities in relation to supporting the academic activities of their retired staff. The sample included 21 universities in England and Scotland, and 28…

The Committee on Retirement of the American Association of University Professors initiated its first retirement policies survey in 2000 to address a lack of reliable and systematically collected information on retirement policies and practices across U.S. institutions of higher education. At the end of the 1990s, there was a sense that…

College faculty early retirement plans at four-year private colleges in New England are compared to determine requirements for an early retirement policy. Findings from survey responses from 82 colleges included: 20 of the colleges had an early retirement plan; 90% of schools with an early retirement plan had a tenure policy; 25% of the schools…

Issues of mandatory retirement for faculty are discussed. In 1978, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was amended to raise the age of forced retirement to 70, but tenured college professors were exempted from the protections of the amendment. Arguments raised by advocates of forced retirement for tenured college professors include: the…

Information is provided on early and phased retirement plans of about 20 academic institutions. Eligibility requirements for participation in early retirement plans vary from campus to campus. Most plans have a requirement ranging from a minimum of 10 to 20 years of full-time (or part-time equivalent) service. There are basically two types of…

A TIAA-CREF task force reports that there are steps an institution can take in dealing with the new mandatory retirement laws (not before age 70). They include preretirement counseling, provision of "Sweeteners," severance plans, a phased retirement program, and a continuing relationship with the college for retirees. (Author/LBH)

Problems posed by abrupt transition to a steady state following rapid expansion in Australian universities are reviewed. Focus is on demography of departments, new developments in academic disciplines, tenure, and early retirement. (LBH)

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)

Interviews with faculty at a university having an incentive early retirement plan revealed that those choosing to retire early were in poorer health, faced smaller proportional income decrement upon retirement, were less satisfied with teaching assignments, and considered themselves lower in research productivity and higher in teaching and…

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)