Academic retirement no longer follows a consistent, predictable pattern. This trend demonstrates a need to rethink the nature of retirement in colleges and universities to better serve both individual professionals and their institutions.

Creative approaches to academic retirement can yield benefits for retirees, their institutions, and society at large.

The emeritus college, a recent higher education innovation, provides retired professors with a means to stay intellectually engaged and continue to contribute professionally in retirement. The emeritus college can also help institutions maintain a steady flow of professional talent by making retirement more attractive for senior academics. This…

What is an emeritus professor? The emeritus role means different things at different colleges and universities, but generally it has an elusive, ambiguous quality. It may simply mean that a professor has retired with an honorific title acknowledging many years of service to an institution. Or it may mean that a senior professor has transitioned to…

Mid-career faculty are the keystone of the academic enterprise. They fill essential instructional, program development, administrative, and citizenship roles at their institutions. They form a bridge between faculty generations by mentoring new colleagues and assuming leadership duties as their senior colleagues move toward retirement. Mid-career…

This explanatory study employs developmental theory and NSOPF-99 data to illuminate the middle years of faculty life, an ill-defined and largely unexamined portion of the academic career. The study's findings suggest that the middle years of faculty life have distinctive attributes, pose special challenges, and deserve systematic investigation by…

Trustees have a full plate of concerns whenever they meet on campus. They must attend to budget issues, endowment management, capital projects, presidential leadership, and fund-raising. That is a lot to address in a one- or two-day meeting, even at the smallest or healthiest institutions. Yet trustees are neglecting a very important…

Recommends that every higher education institution has at least one current professor from another college or university on its board of trustees, explaining how this can enrich the board's perspectives and deliberations. Presents three examples to illustrate what faculty can add. Discusses the importance of learning from collective judgment and…

This book provides a systematic look at nontenure track faculty, the roles they play in higher education, and the policies that control the terms and conditions of their employment. Data sources include two surveys of the National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "The Context for…

The professional lives of "vital" professors in the areas of arts and humanities, mathematics and natural sciences, and the social sciences are examined, and common and subject-area specific factors (such as attributes, activities, and sources of support) closely associated with faculty vitality are identified. Subjects were chosen from…

Colleges and universities should assess the impact of their personnel policies and practices on faculty careers and encourage professors to adapt their careers to emerging interests and opportunities. An institution that appreciates the benefits of varied faculty careers will develop incentives for career flexibility. (MLW)

Developmental theory is used to clarify the academic career process. Information from college professors at five vocational stages indicates that some attributes change very little, some evolve directly, and others follow indirect paths of development. Important implications for faculty and administrators are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Individual and institutional/environmental factors that distinguish "vital" professors from a "representative" group of their colleagues were investigated. Of concern was whether the faculty vitality concept discriminates among professors in meaningful ways (i.e., regarding their professional attitudes, practices,…

Before committing itself to new career programs, a higher education institution should answer some basic questions about their implications for faculty development. Early programs to help faculty adjust to the new career curricula will lead to their more successful integration on campus. (Author/MSE)

The current knowledge about what distinguishes productive and vital faculty members from their less dynamic peers is considered, along with additional information needs. Most empirical evidence on faculty productivity concerns only research and publication. Information is inadequate about other forms of faculty achievement and vitality, including…